\u201cThe last couple seasons in Ottawa, my role has kind of been a little bit of everything,\u201d Hamonic said. \u201cThere were some injuries last year, but I thought I had a good season and played well. This upcoming season, I\u2019m just kind of ready to do whatever is asked of me, be a good player, a good teammate and push for playing time. We have a good defensive core back there. It\u2019s going to be competitive, and I\u2019m there to push and earn my ice time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally selected by the New York Islanders in the second round (No. 53 overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, Hamonic has been around the sport for quite some time. He\u2019s skated in 900 career-regular season games between the Islanders, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Senators since 2010-11, and the 34-year-old has plenty of wisdom to share with his new Red Wings teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself, especially in the last couple years and with some of the young defensemen we had in Ottawa, I really wanted to be someone who was relied upon to help,\u201d Hamonic said. \u201cIf you can help share some sort of knowledge or understanding of the game that you\u2019ve learned throughout your career to help pay it forward\u2026 I remember some of those players when I was younger and I\u2019m still very appreciative of that. If you can come in, show you can play and really contribute to the team, and then help those young players along the way, whether it\u2019s on or off the ice or whatever the case may be, to come in and set a good example and really help\u2026To look back on your career when you\u2019re older, I think that\u2019s something you\u2019ll look back on and be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamonic is also eager to reunite with some familiar faces in Detroit, including fellow defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker. The pair spent parts of the last four seasons together in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cJBD, first and foremost, is a great teammate and player,\u201d Hamonic said. \u201cHe\u2019s become a really good friend of mine. He\u2019s got some sneaky skill. He plays hard. He\u2019s not the biggest guy, but he plays competitively. He moves well and is someone who can make solid plays. When he\u2019s feeling confident, he\u2019s in the rush and makes plays. He\u2019s a good player. Sometimes, you just got to find your opportunity and stride. He had that injury last season, and I think it\u2019s hard to get going after an injury like that, but I think the fans and team in Detroit are going to see a really good young player who has a bright future in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe last couple seasons in Ottawa, my role has kind of been a little bit of everything,\u201d Hamonic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-129680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}