EXPECTED BY WHOM? “Jake Walman – The Interview” – Ep. 25

EXPECTED BY WHOM? “Jake Walman – The Interview” – Ep. 25

all right folks joining us today for a very special episode Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman Jake how are you doing I’m doing great thanks for having me on we uh we appreciate you taking the time in the offseason to join us um and you know it’s uh you get to be the first player that’s gotten to join us we’ve had a lot of front office a lot of coaches uh but now we get the first active player to actually step on and join us and talk a little bit about you know your your journey your your ization of data and then ultimately what you like to do as a uh you know as a person within the community and so to get us started here I’m going to jump right in uh can you introduce us to Jake W in the person you know who did you grow up idolizing who do you mod model your game after and then everybody always wants to know are they going to find you on Xbox PlayStation or on the PC um yeah I mean uh it’s pretty much what you see in in media and um kind of outside the game I just uh I don’t know I enjoy having fun um always growing up with a good group of friends good family and um always kind of encouraged uh having fun in whatever you do and um especially hockey I’ve kind of always carried that Mantra with me it’s working hard and having fun and um that’s kind of how I I uh play on the ice and kind of treat off ice um as such but uh yeah other than that it’s just uh a regular life I live um a good life um work hard a lot of sacrifices but uh it’s uh it’s everything you’d expect of the NHL it’s uh you work hard um you enjoy the perks of it you have fun and um off ice it’s kind of um me time looks a lot of like you said gaming um video games I’m not Xbox or or uh Playstation I’m actually a PC Gamer so um a little more dialed in than the average person but uh yeah fortnite is my game but yeah I don’t know it’s just uh I live I live happy I try to um make people happy I um I enjoy life kind of to the fullest and um yeah playing hockey is just part of it when did uh I may have asked you this before but I think it’s a great question to follow up to this like when did you realize hockey could be more than just something that was fun for you like when when you’re growing up like is it something when you get that college offer when you get the like when did you realize that this is something that could be more than just a game for you and a life a life thing um well growing up I I played a lot of sports I I pretty much played every sport you could think of and I thought that was really important and that’s kind of what I tell um like if parents ask me what they should do with their kids I I kind of say get them in every sport because um just being an athlete I think really helps um hockey wise um but I think it was until maybe 15 16 17 when it was kind of hockey soccer and Tennis for me those were my three big Sports and soccer ended up being at at some age it was like a full-time commitment so I had to kind of choose between if I wanted to do that in the winter or just forget about soccer and kind of focus on hockey and um ultimately I chose hockey I still really didn’t know what the path looked like at that point it’s just um like I said working hard and and seeing where it goes but um as you guys know I was passed over in the OHL draft so um in the back of my head I’m thinking is is this going to be it or is there another option and um obviously speaking to so many people about um the O and NC and NCAA um really kind of put a light at the end of the tunnel for me and and obviously that was my clear path at that point I wanted to be an NCAA player and um fortunately enough after after my minor [ __ ] year in Triple A I had a great [ __ ] year with uh some great coaches on the junior Canadians and I I was fortunate enough to get a uh offer to play Junior a and a couple uh couple games into junior a that’s kind of when I started feeling that it could be something um when you see Scouts in the stands and kind of gets real at that point um not just uh College Scouts but also NHL Scouts so obviously it was a real possibility for me at that that point and I’d say that’s probably when I I uh figured out um to myself and uh that this could be a real opportunity for me and um went to college and everything worked out do you think getting passed over in the OHL draft kind of made being someone from Toronto do you think it helped you keep a little bit more of an open mind for the college route maybe on as opposed to just hey I got drafted I can of just go do this yeah for sure honestly I didn’t uh have any idea what the NCAA even meant growing up in in Toronto um going to high school we had a couple uh kids in migr and a year younger that uh were supposed to get drafted at the ol and those were the big shots and um it was almost like a like a ego killer a little bit not to be on that OHL radar but uh I found out pretty quickly that NCAA obviously was a great great option and even that first uh year in the NCAA my freshman year going all the way to the national championship and and winning I it wasn’t until the actual tournament hit that I was like wow this National Championship actually means a lot in in the states I had no idea CU obviously from Toronto I’m I wasn’t uh watching college hockey growing up at all so yeah it was a unbelievable opportunity I think even nowadays it’s um it was always competing with the O but I mean it’s it might be the preferred route nowadays I’m not even sure but uh a great option there’s so many Great Schools out there yeah building off of that a little bit have you kept up with kind of the blossoming of the NCAA game since you’ve left Providence and kind of you’re seeing more and more guys go through that US national team program and then going to college and spending a couple of years there and we’ve seen a number of the top prospects there uh you know are you have you kept up kind of with how the ncaa’s blossomed as a development league and do you have any thoughts on how much it’s really evolved over the last decade yeah I um I don’t watch too much College hockey but obviously being in Michigan now it’s uh it’s huge it’s almost like a Pro Sport here the NCAA but um yeah I mean I think I’ve always been a huge advocate of college hockey and um if you can get an education and do the thing you love at the same time why wouldn’t you take that opportunity and I know that uh some of these kids are one and done or spending two years and leaving but um I’ve I learned so much just being a a man in college and um developing myself kind of off the ice uh for sure matured so much when I was in college and I think that’s uh if I can compare one thing to the to NCAA and OHL I would say um off ice I feel like NCAA guys just um have that extra year or two of uh hanging out with older people um kind of learning the roles from older players we had guys on on my team that were 23 24 and um I noticed a huge growth in my maturity even my my roommates all all set it from year one to year two it’s just came in as a kid and and kind of the goal is to leave as a man so um I think It prepares you really well and you’re seeing it obviously with these top prospects choosing college or going to college for a year or two and and coming in right away and and making a huge impact so that kind of says something for college does it help too have in the uh like you go to the college hockey route you’re a college student you’re in with other people your age you’re walking around with people who aren’t going to play hockey the rest of their life where someone who goes the OHL route you’re kind of in that I know they do they do some schooling and everything like that but they’re in it’s kind of the bubble right and so like for you you’re a pretty well-rounded guy we’ve talked about a lot of interesting non- hockey stuff before like I’m sure that’s something too that you think about you’re 19 20 years old you’re part of the world and not just a hockey Bubble at that point I’m sure that’s a nice element too that kind of helps with your growth right yeah for sure I’ve um I’ve met so many people along the way in hockey but I would say that probably my my lasting relationships even after hockey is going to be mostly with those kids that I met in school or um connections that I have through school whether that’s uh people in the workplace that went to the same school or kind of went that same route um I go on on I go on um obviously we travel across the states for our job but um in pretty much every city I go I have somebody that I know from from college and that was a regular student and I keep these friendships alive and U I just think it’s really important to to along the way kind of separate yourself from hockey these guys have half these guys have no idea how hockey works it’s just kind of a different conversation with them and um it’s good it’s it’s all knowledge and at some point when um when hockey’s done these These are going to be the guys that um have been in the workforce for 20 years already so um whether or not that leads to something or or not um it’s it’s good to have those connections and um obviously those are the ones that I’m going to keep forever I want to talk a little bit about your kind of development and journey from you know Providence to then the St Louis organization and then ultimately uh you know Landing in Detroit a couple years ago you know as you’ve progressed as a player and developed as a player you know the role of data has become huge in in hockey and uh particularly at the front office and and coaching level one of the things I think I’m always curious about is from a player perspective when people are talking about data to you from a game to game situation you know how much of that is helpful how much of that is actionable and sort of what are you focusing on when you’re working to refine your game uh as those numbers or kind of different metrics are being discussed with you uh you know what to be honest we don’t really hear too much about the um like those extended stats or or however you guys call them but um obviously it’s it’s more of a coaching staff general manager thing I think um we kind of get like the watered down version of that like hey if this number is low like let’s try and tell this guy he needs to be better in the dzone OR or just kind of subtly bring that up but it’s not really like number game to game as much as it is let’s build our game into the areas that we need to work on um and as you said kind of we take those uh every player let’s say every player kind of knows um already like let’s say at the end of the year every player knows what they want to work on going to summer um it’s not so much the the underlying numbers that they need to let’s say I need to get a are plus minus so I I got to figure out how to work on that in the offseason it’s more so like what little part of my game can I tweak in the summer whether that’s goal scoring or breaking a puck out or something that’s going to help your game individually I would say that’s probably what most guys are are thinking in going to summer um for me for example I found that this year and last year I had a lot of opportunities in the slot or like when I get a puck out from the corner and I have almost like like a one-on-one with the goalie but it’s not a deak it’s a shot so this summer and and last summer it’s for example I’m getting those same um instances or scenarios where a coach is passing it out and I’m really focusing on burying the puck so that’s kind of the things that that’s something that I work on the summer um I’m sure every player has something different but um it’s those little things that you kind of notice uh in your own game that that’s going to help your overall game and uh most players know what that is with with their own game is there enough time in the season to work on that stuff anymore because you guys I mean you guys as you guys as a team in Detroit practice actually a little bit more than most other teams but you look a lot of NHL teams don’t practice a ton like is there time to actually work on stuff like that as as much as you’d like in the regular season or is that why one of the reasons that this summer push becomes so important yeah I think during the season um after practice uh after morning skate I think there’s time s to kind of just remind yourself of of habit um I wouldn’t really say it’s it’s perfecting or working like to perfect it um that’s I would say that’s mostly in the summer um I’m just thinking personally about shots like after a practice I’m always working on that type of thing that I that I want to work on and get better at like burying the puck I’ll maybe take five or 10 at the end of practice and um and that’s it but I would say in the off season is probably the time you have so much time on the ice um extra time with whoever you want you can hire whoever you want um we have a great opportunity where I train um in Toronto we have free ice pretty much every day anytime we want it so I’d say that’s the time to work on your craft a little more and um try to perfect things I’d say in the season it’s more habit stuff that you’re working on so kind of along those lines um you know in season and offseason one of the other things that uh is always curious for us is the rise of kind of biometric data when it comes to training um and if you know how much of that is really focused on for you guys when you’re training in terms of you know paying attention to heart rates or paying attention to you know what’s an optimal shift link for you or something along those lines like is there something that goes into that level of detail for you when you’re training in the offseason or during the season yeah I’d say uh somewhat but we uh where I train we’re really old school so we there’s no heart rate there’s no measurements on that it’s if you’re tired you you know you’re working hard type of thing but um yeah we’re really old school I trained with Matt niichel in Toronto I’ve been with him for 10 years um we have a great group of guys we we just uh every year we’re recruiting new guys to come but uh everybody loves it um Matt’s really he didn’t play hockey at all um and I know most guys in the summer they try to get somebody that played that to train them or on the ice he gets other guys to run the on ice but off ice um he’s really he really is a wizard with how to kind of work your body and the right phases to do I can’t say enough good things about him but he really he really dials everybody in to kind of be at their Peak going right into training camp um don’t know how he does it but he uh he knows everybody to a te pretty much he doesn’t uh he he I’ve been with him long enough that he kind of knows that my schedule is going to be different from some other guy and some other and another guy everybody’s is kind of different but um I would say in the summer um yeah that’s when that’s when most most guys are trying to um I’m not sure that I’m not sure how other how other uh training people work but we’re like I said we’re old school we we go hard we have fun and um he makes us ready for the for the for the regular season so you still get to train with Matt this summer I know he got the job with with Ottawa so he was I was I was actually that was on my list of questions here if you if you had to go shopping for another trainer if they’re still going to be able to work out this summer with with Matt so is that still working yeah no he’s he’s here in the summer I sent him a text um when all that happened I I gave him some [ __ ] but uh no he’s with us in the summer and um hasn’t recruited too many of those Auto guys over to us so that’s good what when it when it comes to working with him I know there’s who gave you the pitch of work with Matt like you talk about the recruiting part so like who was who was the guy that that got you to to come work with him in the first place so it was Tom Wilson that got me to got me there and um back then it was probably 10 years ago it was really hard to even get a hold of Matt he was uh he was a creator of Bio steel he was this big trainer that everybody wanted to train with and only a certain amount of guys could um obviously really good at what he does but I was lucky enough cuz I actually played hockey with Tom’s younger brother Jamie and my dad became really close with his dad and when it was kind of time for college and the college coaches said that I needed to start putting some weight on we had to look for a trainer and my dad went to Tom’s dad and said hey is there any chance that we can get into Matt and Matt um gave me the opportunity saw me as a upand cominging kid and um I was really fortunate enough uh my first year before Providence to kind of get in with Matt and he showed me the ropes and obviously aside from college that was a huge uh way of maturing for me just being with Matt and those older NHL guys last one kind of on that topic there so you got mentioned Tom I know Tyler Sean trains there in the summer too like for you what’s it kind of like to pick and pull hockey thoughts ideas from these guys that you’re not teammates with in the summer and it kind of better yourself from that experience and then I as I’m kind of curious like is it something where are those the guys you get together you say hi to before the game on the road or or anything like that like what’s that kind of like yeah exactly that’s you’re right those are the guys after the game that you’re you kind of know and saying hi to it’s it’s kind of a weird dynamic um honestly uh when you’re in the summer and then you kind of ship off to your to your respective teams during the year but um it’s the hockey world is so tight you could hate a guy on the ice um and then right when you get to the same gym it’s like buddy buddy like right away it’s you kind of forget the animosity but um that’s just hockey everything kind of stays on the ice but yeah it’s uh it is cool I think you can you can pick from uh from certain guys kind of their style and obviously every team is different so when they come back they’re they’re doing different things with their team um I think where it really benefits me knowing knowing these guys and playing with them in the summer is when you kind of play them in the game you almost you almost know them like like it’s your teammate cuz you’ve you’ve been on the ice with them all summer and um not necessarily makes it easier um but you kind of know their Tendencies and what they like to do like maybe what they’ve been working on the summer so um but like you said it’s a lot of of brain picking and and uh friendships that you make um these are the guys that I’m going golfing with in the summer and and hanging out with um for dinner and stuff like that so it’s cool it’s just another group away from your team I guess it’s it’s like your summer crew and uh everybody has has a has a group I’m just I guess I’m lucky to have a a really good group here in Toronto that’s awesome uh one of the things I wanted to to highlight kind of in in I guess maybe it’s tangential to that but uh I want to shift gears a little bit to since you’ve joined the the wings and and kind of how you’ve embraced the the Detroit Community uh with a lot of your efforts to to give back and and you know notably the uh kind of fundraising support with for Vladimir constantinof this past year I want to talk a little bit just as a player you know stepping into a new you know uh City stepping into a new community what’s it you know what are you thinking about when you’re going to connect with the fans the organization the media in terms of setting up that Community effort because one of the things I think I’ve greatly appreciated about you since you’ve joined is just how quickly you Dove right into that and and everything you’ve done and so I just wanted to see if you’d be able to highlight a little bit of what you’ve done and kind of how you approach that yeah well thanks for noticing that I um before I get into the that um extra I don’t know like charity charitable stuff um I guess I’ll just say that as a hockey player you you’re almost looked upon as like not human in a way um and it kind of almost it doesn’t bug me but when I was a kid um I always I always looked up to these nhlers as as wow like I don’t know if if I want to go up to this guy it was almost really intimidating because these guys they’re so stoic like they they they treat they treat themselves like in such a way and they act a certain way um even in their day-to-day lives it’s almost nerve-wracking to go up to them and I remember as a kid saying wow like that’s that’s so and so I I’m dad like I’m I’m nervous to go say hi but I really want to say hi and I’ve kind of treated this professional life personally as I always want to make somebody feel comfortable to come up to me like I I want to be that joyful person that um some kid can can see me in a mall and and hit the gritty in front of me and I’ll laugh at it or something like that you know I want kids to feel and parents and whoever fans to feel comfortable coming to say hi it’s it’s I’m just human we’re all just human um most of us are really nice guys uh off the ice but that’s kind of my background of it um just knowing how it is as a kid always wanted to take pictures with the the Leafs guys or somebody famous that I knew whether it was a tennis player hockey player whatever so that’s the background of it um and then I as a athlete I feel like we have a responsibility to kind of use our platform in a way that could um benefit and and make other people happy that aren’t necessarily as fortunate um we’re very lucky to be in this position obviously a lot of things have to line up to get here so um that’s kind of where I I come from with the charitable stuff and um I want to do a lot more I have a lot of big plans for Detroit and I hope I can play here forever cuz I have so many things I want to do um just trying to balance it with hockey I really got to um obviously make that the Forefront focus on hockey uh make sure I’m good every night but uh yeah with the with the gritty stuff and the constantina I think it was a good collab that we did um I’m coming up there in a couple weeks to present the boys and girls club with a nice check and and donation from that um sale that we we did with that company and like I said I’m just uh I’m really big on on kind of embracing the community and and wanted to be a part of that whether that’s hospital visits or um kids in need kids that can’t play hockey kids that can’t afford to play hockey um I think that’s a huge responsibility for us and me personally so um yeah there’s a lot more coming for sure uh with me in in the city of Detroit um I’m excited I just got to uh slow it down a little bit and and play hockey and and win a championship here and then we can uh keep going with all that other stuff do you think the uh the an ice personality helps break down some of that wall like you talked about being nervous as a kid about like going up to and so much of I there’s a lot of the hockey mentality I remember watching growing up where it’s was like oh it’s team first not and I think it just kind of it humanizes the on Ice personality in my view human izes people off the ice too and I’m curious in kind of your view if do you think it goes a little way to kind of break down some of that wall of of making of making people realize hey these are other humans playing the game do you think that kind of helps yeah exactly I do it for that reason um you see my celebrations and stuff I I try to be personable on the ice um I do it for that reason I also do it for myself I I just enjoy um the trends I’m kind of um on Tik Tok like I’m on all these apps that that people and athletes are kind of having personalities and I think hockey players especially kind of get a bad rap for not being personable and and and being so um businesslike so I really wish that um other guys will will step up eventually and kind of break those barriers like you said I think there’s so much room for it that’s honestly part of the uh um charitable stuff that I’m going to be doing um um it’ll come out hopefully at some point we’re working on it but um kind of getting those personalities out cuz I know I I I see these guys off the ice I know what they’re like um so many guys have personalities and um whether they’re not able to show it or they don’t want to show it um I mean I’m trying to create a platform where where guys can be themselves and and kind of show off a little bit but um like I said the fans the fans enjoy it I think they they’d rather have somebody that’s personable than than not um and then yeah like I said um the celebration stuff I’ve kind of pulled from certain people or certain athletes that I’ve seen do it and for example when I go to a football game and um I’m watching the Lions and I see somebody that isn’t a superstar let’s say but um he makes a play or something and and he does some cool celebration or gets people fired up and shows some person ity I was like I want to get that guy’s Jersey like I want to represent that guy like that guy’s that’s my guy you know so stuff like that I kind of think there’s especially the the non Superstars and the guys that kind of have a little more um leeway let’s say and and won’t get scrutinized as much to do it um I think it’s a good opportunity there’s so much opportunity for guys to do it no I totally agree and uh I think that’s what has allowed everybody to embrace you so much you know one of the funniest things that you may or may not be aware of is uh when you were you know I think it was your first full season uh not this past season but the year before uh when a lot of your metrics looked off the charts and I started tweeting out Jake wman for Norris and everybody gravitated towards this to the point where somebody brought me the graph to sign so what I want to make sure now is if somebody brings one to you next year you will also sign it for them because there’s a couple out there circulating with my handwriting on there that have no business being there because it’s on the back of your your terrific play oh sounds good no for sure I you know what um hockey wise we haven’t really talked about that much but uh it’s a huge summer for me um you know it was a little bit of a eyeopener this year with um certain things that went on and um ideally as a player you want stuff to be smooth sailing but uh hockey wise I think there’s such an opportunity for for our team um next year and um I want to be a huge part of that and starts in the summer so I think we all kind of left this year um thinking that we we want way more we deserve way more with this group that we have and um I think you’ll you’ll see that next year we’re we’re going to take a step up individually and then as a team for for you specifically one of the things that came up a lot this year and and you play you obviously play most of the season with with with Mo right and that was one of the things where there’s a ton of discourse around Mo’s usage this year that was a big hockey Twitter topic of he gets gets the hardest minutes and you’re right up there too with some of the hardest minutes since you’re right there with him when you look at as someone who is right next to him all the time and yourself as well how do you kind of look and embrace that challenge and look at how kind of using that to quantify when you’re getting the Crosby’s you’re getting the McDavid you’re getting the McKinnon you’re getting those guys every night how do you kind of work on gauging ESS as a defenseman yeah it’s a well it’s a good question cuz there’s so many different people out there whether that’s Twitter or or what that have their own opinion on success obviously right you guys are at the Forefront of that but um I mean Mo and I will be the first ones to tell you that um doesn’t matter if we get scored against or or whatnot that we want to be right back out there it’s not going to deter us from anything um those are the types of minutes that um are the hardest obviously against the top guys in the league but there’s no other place that a competitor wants to be and that’s um I mean I can speak for myself but I can also speak for Mo and I I know he uh really Embraces it he um he’s going to be a superstar for a long time um it’s not flashy all the time but he uh he does everything really really well um he’s a he’s a full round player um I think that’s exactly what every team would want as a top defenseman can’t say enough good things about him but uh like I said I think he he has that competitiveness that edge um and you know I’m I’m right there with him I want to I want to be on his left side I want to compete against those top guys and and I think uh it’s not always going to be pretty but um it’s it’s just getting the job done at the end of the day and um if you’re if you’re shutting down or partially shutting down these top guys then you’re helping your team win and ultimately that’s uh that’s going to look good on the scoreboard at the end so it’s not so much like you said the um metrics and those all those stats that um Twitter hockey people like to use it’s um it’s when it comes down to it it’s I think for me personally it’s the eye test you know if your teammate can compete with this guy on the other side and um the coaches know general managers know you can see who can compete with those guys and who can play with them and um for me Mo’s uh it’s hard usage but uh Mo does a really really good job at it and and I love playing with them yeah Mo told me near the end of the season we need to find a way to like quantify properly one shifts because it’s such a subjective thing right where if you start in the defensive Zone against uh McDavid or something like that winning that shift is different than if you start in the offensive zone late or whatever so he talked a lot about that I I wanted to you kind of touched on this I think I know your answer but one of the things we reached out to you to come on to the show and you said yes it wasn’t a big deal and you’ve talked about kind of breaking down that that wall of of the human level of this and you’re one of the guys that when we go into the locker room every day when it’s available you’re one of the guys that’s always there we may annoy you sometimes but you’re there to talk all the time and just from a perspective of kind of from from a player perspective I like to use my very selfish ttin word I like to say a guy like you gets it like gets like what it what the what we’re trying to do as a media from a media entity and so from your player perspective I kind want to give you a chance to answer that question like what do you view of the role of us the hockey media when it comes to covering this game and what it is well you know what I’ve I’ve had a a little bit of a unique experience with that and I I know a lot of people have um similar experiences but um I’m not going to rag on anybody at all but you can tell where I’m going with this being in St Louis was totally different um feel from being here in Detroit um obviously it wasn’t the best um 3 years personally especially coming in um as a young player wanting to make a name for myself and and be Pro with with with not much opportunity in St Louis it was really hard to enjoy um the little things and and little things I would include this um reporting and and Twitter and um news writers all this stuff so I really um I kind of took the time to um when I started uh being a full-time nhlr in Detroit I kind of took the time to step back and realize that you guys and your media presence in Detroit is just a 180 from what I was kind of experiencing in in St Louis and and other guys experience it too um in other teams but um it really it really means a lot to a player um when they’re doing something well if it’s if it’s being noticed um even if they’re not necessarily um playing at their their level or or what they need to be doing um kind of I found that you guys in in Detroit have almost um let off and and kind of if there’s nothing good to talk about you don’t you just won’t talk about it you know so we’re we’re only kind of promoting these players and I feel like that’s just a 180 here um from my experience where where I was before and um like you’ve you’ve heard Sean I’ve thanked you guys uh before numerous times but it really uh I think players really appreciate it um obvious obviously in the end you guys want to have a a good connection with the players they’re the ones that are giving you the the juicy content so I think having a good relationship with with the players um and the reporters is is huge I know that it for sure gets into guys heads um and where I was in St Louis I have a couple examples individually I won’t say it but you know everybody kind of sees it you know like you can you can write something on Twitter everybody every player in the the NHL is on Twitter um there’s a new thing now that you kind of get tweets on your timeline that you’re not even I don’t know subscribed to or whatever but you just see it because of mutual so everybody sees what everybody writes about them um you try and stay off it as much as possible but um at that point it’s uh the positive message are for sure the ones that um resonate with the guys and um I’m just I’m fortunate to be here in Detroit I think you guys have done a great job I have a funny story for you on this don’t so about five or six years ago I was covering Dallas and um I give credit to actually he’s now the assistant GM for the San Jose Sharks Tom hly Tom hly was the head of stars PR at the time and is now an assistant GM in San Jose and I had a tweet after Jamie Ben had been struggling recently and I had a uh I did probably a dumb tweet about his level of play at the time and a couple days later I was talking to Tom and Tom’s like he’s like I’m never going to tell you what to tweet but I’m just going to remind and this was me this was probably about probably about five or six years ago and he has like just so you know everyone in that room knows everything that is said about Jamie so every so just remember that that and it’s it’s one of those things that I’ve always thought about that and I give a ton of credit to Tom as a not as a PR guy coming down on me telling me what to write but just being a just a human- to human conversation over a coffee of like look sometimes if you lose the plot and forget that they’re people you’re going to they’re never going to talk to you as people so that that’s something my own personal experience on it so exactly you know you know everybody that’s in that room and what they’ve written and um I mean in Detroit it’s been a a good uh a good road so far but um yeah like I said um certain situations and scenarios where you you kind of like and then it’s and then it’s like if you guys ever need something from a player or or want a story it’s obviously like I said I I join your thing and no problem cuz I’ve I’ve seen stuff that you’ve written and I’ve I’ve seen how you treat other guys and you know I have no problem doing that for for people that respect us as human so um yeah it’s it’s a total change and I’m happy that I’m here no that’s uh that’s very well said I think I think it’s a learning curve for a lot of folks to just remember that you guys are humans you know it’s imagine if somebody was following us around all day and critiquing every single thing that we did and then and and trying to like do things for likes or right or retweets or whatever it is people just write silly things just to to troll and I mean it is kind of the world of trolling right now I guess so many like super super social media stars and stuff like that that are getting famous for writing whatever they want and whatever it’s it’s not my way I just I I like to be treated as a human and and think everybody should be like that could agree more and we uh we really appreciate that so so to sum everything up I got one final question question for you you know you had 12 goals this past year um hit the gritty you got another goal celebration cooked up for us this coming year something unique um I don’t know hopefully a couple more Trends come out this summer I still have a couple that I’ve been uh stored away keeping but uh you know it has to be the right time you know it has to be a a game winner or or huge goal or something like that but uh the celebr aren’t going to stop and I haven’t said uh why I kind of one of the main reasons I do it is um Alex oetkin was my like Idol growing up hockey Idol and uh I got the chance to to get a stick um last year but that’s besides the point I just uh I’ve always like loved his enthusiasm and and how fired up he gets for for goals so um he’s never done the gritty but I know that he loves uh he loves his celebrations so that’s kind of what uh what fires me up to I Love It Well if I can make a plug I’d like you to bring back that fortnite swashbuckling stick uh move that you you went for I think what many years ago uh the AHL you saw that one yeah oh yeah I’ve seen that one so I want I want to see that one back after a penalty shot or a shootout that was when I was uh first getting into fortnite and that’s how you farm in fortnite I love it well you know I want to see that one back and Jake you know we hope you have a tremendous offseason and just want to thank you again for you know taking the time to to join us and looking forward to a tremendous year like you said in Detroit and hopefully a successful playoff Run next year yeah for sure thanks for having me boys I appreciate it all right folks that’s Jake wman Detroit Red Wings defenseman

Welcome to “Expected by Whom?” A new hockey podcast hosted by Prashanth Iyer & Sean Shapiro, and presented by the Winged Wheel Podcast!

Expected by Whom? is a show that will set out to prove that humans & numbers can co-exist, covering the world of advanced analytics in hockey, the “eye-test”, and the unique human stories from across the NHL.

Tune into this episode as Sean and Prashanth are joined by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman!

– Who is Jake Walman? His hockey idol, who he models his game after, XBox vs. PS vs. PC, best recent video games 

– Communication of data to players – what’s helpful, what’s not helpful, and what’s actionable?

– Off-ice use of data in training (biometrics, etc.)

– What does offseason life look like for an NHL player?

– Growth of NCAA game since his time at Providence 

– AHL as a development league – how customized is development to prepping top prospects for reaching the next level and how well does the game translate?

– Attitude towards media 

– Community efforts in Detroit

– Next goal celebration after The Griddy?

– & more! 

Tune in and enjoy this episode, and many more EBW episodes to come!

Follow EBW? on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExpectedByWhom

Follow the Winged Wheel Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingedwheelpod

Go to https://www.wingedwheelpodcast.com/ for more great content!

Subscribe to ShapShots: https://seanshapiro.substack.com/

—–

Thank you for making the Winged Wheel Podcast the biggest Detroit Red Wings podcast on the air! #RedWings #LGRW

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