Brodie Chats with Wang

Brodie Chats with Wang

simon congratulations and to have to wait until day two i’m i’m sure you didn’t sleep great last night just the anticipation and wondering how things would go but the first pick of day two that’s got to be pretty cool
yeah 100% i think it’s meant to be cuz my brother was not in town yesterday he was flying in he actually got here 9:00 so what you know getting picked first in the second round it’s i think it just it’s just meant to be honestly
that’s very cool and i know your family story and i do want to get to that in just a second as for being selected by the sharks was that team on your mind were there any teams on your mind did you have any instinct compared to what just happened i think uh wherever i go i’ll give 110% and honestly i just wanted to play in the national hockey league it’s a dream for every kid in china and uh a dream for me as well
yeah and apparently you told your mom at about 4 and 1/2 years old that you wanted to play hockey we wanted to make this your thing and at about 12 years old you leave all your family you leave everything that you know and are comfortable with in china to come to canada to pursue hockey it it must feel like today of all the hard things you went through today is kind of a reward for all that
oh 100% when i heard my name called almost tear went down my face but you know i i try to just soak in the moment and stay present and it’s only the start it’s not the end and i’ll do whatever it take to play in the national hockey league and be the best player
as you look back that decision you made to like i said leave your family leave your home country just to go play a sport and a you know pursue something you loved and wanted to do that was pretty ambitious right i mean that that took a lot of courage to do that on your part
100% i think i have a naive belief in myself that i’m going to turn pro one day and i’m going to make my last my family proud so that’s where my goal was at the time
and simon is what you go by obviously here in north america but your name your your chinese born given name is is how do you pronounce that
hi
hi all right so we’ll we’ll know that but we’ll obviously we’ll use simon for these purposes exactly
um playing in ashawa last year you jumped over to the generals how did that help you how did that jump maybe figure where you were at and also you got to play in a lot of playoff games for them too 100% you know playing in a different league it’s definitely hard adjustments and learning from all these great defenseman ahead of me and going into next year i think it’s only going to benefit me even more as a bigger role player and i can’t wait to see what what i can do next year
66 223 lbs i’m looking at the stats so i’m figuring you’re more on the defensive side of the blue line than than trying to be the offensive catalyst everybody loves offense i get it but seems like what you might have been selected for was your p pure defensive prowess
i think it’s what i am as a product that i’m extremely raw and probably have the most to give in this draft class with my skating ability and my size i can um really the sky is the limit for me but depends how i develop i’ll slide into different slots on the decor i could be number one number two or i can be number five number six all depends on my my hunger of the game how i develop and how things turn out really
hey what do you know about california or the bay area or even the san jose sharks like what are your outside impressions right now
i actually have not been to san jose before so i’m i’m really looking forward to it i heard it’s a great organization my friend actually joshua ravensburg got drafted in the 30s so i hope i can be roommate with him at develop camp and we’ll see how it wind down yeah we’re definitely going to see you next week i look forward to that as for next year committed to boston university obviously the sharks have a lot of connections in the boston area but specifically beu how did you choose them
i think just a simple decision for me i love the city of boston i love um i just love the environment they have going on there my brother actually went to boston university for his master degree so i got a tour and just the environment amazed me right away so it’s a quick decision
two more things for you what’s the next step in your game obviously getting drafted is great it helps you solidify the future but as you kind of look in the mirror at yourself and and where you want to grow as a hockey player what’s the next thing for you
i think the next thing is just dominate the ohl with next year going into top three defenseman and then a team maybe top pairing i i have a lot to give in offensive zone with my skating ability and my size and my shot so i got to showcase that more and after the domination of loy chaw i’m i’m looking forward to go to college and keep development through there for a couple years until i dominated college then i will turn pro all right and then the last thing is you got to be pretty proud of yourself as a symbol of coming over from china and obviously we talk a lot about here in north america growing the game of hockey and it’s big in europe and it’s it’s big in different parts of the world but to have somebody as rare as you are and where you come from and your story and your journey that’s got to be pretty cool to be a trailblazer like this
100% and i think it’s a unique story and is a unique background coming from china i i hope i can inspire a lot of kids coming over and really enjoying the game of hockey and i hope there’s more chinese kids get picked in national hockey maybe someone can break my record going the first round and i can like i i’ll be really proud of them and proud of the country and how hockey have been developed throughout the years
all right well hey bring your flip flops and bring your uh your swimsuit out here to california we’ll see you next week
love it love it
congrats simon

Brodie Brazil chats with the 33rd overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft defenseman Haoxi (Simon) Wang.