Defenceman Carson Soucy Ready To Get To Work In Vancouver

Media spoke with Carson Soucy today and here are five questions and answers to get to know one of Vancouver's newest defencemen.

Question: In terms of the current defencemen, lots of young talent, you've seen the Canucks quite a bit over the past few years especially. What do you think of Quinn Hughes and some of the younger d-core that impresses you and excites you about playing with them?

Answer: Obviously Quinn Hughes is one of the best defencemen in the NHL so it will be cool to play with him every now and again on a couple shifts. I'll obviously keep the puck in his hands, he'll make the right plays. It's always been very competitive every time I've played against them, the year before they obviously had our number I think, especially in Seattle, so I do think they're a good competitive team. It's kind of one of those off years where stuff's not clicking to get in the playoffs, but hopefully this year we're back in the playoff mix.

Question: To get the three years here, did you look at it from the perspective that there's something building here in Vancouver. If you think three years down the road, Pettersson will be 26, Quinn Hughes will be 25, and the team might be really ready to do something.

Answer: Absolutely. I've been around long enough now that I want to be on a competitive team. Playing against Vancouver, in Seattle, they've had our number, I know they like to win, I know they play hard. Hopefully we take a big step this year, obviously hoping to make the playoffs and like you said when those guys are just beginning to be almost right in their prime, I think with some young talent, we'll hopefully have a couple good runs.

Question: A couple defensive coaches who've been around the league a long time, you're old enough to have an appreciation for Adam Foote when he played the game and Sergei Gonchar when he played the game. What are you hoping to learn from them and how much are you looking forward to working with them?

Answer: That was one of the big reasons that I was really happy to come here obviously. Just having the chance to learn from two legendary NHL defencemen. I'm looking forward to starting to get to work with them, and picking their brain of what I can do better, individually, but also what we can do as a d-core to really help this team grow and help this young group find our way and hopefully like I said, we're back in the playoffs.

Question: Your game really grew in the postseason, what led to that?

Answer: It's hard to say. I didn't think I had my best regular season this year. I think I just got off to a slow start, lost a little bit of confidence. In the playoffs I kind of got back to my game, physical, playing confident, trying to enjoy when I can. I think I just enjoyed the playoff atmosphere and the playoff competitiveness, and I think that just brought out a better part of my game. The regular season, you can go through the ups and downs of 82 games, but the playoffs are just intense every night and that was good for my game.

Question: What has your training been like over the summer to get ready for training camp in September?

Answer: It's been pretty similar to the rest of them I guess, just trying to put on a little weight that you lose during the season, try to get a little speed and explosiveness back. I'll hop on the ice here shortly, I'll be heading to Vancouver here in the next week or so, so hopefully get back on with some Vancouver guys and get to know the city a little bit. I think that's big, just coming to a new city for the season it helps being comfortable in that city.