Canucks prospect Kieren Dervin will make one of his hockey dreams a reality next month when he arrives at the University of Michigan to begin his NCAA career with the Wolverines.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s\u00a0excited about the challenge of playing college hockey, and as a competitor,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0one thing that Dervin is most looking forward to in the Wolverines\u2019 program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning. I want to win,\u201d Dervin said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a good team, so hopefully we can get it done, but I’m just looking forward to getting down there and playing the first game.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michigan is coming off a 31-8-1 season, including a 17-6-1 record in Big Ten play. The Wolverines captured the conference championship and advanced to the Frozen Four before falling to the eventual national champions, Denver University.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dervin visited Ann Arbor in late June to meet his new teammates and become familiar with the campus. Now, with August 19th circled on the calendar,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0preparing to move south and begin the next stage of his development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the Ottawa, Ontario native prepares for his first NCAA season,\u00a0he’s\u00a0focused on adapting to the speed of the college game. Training with a group from home over the summer, much of his work has\u00a0centred\u00a0on making quicker decisions in game-like situations. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in a lot of game-like scenarios like two-on-ones down low or one-on-ones down low, just being able to make those reads as quick as possible,\u201d Dervin shared as examples.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old built confidence throughout last season with the OHL\u2019s Kingston Frontenacs, where he earned top-line minutes while contributing on both special\u00a0teams\u00a0units. He finished the regular season with 17 goals and 25 assists for 42 points in 53 games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Development Camp also gave Dervin another opportunity to work face-to-face with Canucks development coaches Mike Komisarek and Mikael Samuelsson, relationships he built over last season. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s definitely a lot easier just having them right here, and you can go talk to them whenever,\u201d Dervin said.\u00a0\u201cThey’re not afraid to come over to you and tell you what you can do better, and likewise, you shouldn’t be afraid to go over to them and ask them a few tips on things.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Returning\u00a0for\u00a0his second development camp, the experience was familiar. Along with reconnecting with coaching staff, Dervin has stayed in touch with fellow Canucks prospects Riley Patterson and Anthony Romani.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the camp last year, I tried to keep in touch with a lot of guys throughout the season, and obviously coming in here second year, you feel a lot more comfortable,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really great friendships that will last a long time, hopefully as we get into the next level here.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Dervin heads from Ottawa to Ann Arbor next month,\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0take another step in his development. Playing in one of college hockey\u2019s top programs will give him the opportunity to test himself against elite competition while continuing to build the habits and relationships that have become an important part of his growth as a Canucks prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canucks prospect Kieren Dervin will make one of his hockey dreams a reality next month when he arrives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-819809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}