Although the 2022-2023 season wasn’t easy for the Canadians, Stéphane Robidas is optimistic about next season.
He said so in an interview with Jean-Charles Lajoie on Friday.
“With all the injuries this year, it’s hard to assess what we’ve got. There are different ways to look at this. I prefer to see things positively. The many injuries made it possible to give a lot of mileage to players who could not have played as much. The misfortune of some has made the happiness of others. Next year we will start from scratch. I like the direction we’re going with Martin St-Louis, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton. It’s exciting for us.”
The Canadian defender gives a satisfactory account of his young brigade’s progress.
“It was still good. We always want to achieve better results. Sure, the results weren’t always there, but if we look at most games, we were in the game in practically every game. The end in December was a bit more difficult but we had so many injuries. I think we can learn from this and use that for the future.”
The Quebecer is particularly enthusiastic about one young person, Kaiden Guhle.
“He’s a pro. A lot of times we’ll say that a young person has to go pro, but he’s a pro. It’s happened and it’s rare that we see that. He knows how to play hockey and he understands “How to play. He’s a very intelligent player and physically very strong. He’s able to stop and contain the best players in the league. To be able to do that at a young age is impressive.”
As for Arber Xhekaj, Robidas believes his absence towards the end of the season was felt on many levels.
“He’s a youngster who plays with passion, but he needs to gain experience. You can see that players from other teams respect him a lot. I assure you that the other teams would not have taken so many liberties if he had been in the line-up at the end of the season. He’s present on the ice, and not just on a physical level. He’s a very good hockey player. He still has a good skate for a youngster of such an imposing size.
Watch the interview in question in the video above.
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