Photo Credit: Kyle Masters Twitter (KyleMasters03)
The NHL draft kicks off tomorrow with the first round on Friday night. Round 2 through 7 will begin Saturday July 24th. One intriguing Prospect is called Masters, and he is slated to be selected in as early as the third round. Without further delay, here is an interview with Masters.
Have you talked to any teams yet? Flyers by any chance?
Yeah I have talked to quite a bit leading up to draft. Unfortunately due to covid I have not yet met Flyers face to face but I have been able to do a computerized questionnaire to help them better get to know me as a player and person.Can you please describe the transition to Junior Hockey, and how do you think that went?
Transition was definitely an eye opener. Being a smaller sized defender coming into the league there was definitely an adjustment period and learning how to use my skills to help my game grow and take the next step, this was possible with great coaching staff in Red Deer and I am looking forward to continuing to grow my game.How did you use your size to your advantage while learning as you played?
I think part of it is just getting experience in different situations in practice against bigger stronger guys and then obviously when your comfortable you translate stuff into games. Growing up I’ve always been able to use my skating to my advantage so just repetition in practice and then translation into games was huge for me I think.When did you start to feel comfortable?
I think halfway through this year I took a big leap in my game; Unfortunately I had a lower body injury my 16 year so I missed games so I wasn’t able to get my feet wet my 16 year but I think going into next year I am ready for a big step offensively and defensively.How’s that injury now and how would you describe your game fully? What are you going to focus more on this off-season?
100% now, I am a 2 way defensemen with an offensive upside. I like to use my skating and puck moving ability to my advantage in both zones. I think this off season I have put a lot of my focus towards getting stronger and faster on the ice and off the ice through weight training and agility drills.If you could play with any NHL player as your D partner, who would it be?
I think playing with a star like Cale Makar or Josi would be a great experience get to learn lots from them and obviously there skill sets would make my life a lot easier coming into the league.
Masters is a right-handed defenseman, and that is a positional need for the Flyers. He had a solid deer for the Red deer rebels in the WHL this past season with tallying 10 assists in 20 games played.
