Prospect Interview Featuring - Darren Dietz

McKeen's correspondent Rick Springhetti recently spent some time at the Montreal Canadiens development camp. Once there, he had a chance to catch up with Habs prospect Darren Dietz who is slated to take on a bigger role this season with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL.

McKeen's: I'm not sure if this is a true story, but I hear you were not home when Montreal made the announcement that they were drafting you. Is this true?

Dietz: Yeah, it's a true story.

McKeen's: I heard that you were out for a jog?

Dietz: Yeah, I had gone out for a jog and to do a little bit of Yoga and as I left the hot Yoga place, I got a text on my phone saying congratulations. So I suspected something and, on my run back home, one of my neighbors, someone I'm pretty close with, was driving down the street and was honking at me and giving me the thumbs up so I ran even faster to get home and I found out that Montreal had drafted me.

McKeen's: Did you know that Montreal had an interest in you, had you spoken to them a little bit?

Dietz: I did have a meeting with them but it was just a general meeting. You're never really sure how it went or how interested they are.

McKeen's: Your career path is interesting. Never drafted by Saskatoon, you made the team as a walk on and since then there's just been this constant improvement. Did you feel that you always had it in you and you just needed the opportunity or did you just do your best to make the team first and then hoped for the best?

Dietz: I feel that I needed the opportunity and once you get the opportunity, you can't waste them and that was my attitude. So I made sure I worked hard, learned as much as possible, changed a lot of things to get here and happy that it worked out like it did at this point but now I have to continue to do the same things to get the next level.

McKeen's: For people who don't know you, or haven't seen you play, how would you describe your game?

Dietz: I like to consider myself a stay-at-home defenseman. I take care of my end first, if there's and opportunity to jump into the rush, I go but try and stay low-risk and make sure I play good defense first.

McKeen's: I didn't get a chance to catch you very often last season as I generally scout the QMJHL but I thought you did have some upside offensively. You carried the puck up the ice fairly well a few times and created some opportunities. Would you like to bring out this part of your game a little more next season as you gain a little more experience?

Dietz: Yeah, I would like to, and as I get more confident with the puck, I hope to. Confidence is huge. It doesn't matter what kind of skill you have if you don't have the confidence to use it so that helps quite a bit.

McKeen's: Tell me a little about your coach. Lorne Molleken has been with the team as GM/coach for a long time now. What kind of a coach is he and what are the things you've learned from him?

Dietz: I have got to give Lorne and assistant coach Dave Struch thanks for all their work with me. They are always willing to spend extra time with you, before or after practice to help you develop basic fundamentals such as skating and positioning. They always make sure players understand good body positioning, especially for dishing out passes, receiving passes, a lot of things that I didn't quite understand or that nobody had told me. I really got the opportunity to learn so I'm already anxious to go back and pick their brains a little more to become a more complete player.

McKeen's: Next year is shaping up to be a challenging year. You will have a bigger role, maybe the top pairing with Duncan Siemens.

Dietz: I'm really excited about the upcoming year. Where we play is yet to be known, that is up to the coach but my responsibility is to come to camp in the best shape possible and play in whatever spot can best help the team.