Practice Day | Ryan Huska – 14.11.25

Practice Day | Ryan Huska – 14.11.25

What’s the sort of official word on McKenzie Weaguer not being available today? This was just a maintenance day for McKenzie. Yeah, he’s good. He’ll be in there tomorrow. What where are you at, Ryan? On on his game so far this season. I I know there’s been some frustrating moments for him, but where are you at so far? You know, there’s recent games last night, the game in Philadelphia where I thought he was Mackenzie Waguer, the guy that gave us hard minutes, quality minutes with and without the puck, where I thought his game was excellent. Um there’s been a few games where he hasn’t been at that level. Uh so it’s the consistency thing that he would probably tell you that he has to get better with. Um but for me when I see him play the way he played last night where he’s he’s comfortable and confident with the puck, he’s physical and he’s he’s checking the right way. Um that’s the level he’s capable of playing at all the time and that’s the Mackenzie Wager that we need. He’s a really good player when he’s at that level. How is he helping Ghana settle into that role? I think it might be almost the other way around. You know, we need Koozie to be a simple um harder defenseman to play against to allow McKenzie a little bit of freedom to be a little bit more creative offensively. And for three of the four games that Koozie’s played, I think he’s done a really good job with that. So, the challenge for him is is make sure it’s a consistent thing. I I you always look at young guys that no matter how many games they’ve now got uh under their belt, they should always treat it like their first game in the NHL. So, there needs to be some urgency to what you do. There has to be consistency to how you have to play the game and how we expect you to play the game. I I know we talked about Blake and the goal scoring last night. I’m just Is there something about him that makes him as maybe opportunistic as he’s been this season? Uh for me it’s a little hockey sense. He knows where to go and he’s very competitive. So he has zero fear in his game and if that means he’s going to crash into somebody to try to score, he’s going to do that where other people in certain situations may be hesitant to go to the areas that he’s got no problem going to. So I I think he thinks the game really well. He he understands where the puck is going to go and again when you when you throw that no fear factor in for him um allows him to be in positions to score goals. What allows you as a coach when you’ve got a a player like Sam Hanzac who’s still getting his feet wet in this league and yet you’re putting him out there against celebrating his line last night every shift like what what allows you to be comfortable to have a young player in a high lever spot like that for Sam we look at him longterm as a guy that’s going to play against top players and there are going to be some nights on occasion where he may have some growing pains and make a mistake against elite players like we saw against St. us early in the year um just with a a puck decision, but he’s grown from that and he doesn’t make those mistakes often anymore. I I I just think the size and his speed that he can play the game with allows him to play against some of the top players in the league. And uh the other thing for me with him is he thinks the game very well. I’ve said before, he’s he’s almost he’s a coach’s player where the details really matter to him. And I think with more and more time and playing with two people that are responsible like Michael and Blake, he’s going to keep getting better and better. I’m asking partly just cuz Dustin Wolf had a shut out yesterday, but also I went back and like literally looked at his numbers from after the Venus game onwards and like they’re pretty much a lead. Um, how how good has he been over the last month? Um, I I think he’s given us a chance in in almost every game he’s played. I I’ I would agree with you. I’d look at the first four games of the year and I would probably say that he wasn’t at the standard that he he normally um has been at for us. Um we talked about consistency a little bit where stretches within games like maybe would want one back, but you’re seeing um less and less of that as we’ve moved forward here. So he’s given us a chance every night like we expect him to do. That’s his job and um that’s why he’s in the position that he’s in right now.

“He’s given us a chance every night”