Q. How are you enjoying Dundee? A. I love it, great city, great people.
Q. How does it compare to other places you lived? A. The architecture is a lot different to other places I’ve lived and it has a lot of character.
Q. What’s the best part about living in Dundee? A. The views and the people, such friendly people here.
Q. Do you have a second career off the ice? And how easy is it to manage a personal career as well as a hockey one? A. I do, I’m also a personal trainer. I’ve not got anything going with personal training in Dundee as of yet but I am looking too, currently just living the dream.
Q. Is there anything you miss about your hometown? A. The welsh accent, my friends and family, and my Nan’s cooking and baking.
Q. What is your favourite moment with the Stars so far? A. Scoring a goal against Belfast with about 20 seconds left on the clock to tie the game up to take us into overtime for the big W.
Q. What made you want to play hockey? A. Kids playing street hockey on my street, I joined in one day and never looked back.
Q. What is your pre-game meal and rituals? A. I don’t have a specific pre game meal, but I have a lot of rituals, you might be able to spot a few, one is I am always 4th out onto the ice.
Q. What’s the weirdest pre-game ritual you’ve seen? A. Our very own #44 Emerson Hrynyk, eating a rose head before every game
Q. What do you do to drive yourself to get better every day/season? A. The thought of not playing hockey for a living is enough to drive me.
Q. Who is the best player you have played with? A. I’ve played with a lot of great players, so many candidates, but I would have to go with Paul Bissonnette at the Cardiff Devils, during the 2012 NHL lockout.
Q. What sort of things do you learn from the import players and how valuable is their experience and knowledge? A. Not just the imports guys I learn from, there’s a lot of British players with experience and knowledge that have helped me loads with my career. I have learnt a lot from many of the imports though, even watching some of them play can help you out a lot especially the guys that have played in the NHL and AHL.
Q. How does the Elite League compare with other leagues? A. The only comparison I personally have is the elite league to the EPL, the EPL only had 4 or 5 imports whereas the elite has 14 imports and that’s obviously a big difference, in the EPL there’s a lot more opportunities for younger guys like me to have more special teams time and be on a top line. The elite league has obviously gotten a lot better though with this import rule going up as you can see with Cardiff and Nottingham’s recent success in the champions hockey league.
Q. How do you deal with the long travel journey’s? A. The long journeys are tough, 10 hours on a bus then straight into a game isn’t exactly ideal but every team has to do it. Usually just sleep lots and watch movies to make the time go by faster.
Q. What is your favourite arena/city to play away in? A. Cardiff is always good for me to play in as my family get to come watch, but Belfast is my favourite, the arena is amazing and the city has been good to me.
Q. What was it like to play with the Manchester Storm in their first two seasons in the EIHL? A. It was fun, really enjoyed playing in Manchester, they have a great organisation and it was a pleasure to play there and be a part of helping the team grow and make a playoff spot last season.
Q. What NHL team did you grow up supporting? A. Calgary Flames
Q. What’s your favourite moment from your career? A. Making the playoff finals my first year as an 18 year old. Bitter sweet though as we lost and I got hit by a train, still live that moment down every now and then thanks to YouTube.
Q. Where do you want to be in 10 years? A. The dream is always to be living in Canada.
Q. What’s the best thing about the Dundee Stars fans? A. This one I will have to give a shout out to Fiona and Gail for the treats they supply us with. They know how to bake!
