Rushing to the Top

[Dangles13 373]

 

"...Yukon Rush." the man booms out over the PA system. It finally happened, me, Valeri Morozov, had been drafted eleventh overall in the VHLM draft and I could not be happier. The huge weight that had previously been on my body has now lifted and I can focus on my future as a hockey player. Even getting to the draft is a huge honour and I now realize that at the moment you lose sight of that and that is advice I would give myself if I could go back.

 

 

I have a few players that I model myself after and one of the more obscure players is Asher Donovan. My agency had once dealt with this player and my agent has told me some stories about him. Asher could have been one of the greatest power forwards in the league but he lacked the drive required to rise to the top. If he had not been lazy it is not inconceivable that he would be a household name today. My agent tells me that I have even more natural talent than Donovan did and if I am willing to work for it there is nothing I cannot accomplish.

 

The season should be starting up next week and I am very excited to hit the ice with my teammates and show them what I can do. Training camp is always a blast as it is the first time you see all of your teammates again or you meet them for the first time and people break out some amazing feats of skill. You see some very crazy things in training camp, players do some wild things and show off new tricks they may have learned over the summer. The other side of training camp is that we are all competing for our jobs and the battles can become quite heated. As a big man, I always have that target on my back, they all want a piece of the big dog in the park. That is good and bad because I get to show off my talent and strength to my coaches but boy does it tire me out. I would love to show that I am a top line player and can compete with the best of them. 

 

 

I don't really know all of the prospects in that we drafted but I feel confident in saying that Yukon had a magnificent draft and other teams better keep an eye out for us. Our management has been top notch and the rebuild should be over before you know it; drafting a beauty like Justin Cole means the worst is over for the Rush. Can we go from worst to first? I think so, with big banging forwards like Morozov and Sigurdsson to create space for Helmsley and Matthews the production should be off the charts. The one area that we may see the Rush struggle in is their depth, they have some nice pieces but they also have a lot of raw players that need some serious work if they want to win a Championship. Lockwood, Foxxx and Ristau are three such players who can make or break things for this Yukon team. Here's to hoping they start hitting the gym as soon as they can.