Ben Kevan Drafted To The New Jersey Devils, Excited To Follow Jack Hughes’ Path
first of all how’s it feel join New Jersey Devils organization
yeah I’m really excited you know I’ve been able to follow their team quite a bit especially with a guy like Jack Hughes in the organization a player that you know is an American and someone who all American kids look up to and so being able to be be able to say that I’m in that organization with a player like that it’s super I’m super proud of it and I can’t wait to get going
did you know that they had some interest in you heading into the job
i talked to them at the combine it was it was a bit hard to gauge but it’s hard to gauge for anyone but um I knew that it was a team that I would really love to go to and I was fortunate enough to get picked by them
i know you’re obviously high in skilled they’re very high in skilled team you think that kind of matches well with the way you play
yeah I think I can really keep up with a lot of their players especially with the way I skate and the way I can play and the way that people can play off me so I’m excited to see how the fit goes
what are some areas of your game that you like to improve upon obviously I don’t know if you’re going to build camp but some areas that you like to get better at yeah I’d say the biggest one for me is just getting stronger i think you know just being an 18-year-old kid I of course want to make the NHL and I think I just need to be bigger stronger and just be able to play against real men
how would you describe your
I would say uh I’m a high energy high pace swinger that’s able to get up and down the ice quickly and use my speed to not just get pucks into good areas but also to get pucks back say on the for check or on a back check
you’re committed to uh ASU um ASU alum as well so what what about the program really stood out for you why did you commit to great powers and and all of them
yeah I think just the buyin that they had not just as me not just into me but everyone that they’ve committed and that they’ve talked to i think that’s something that’s really special about them and I think uh just I really wanted to win a national championship with Coach Powers and Coach Dana and all those guys and I’m really excited to get going
you talked about Jack Hughes did you have any other role models that you tried to model your game after
yeah the biggest one for me is Tomas Hurdle um he was a Sharks guy for a while and growing up from that area he was someone that I always looked at as being you know one of my favorite players and I always try to emulate the things that he did and try to put into my game
did you reach out to Josh Stone or Joey Dord also ASU alum who are currently in the NHL
uh I talked to Robert Master uh he’s in on the Marlies right now currently but I mean he’s he went through it all and uh it was nice to hear his input on everything especially trying to find my way with committing and I think he was one of those guys who could really help me sway and I think uh yeah so it was really nice having that uh input
can you talk about what it was like to get back on track after your injury
yeah it was you know it was a bit difficult just derailing a bit and it got me down for a little bit but I had to just recover i took week and a half two weeks to just let my wrist heal and uh so yeah I think I just it it was pretty smooth just you know it was a bit it just took me down a bit but
I mean cuz you heard it so early in the year and then like you probably you know you’re not expecting that so you had to overcome that
yeah it was it was very very early i mean it was the second period of the second game of the year so it was definitely difficult but uh I feel like I overcame it pretty well and just got back on track pretty easily how important has the USN MVP been in your development from a young player to where you are right now
uh really good just being able to play with some of those players and kind of seeing how they you know treat the game and how they go throughout their day and day-to-day life i think it was something that was really eye opening for me to see before about you know being from the Fairfield area what’s it like being a kid from an area that maybe is not known for a lot of hockey but being at the stage now
i think it it’s really special i think you know Fairfield’s a small city and I know a lot of people over there are cheering for me so I’m really happy to be that be that uh just first player to do something like this and I hope that many kids go to follow and hopefully surpass me and go in the higher higher area so I’m really excited to see uh what I did here is able to hopefully push on to the next generation how did you get involved in hockey what was it that sparked your interest
my dad was really big into it uh he was more into the fighting of it than uh than the hockey and that’s he’ll always be open about that but he he loved this sport and he got me into it at a young age and I’ve fallen in love ever since
there’s a lot of ice rinks around Fairfield or do you have to like do a lot of travel
uh there is one 20 minutes away at a city called Vakavville so I was very fortunate to have a rink close enough to me some kids aren’t as fortunate where they’d have to commute for an hour 30 and heavy California traffic to get there so I was very very fortunate what do you think is mature or in what ways have you matured over the past couple years playing junior hockey i know you’re you know you moved away from home when you were younger so you’ve been a little bit more mature than most but uh what can you say about the past 2 years that’s really helped you i think the biggest thing for me is just knowing how to like grow on my own just you know even when I lived in LA I still had you know a real like I lived with a teammate so it wasn’t completely like I was just moving in a whole different place and getting to meet someone for the first time and like completely you know turning a new page but I think when I moved to Mo and I got to meet my bel mom Kelly I think she did such an amazing job of just helping me grow as a man and as a person and I think that’s that’s really what helped me the most and that’s how I grew the most just becoming you know more of a man and just a better human and all that stuff
have you uh you mentioned Robert Mastro Simone is actually a Long Island guy
um so is he going to help you learn about New New Jersey and maybe things you don’t know about New Jersey Devils organization yeah hopefully hopefully I’ll get in touch with him again and hopefully he’ll be able to tell me some of the cool things that are in the area but my roommate Blake Solinsky of course 08 um he’s from the Long Island area um so he’ll hopefully be able to show me the ropes a little bit too so I’m excited i know a lot of ties there so
will you be at development camp uh have you talked to Potter he was all he was selected last night by the by the Flames I believe
yeah I talked to him um he he’s really excited and he’s just one of those kids who he he’s ready to work no matter who picks and no matter where he gets picked i’m really happy that he was able to get picked in that first round cuz I know that was a goal of his from the start of the year to now so I’m really happy for him what’s this week been like for you like maybe some nerves some excitement being here i don’t know if your families they assume they’re healthy as well
yep uh it was definitely a lot of nerves and a lot of excitement i think just finally hearing my name getting called and especially by an organization like the New Jersey Devils it made me just it was a breath of relief to be honest and it felt like just so much weight came off my shoulders and I’m just really excited that I finally know what team really really wants to take a chance on me and really wants me wants me to develop in their system so I’m excited how has the Warren Buccaneers system just helped you develop and you know get ready for college and get ready for being a pro yeah I think just the way that they handle not just on ice stuff but also off the ice i think with their workout schedule their skating schedule I think it’s a very pro-like schedule especially with the way that they handle practices and what we do each day i think they have a really good system of one day we’re going to work really hard and we’re going to battle against each other for maybe an hour 30 and then maybe the days leading up it’s more of a relaxing more a team oriented things like that and I think that really helped me just grow and just learn how you know it’s going to be at the next levels
what’s the biggest lesson you’re going to take home into the next stages of your hockey yeah as much as I hate to say it it’s how to learn how to lose and of course I would have loved winning there more but I think it’s such a valuable lesson to learn especially as I grow older um just to learn what and how to take losses and not see them as necessarily negatives but see them as uh building blocks in the next game
you were probably 7 years old when the Devils played the games in the SEC final but do you remember that series at all or anything about it
uh not off the top of my head i remember I remember better the uh New York series but um I remember a bit but not not too much i think just
you’re going to Arizona State this fall
okay going into court were brought up uh you’re now the sixth player to be drafted as an incoming freshman ASU what does this opportunity mean to you
yeah I’m really excited and I’m really excited to get going i have to be there pretty soon actually and be able to report as a freshman so I am really excited to just you know be be another person in that history to do something like this so I’m excited thank you
Des Moines Buccaneers forward and Arizona State commit Ben Kevan was drafted by the New Jersey Devils 63rd overall. He discussed recovering from an early-season wrist injury, modeling his game after Tomáš Hertl and more.
#NHLDraft #Hockey #NJDevils #NCAAHockey #CollegeHockey #NCAA #USHL #GetHooked
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