Here’s an excerpt from the Hamilton Spectator article by Garry McKay who interviewed Yannick Weber about his first 20 AHL games:


Yannick Weber says the biggest difference he’s finding in pro hockey from his days in junior is that players are so much smarter here.

“The guys here are older and more experienced,” said the Hamilton Bulldogs rookie defenceman, who played the past two seasons for the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League. “It’s a smarter game. In the OHL, it’s all young guys who are fighting to get drafted or fighting to get signed or to make the lineup.

“Junior guys go a hundred per cent but there’s a lot of running around. Here it’s smarter and you play more with your head than your energy.”

Weber, who turned 20 in September, was a third-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in the 2004 NHL entry draft. He had a good training camp with the Habs this year before being sent down to the Bulldogs.

“When Montreal talked to me after camp, they told me that I could play at that level, that I had the offensive skills but that I had to also become a good defensive defenceman and play good zone coverage,” Weber said. “They said that I don’t have to kill guys in the corner but I have to be in the right position. That’s what they’re trying to teach me here to get better at, and I think the coaches are doing a really good job.

“I think I’ve learned a lot in the first 20 games.”

In junior hockey, Weber was averaging nearly a point a game and he won the OHL’s hardest shot competition. His point production so far with the Bulldogs hasn’t approached that and he hasn’t been able to get the big shot from the point away nearly as often.

“I think he’s frustrated with his offensive numbers because he was an offensive guy in junior, but it’s his one-on-ones and his play in his own end is what we’re more concerned with than his offensive numbers. And he’s getting better,” says Bulldogs head coach Don Lever.

“He’s competing more and he’s not giving up on those one-on-one situations like young guys usually do in junior.”

Lever says Weber reminds him, in some ways, of Andre Benoit, who played the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons for the Dogs before opting to play in Europe. Benoit had a really slow start to his pro career but eventually turned into a solid two-way defenceman.

“Andre wasn’t as good as Yannick is right now with his defensive play and it took him a year and a half,” Lever said.