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Zadina embracing all Detroit has to offer |
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As the Detroit Red Wings take advantage of their first chance to see all that Filip Zadina has to offer, Zadina is exploring all that Detroit has to offer.
In town for the Red Wings’ development camp, right wing Zadina, selected sixth overall by the team in last week’s NHL entry draft, has toured the Motor City and Wednesday, took in a Detroit Tigers game, the first baseball game he’d ever seen.
“It was kind of fun with the boys,” Zadina told Detroitredwings.com. “I didn’t know the rules, so I need to learn them.
“It’s not a popular sport back in Czech Republic. We were there until, I don’t know, I can’t say, it’s like five sets or something.”
As much as he’s trying to assimilate into the area’s culture, there was one baseball tradition that Zadina thought it best to eschew.
“No, I haven’t had the hot dog,” he said. “I’m trying to be fit and eat like that, so I didn’t eat the hot dog.”
So far, the Wings are eating up what Zadina brings to the ice.
“I like his character a lot,” Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff said. “Obviously, he’s got a fantastic shot, really good, quick release, and he’s very agile.”
The team also likes Zadina’s competitive streak. Rated to go third overall in the draft, Zadina slid to the Wings at No. 6 and vowed to “fill the nets” of the teams that passed on him, a group that includes two of Detroit’s Atlantic Division rivals, the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, as well as the Arizona Coyotes.
Center Joe Veleno, Detroit’s other first round pick at No. 30, could relate to the fire in Zadina’s belly.
“For any player who slides in the draft, obviously, it kind of gets to you a little bit and you want to kind of shove it to the other teams that passed on you,” Veleno said. “I want to do the same thing. I want to be better than all those guys that went ahead of me and prove to all those teams that they shouldn’t have passed on me.”
Perhaps no one in Detroit’s camp knows Zadina’s strengths better than Wings second-round pick defenseman Jared McIsaac, who faced Zadina in practice every day as his teammate with the QMJHL Halifax Mooseheads.
“He challenges you,” McIsaac said. “I try to match up with him as much as possible. Being able to play and practice with him and (2017 first overall pick) Nico Hischier last year, it’s pretty tough but I enjoy the challenge.”
Zadina, who scored 44 goals in 57 games last season with Halifax, hopes to do enough in the fall at training camp to convince the Wings not to send him back for another season of junior hockey.
“I’m playing for my spot,” Zadina said. “I’ll try my best and we’ll see how far I make it.”
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