(Buffalo) It’s 3 p.m., the comings and goings slow down in the hall where Shane Wright joins us. The happy hour crowd has not yet invaded the premises. The environment lends itself perfectly to a discussion of about twenty minutes. We even allow ourselves to hold it for a photo.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“Sorry, I’m not a professional photographer, it won’t be the photo of the century”, we say to him, to justify our inability to manage natural daylight.
“Don’t worry, I’m not a model either! “, he retorts.
So there you have it, Olivier Jean and David Gandy are not officially threatened in their respective fields.
This interaction confirms what is perceptible in the interview: Shane Wright is at ease in the media game. Structured in his remarks, never disconcerted by a question, always the right amount of assurance in his answers.
We guess that the dozen teams that met him at the evaluation camp kept the same impression. “A mature and very intelligent young man,” said Kent Hughes, general manager of the Canadiens.
A question that took him by surprise? “A team asked me how much was 25 times 25. I couldn’t answer, he admits. Another team named me six or seven centers in my league and I had to say if they were left-handed or right-handed. I had everything good! »
Earlier this season, the Canadian had spoken with him for the first time, by videoconference. The attacker had the right to the classic question of CH: which animal represents you best? Answer: a bald eagle, “because I’m versatile and this bird can hunt on the ground and on water, it can run and fly”.
The two extremes
The question of media and attention in general remains essential when talking about Wright.
He was used to it young, as he received exceptional status in the Ontario Junior League. It is an exemption allowing him to play in the OHL at 15, which only John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid and Sean Day had had before him in this circuit.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NHL.COM
Shane Wright
It was pressure, but maybe I was naive, so I didn’t realize it at first.
Shane Wright
The pressure now is on a possible first choice. Drafted respectively in Florida and New Jersey, Ekblad and Nico Hischier may not be crumbling under this pressure.
But in a market like Montreal, it’s different. We still talk about the mistake of the Canadian in 1980, the last time the team had the first right to speak, who preferred Doug Wickenheiser to Denis Savard.
The contrast is great compared to the other markets which had chances to obtain the first choice. All season, the Coyotes, who play anonymously in Arizona, were not far ahead of the Habs in the standings. They will speak at 3e rank. The Devils meanwhile got the 2e choice. During our visit to Newark in April, no local journalist attended training the day before the game.
Is he ready for the pressure of a city where an intrasquad game draws 15,000 people to the Bell Centre?
” I think so. It comes with the position I’m in. Anyway, no matter where I play, there will be media. Of course, there are more in Montreal. But the fans love their team, they are crazy about it. There are expectations of victory, but that’s because the fans want the best for their players. »
It remains to be seen whether he will evolve in the madness of Montreal. For the reasons expertly detailed by Mathias Brunet, Wright is not a consensus choice as the best hope of the 2022 vintage.
Unlike Patrick Roy when the Avalanche drafted Nathan MacKinnon in 2013, Kent Hughes refuses to open his game. The Habs maintain the mystery by inviting Logan Cooley to dinner, spending an hour with Juraj Slafkovsky on Wednesday.
Wright nevertheless hopes that his name will be the first spoken on July 7.
” It’s my goal. I’m super competitive, I want to win, to be the best, so I want to be drafted first, he said. I did everything on the ice to show that I deserve it. This week too… That’s what I answered to the people of the Canadiens when they asked me why they should draft me. It would be an honor to be drafted first. »