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NHL DRAFTJune 30, 2013Samuel MorinEAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY Q. Talk about playing for the Philadelphia Flyers, what it means to you. SAMUEL MORIN: It means a lot of things. I'm very proud, just to be on the team with Chris Pronger, a guy I want to play like, a tough guy, a leader, a two‑way defenseman. I'm very proud. Q. Did you talk with Paul Holmgren and the Flyers organization, some of those guys? What was your feeling? SAMUEL MORIN: I talked to them at the combine. Yeah, I don't know, I talked to 29 teams, so I didn't know where I would be picked, but I know the Flyers liked me and they liked my style. I'm really very proud. Q. Had you talked to Chris Pronger at all? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say, but just hi, yeah. Q. Is he somebody you compare your game to? Is there anybody else? SAMUEL MORIN: No. Big guys, I think. Luke Shannon is good, too, big guy on the Flyers. He can play two ways. He's physical, also. I'm like that. Q. Are you ready to play in the NHL next season? SAMUEL MORIN: If I'm ready? Yeah, I think I'm going to complete the camp and I will do everything for the team for sure, but I don't mind to go another season in the queue, but for sure I will come out and compete and do everything to make the team. Q. Were you surprised to go at 11 or did you have a feeling that the Flyers would bethe team? SAMUEL MORIN: My agent said to me that he's thinking the Flyers like me. I had a feeling for sure. I don't know. In a draft like this you can have trades and everything can happen, so I don't know, but I'm very, very proud to be with the Flyers. Q. Can you describe your game and what you bring to the Flyers? SAMUEL MORIN: I think I'm more a defensive defenseman, but in the second part of the season I developed my offensive side. I got an injury, but I come back in the playoffs and do seven points in six games. I've got a very hard shot. I'm tough. I can fight anyone. Yeah, I think it's that. Q. What was the injury? SAMUEL MORIN: I broke my collarbone. Q. Last season? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah. I had just come back for the playoffs, but I go to (inaudible) and win the goal, so it was a great season for me. Q. Do you think you're 100‑percent healthy? SAMUEL MORIN: Oh, yeah, for sure. Q. What do you think you need to work on? SAMUEL MORIN: I think for my size I skate pretty well, but I want to improve that, too, for the next level of the NHL. I have to improve that? Q. What do you know about the Flyers as an organization? SAMUEL MORIN: I know a lot of things, just Bobby Clarke, great captain. They always try to be competitors. It's a big city, too, Philadelphia, a lot of history there. I'm so proud to be in Philadelphia, yeah. Q. Do you think this is kind of the perfect team for you? The Flyers are a team that has a history of a lot of fighters? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, I think it's the perfect match. I'm tough, and they like tough guys, so that's why they want me. Q. From your experiences growing up, when you say Philadelphia Flyers, what comes to your mind? SAMUEL MORIN: Just the great history of the organization, and like now just Claude Giroux and Max Talbot and Chris Pronger, I was just seeing them play with the Flyers very good. A lot of tough players and they can score goals and they can play a hard game. Q. Who were some of your favorite players growing up? SAMUEL MORIN: Just Chris Pronger and Sidney Crosby, too. On the ice it was Chris Pronger. Q. They don't like him where you're going, talking about Crosby. SAMUEL MORIN: Oh, yeah (laughter). I've got to be tough on him like I'm tough on every player on the ice. Q. Did anybody ever tell you that you resemble Chris Pronger facially? SAMUEL MORIN: No, no one tell‑‑ the Russian guy in Rocky, a lot of people say I'm like him, when he fought the Russian guy. Q. Drago? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah. Q. Do you try to model your game after Chris Pronger? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, I like Chris Pronger, but I will play my game. But for sure Chris Pronger was the first story in the NHL. I will be a very good player, I think, but I don't know if I will be like him. Q. Talk about what your developmental organization has been like for you? SAMUEL MORIN: It's a very great transition with Phil Boucher, he did me well. I did a lot of overtime with him. We practiced my offensive side. At 16 I don't have a hard shot, but now I practice a lot so I have the best shot in my team, one of the best of my league, I think. For sure they developed me well, and right now I'm there, so I think they are all proud of me. Q. Were you a Flyers fan because of Pronger or were you a Canadiens fan? SAMUEL MORIN: I'm a Canadien fan, yeah, but I like Flyers. Like Pittsburgh and Flyers, that was the top three when I was young. Q. The Flyers have a long history of developing French‑speaking players. Does that mean anything to you? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, that means‑‑ not a lot, but I think they like the way that maybe French guy play our game, and they like that. Is it a coincidence? I don't know. Q. Had you heard that the Flyers need a defenseman. People are saying that that's their weak spot. Were you aware of that and thinking that could be a good place for you? SAMUEL MORIN: I was not aware of that. I think they have Coburn, Luke Schenn, some defensemen, two big guys. But at the beginning of the day I didn't know that they needed a defenseman, but if they draft me I think they need one. Q. What is it about the Quebec league that seems to fit the Flyers? A lot of players from that league seem to fit well with the Flyers. SAMUEL MORIN: Why is that? That's a great question. I don't know. Maybe because we play our game like Giroux is a scorer but he can play defensive, too. Max Talbot is a good offensive forward and defensive, but I don't know, maybe it's a coincidence. Q. Have you met any of the players on the Flyers now? SAMUEL MORIN: I just met Chris Pronger, and that's it. I know Max Talbot a little bit because of Philippe Boucher. Q. What musical artists do you like? SAMUEL MORIN: I like country. Zac Brown Band is my favorite. I'm a country guy. Q. What do you listen to before the game? SAMUEL MORIN: More beat. Before the game I always focus and I'm alone like in the room. I don't talk to anyone, and I don't put the music on. Someone else, yeah, but I listen to everything. I like country or beat, likehard things. Q. Do you remember how many teams you interviewed? SAMUEL MORIN: I interviewed 29 teams. Q. 29, wow. Anything in particular about your interview with the Flyers that you remember? SAMUEL MORIN: I think I interviewed all the teams at the combine, so it's all the same thing. Always the same questions. I think the Flyers when I was talking to them, I see that they were interested, but a lot of teams they were interested, too, so I don't know how to deal with that. It was just a normal interview. Q. Do you feel like you need to get a little bit stronger? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, for sure I need to put weight. In general they said that to me, too. At 16 I was 6'5" and 173, now I'm 6'6?" and 210. So yeah, I can put weight easily, and I'll work on that in the winter. Just this winter I gained 15 pounds. I'm a very hard worker, so that's helped me to take pounds. Q. Is there a weight that you are targeting, that you'd like to get to? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, 230 or 240 would be great for me. I need time. I always grow, so it's tough to take weight. But for sure I need weight. I need to take weight. But it doesn't affect my game. I can be tough. Q. How tall is your dad? SAMUEL MORIN: He's just six foot, and my mom 5'7", so I don't know where I'm from. I need to talk to my mom, I think. Q. When you came back from the injury you had a very big playoff run. How big do you think that was in terms of being picked where you were? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, that helped my draft for sure, my performance. But just before I got injured I was on a very high scoring streak. I think I do eight points in 12 games just before my injury. I worked so hard when I was injured to be ready at the playoff time, and I think I was, so that's helped, and just to win the goal, that was amazing. Q. You don't get enough credit for your offensive side. Do you want to talk about that? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, just in Playoffs I think I played very well my offensive side. I have a very hard shot. They've loved my offensive side everywhere, and I will be better and better every year for be a complete defenseman in the NHL. So just because of my shot, and I think I have a good hockey sense, too, so that helps to get points. Q. Do you know how fast it is? SAMUEL MORIN: I don't know, but I think it's very hard. You want to see? I can do a test. Q.  Have you ever been to Philly? SAMUEL MORIN: No, never. I'm from a little town in Quebec City, so I don't see a lot of countries. It was my first time in Europe, too. Q. What have you heard about the city? SAMUEL MORIN: I think a great story, like I know his name is‑‑ I like history. He was a president from the United States. I forgot his name. And Rocky Balboa, too, when he was running on the train, like a train thing. It's amazing. Q. One of the draft picks last year ran up the Rocky steps. SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, maybe I'm going to train there, so I don't know. Q. What would you say your goal is time frame‑wise to get to the NHL? SAMUEL MORIN: My goal right now, I always want to develop myself. I'm going to go to their pro camp. I want to make noise. I want to make the team for sure, and I will do everything I can to make it. Q. This year? SAMUEL MORIN: This year I will try for sure. I don't go to the game for just watching others skating. I want to make the team, and I will give all I have, and if I don't make it it's not a problem, and I just give all I have and I'm going to come back and develop myself. Q. Does it mean anything that the Flyers have given their last two first‑round picks? They're giving you an opportunity to show yourself if you can. They've had an open mind with their first‑round picks. SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, I think they're going to let me a chance for sure, and I'm going to take it. I'm like that, and yeah. Q. Is it kind of surreal for you when you're up on stage there, you get picked and there's your hockey idol up there with you, Pronger, all in one moment? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, it's certainly the best moment of my time, to be a Flyer with such a hockey guy, a professional guy, and I was very nervous. Q. Was Pronger on the stage with you? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, he was. Q. Who's here with you, your parents? SAMUEL MORIN: Yeah, my parents, and we have my grandfather and my girlfriend and my sister. We are 30 people. They love hockey. Q. Did they fly or drive? SAMUEL MORIN: They drive, just eight hours, so they drove. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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