“We Want Good Character Players” | Rochester Assistant Coach Vinny Prospal After Development Camp

“We Want Good Character Players” | Rochester Assistant Coach Vinny Prospal After Development Camp

so um what had your early conversations been like with with Mike Leone getting to know him and getting a foundation in play for next season I mean this uh this has been this basically the last four four days even though he he arrived a little bit later it’s a perfect opportunity for us to meet in person and uh get to know at least a little bit uh one another prior the prospect camp and our upcoming season and uh you know so it’s uh it has it has a good purpose for us in that regard had you crosss with them before you ever spoken to them no no never had the opportunity and um you know uh when he got uh when Leo got hired I we just uh connected on the phone we introduced one another and then uh we basically started talking about you know some players that we have in uh in Rochester some some I gave him some detailed info regarding basically all of our forwards that we uh we dealt with last year and and we may be dealing with in upcoming season what are your first impressions of K close up a few days who the first round pick oh uh you mean helenus yes I’m sorry well yeah uh well the first thing that uh that stands out is the the hockey sense you know because it’s uh when uh when you see him in um especially with the with the small area games you can can really see that he’s uh he’s got above average hockey sense compared to some of these players that we have on the ice right now and uh it’s a credit to him that’s why probably he got drafted where he got drafted and uh and uh but it’s uh let’s be fair to all the players out there because some of them have not been on the ice for some time and you know he just went to the draft and you know it’s just uh I guess for them and even for him the it’s the perfect opportunity to to come here see the surround ings and once he shows up for the prospect camp or or the main training camp then he’ll know what he’s going into you VI well the growth in him is basically how he went from a I don’t want to say spoiled little rat that didn’t want to work to a guy who was basically uh competing his nuts off in a in a practice and away from the away from the ice in the gym in the shooting uh shooting area so he he made a tremendous strides throughout throughout the season and it it showed in his play in his ice time and um uh he looks great he looks great out there you can uh you can clearly see that he’s uh above some of the players that there are on the ice right now and uh I fully expect him to play a larger role with us uh in his second season and hopefully the second season is not going to uh Jinx him standard obviously Pro Hockey increases for a guy like that how important is it to have a culture in place where he looks around the room and everybody support the car you know you got guys like Yuri and who have been there for already a year yeah working is not a problem well sometime it’s a wake up call for some of these kids because they they believe that when they get drafted and all of a sudden oh my God here I come you know and just they come in and think it’s going to be easy now it’s just a start and even some of the high picks don’t really materialize they don’t make it so you want to you want to install the good uh good work EIC you want to bring in the good character players people and uh and also on the other hand have a good leadership group within the team to kind of steer them in the right direction and uh if the player is smart and if he wants to play if he wants to be be like some of the leaders that you have on the team to have that ice time to have the opportunity to go out there in important minutes of the hockey game then then you should you should do all the little things and be like a sponge in the locker room or around the coaches and and uh believe that the people around you trying to help you your is going to have a chance to make this club in September we know he can score the AHL what’s it going to take for him to translate that game to the to do it every night he’s got to learn how to be more consistent he’s a great kid he’s a great uh great player at that level but he needs to remain and being consistent he needs to tear up the league a little bit down air and and show that he’s an NHL hockey player I mean he’s got great skating ability he’s got great shot it just that there cannot be a dips in his play he made against I was talking about no and his strides kie made a tremendous strides in his two-way game when he was not scoring he was doing all the little things even on the dside and that’s a credit to him he can also improve the the the face offs and uh and um you know maybe become penol Killer stuff like that be be more well-rounded player but uh he’s definitely on the right path and is he an naturl player right now I don’t know you know so maybe he’ll come in here and turn it apart and he’ll he’ll grab a spot I don’t know do you think he’s played center at the AHL level do you think he translates in the NHL Center or do you think he probably starts out of the well the best thing for him would be that he can play both positions you know be a little bit more versatile give the coaches opportunity to play him at Center or to play him on the wing be able to play both position on the offensively and defensively so where I see him personally I see him at Center you know that’s why I want him to improve the faceoffs that’s why because I I think uh on the wall he’s a little bit stuck but that just my opinion and I’m just a little assistant coach in Rochester but uh but that’s how I see him I see him as a center as a guy with as muchal experience as you have what’s what’s the most important for you share that it doesn’t come for free and they have to stay patient because sometime it takes a long time to make it as I talk about some guys don’t make it some guys make it and you don’t want to be the guy who just has a cup of coffee up at the highest level so you want to make sure that when you get the opportunity you ready and you need to have the mindset and the the compete level and uh and the character to uh go out there and know what you want from life and from from uh from how and you got to steal the steal somebody’s job so it’s just be patient and do everything that you can so one day uh when you older you know that uh when the golden train went by you you jumped on it and you don’t let go all right all right great see you guys

Rochester Americans assistant coach Vinny Prospal speaks to the media after day three of Sabres development camp. He gives his take on what Jiri Kulich and other prospects need to do in order to make the NHL roster how they can take the next steps.

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