John Davidson addresses K’Andre Miller incident during Q&A
John Davidson did a recent Q&A for the New York Rangers fans and it was extremely insightful. According to the team’s President he remains extremely optimistic that they will play again this season. Here are the main highlights, including a link to the full interview below.
John Davidson on K’Andre Miller and incident
K’Andre Miller was involved during a chat where comments were made to him which were not appropriate. I would just like to say a special thank you to everyone out there that reached out to K’Andre Miller to express what a good young man he is and what he’s had to go through. I myself on more than one occasion have talked to him and we talked about a lot of different things aside from the incident, his training, and what it takes to be a pro. The other day I said to him, did you have any special calls, anyone that surprised you? He said, “Yup, Wayne Gretzky called me.” When you have people like Wayne Gretzky in this world, who cares about our world (hockey), and for him to make that call it put a great big smile on K’Andre’s face.
JD
Favorite NYR Memories
John Davidson said his favorite memory as a Rangers was not during his playing days but winning the Cup in 1994. As a player it was leading the 1979 miracle run to the Cup.
On 2020 Draft
On prepping for a draft under these circumstances, JD says they are are working very hard even though they don’t know when it will be. Jeff Gorton has worked with the staff and given assignments on the top 50 players in the draft. Scouts are getting 3 games apiece on these players and must provide a report. In North America, they have even started contacting some of these kids.
On Captaincy
JD addressed not having a captain and remains steadfast that you don’t pick a captain just to pick one. The Rangers are in the process of figuring it out. He knows the leadership is spread out but he won’t be pushed into making the decision but it will work itself out.
On Rebuild and Possible Playoffs
I’ve been through two rebuilds prior to coming to NY. That was in St. Louis and that took 7 years. In Columbus, there was some good players before I got there which helped, similar to here. So coming here, I think you knew Adam Fox was good, but I didn’t know he would be this good. Strome had a good year at center ice. Filip Chytil came along. How about Lindgren the defenseman? He had a great camp, had to send him down, came back and never looked back. It (the rebuild) was expedited by good moves from Gorts and Dru (Drury). Some great coaching by Quinny (Quinn) and the staff. Tony DeAngelo popped out all of a sudden. Things along these lines that really expedited this whole thing. Now for us, we have to remember that things went well but we have to get better and we can’t get ahead of ourselves. Patience, you have to make long term decisions and we are still in that mode.
JD
Full Interview
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