Ethan Edwards Bringing Whatever Michigan Needs | PROSPECT WATCH

There's nothing like artic air to welcome you home for the holidays.
"I'm good…but it's really cold," was Ethan Edwards' response across the phone line after arriving home near Edmonton for the Christmas break.
It was approaching minus-40, so frigid there is no confusion between Celsius and Fahrenheit because they become the same value when it gets that cold. Skin freezes on contact; pour a glass of water at head level and it turns to ice crystals by the time it hits the ground.
Thankfully, the Devils prospect, a sophomore defenseman at the University of Michigan, is giving off warmer vibes to those around him in Ann Arbor.
"Eddie, ah, he is just an athlete," said Wolverines interim head coach Brandon Naurato, "he just kills (opposition) plays."
"He understands, and I'm sure he would like to be (in a more offensive role) how important it is, especially for a defenseman to play in our zone."

Eric Weinrich knows of what he speaks. A defenseman himself who was drafted by the Devils, he started his long NHL career with the club and then moved to seven more teams. Weinrich is back with the Devils as a development coach. The rink he's in most nowadays is Yost Arena because three Wolverine defensemen are also Devils prospects.
Weinrich, a guy who has seen it all, says he keeps noticing one thing about Edwards.
"Whenever they need a big hit, a stop, he seems to make it," recalls Weinrich during a conversation last month. "It's one thing to (bring) the offensive game but he is really good back there in his own end."
The Devils tendency to occasionally draft players from, or who end up at the same amateur club - recently there also have been multiple New Jersey prospects on the Ottawa 67's, Sioux City Musketeers, and Providence - provides an obvious if somewhat cliché storyline.
In the Wolverines case, it is Edwards, his defense partner Seamus Casey and fellow second-year Luke Hughes, with whom he lives at Michigan. That trio makes up half the Wolverines D corps. One day, they could be doing the same with the Devils.

"The first goal here is to try and win a national championship but it is kind of nice to think that we could do it at the next level," he said.
Edwards is not a late bloomer. He is still just 20, 15 months older than Hughes. It is more accurate to call Edwards a diamond in the rough. The extra year for Edwards was spent playing in Sioux City, with Devils/Utica Comets goaltender Akira Schmid and where the Devils selected him in the delayed 2020 NHL Draft.
He arrived in Michigan last season and has earned everything he's got on a Wolverines squad chock-full of stars. Just six weeks before their freshman season began, Michigan had four of the top five picks in the 2021 NHL Draft, including two defensemen, Owen Power (Buffalo) and Hughes.

Being around that sort of talent speaks for itself but it also can make it hard to carve out your own niche, being merely a fourth-round pick (120th overall). It didn't take Edwards long. By last year's holiday break, he had earned significantly more ice time and when Power temporarily vacated his spot on the Michigan blue line to play for Canada in the Olympics, Edwards grabbed on and didn't let go.
He was paired with captain Nick Blankenburg, now with the Blue Jackets, as the Wolverines made it to the Frozen Four, losing in the semi-finals to the University of Denver.
It was good a run but one that Edwards has had to live with, literally; his brother, Brett plays for Pioneers, who eventually won the national championship.
"He reminds me every day," he said, of his older brother's barbs.
This season had another hiccup to start in the form of an ankle injury. He missed four games with little ill effect. Edwards says that a key part of staying that way is between the ears.
"It starts on my way to the rink, every day, and (understanding) my role. We don't need another super-offensive defenseman. Mine is a two-way (shutdown) game…but (doing) it can be more mental than physical."
As for the Wolverines, the season started well enough but there have been some obstacles placed in the way since. They were waylaid by sickness in November, contributing to another malaise in the win column. During one game third-string goalie Tyler Shea had to dress as a skater. Realistically, it wasn't for Shea to play but in case someone had to serve a penalty. As it turned out, Shea was required to serve one - about the only thing that went right for the team during that stretch.
Edwards says it's just a case of his team getting back to what made them so dominant most times in the past season-and-a-half.
"Team-wise we must be more consistent…we are splitting too many series; I think we may already have more losses this year than we did last. We have to start winning on Friday and not just on Saturday."
Edwards is mid-way through a two-week holiday break. Some of that time will be spent watching the World Junior Hockey Championship that begins a few days before he heads back to school. There are six Wolverines on the rosters of the two North American teams, five on the U.S. and one on Canada.
Are there competing loyalties inside Edwards' Canadian mind right now?
"Well, I really like Canada's lineup and we have Adam Fantilli," he explained, of his freshman Wolverine teammate and fellow Canadian. "But we have a lot more guys on the U.S…I'll be happy if either Canada or the U.S. won."