Good Morning, Islanders Country
One of the most important coaches for the Islanders this season isn’t employed by the Islanders. He is the man who works every day with Vladimir Dravecky, the team’s fifth-round pick in 2006, who was called the happy surprise of training camp by GM Mathieu Darche.
Rob Davison is Guelph's associate coach. (You may remember Davison from his stint with the Islanders in 2008, highlighted by his 197-foot goal at the Coliseum past Maple Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala).
He is Dravecky’s mentor in the OHL, while Islanders director of player development Pascal Dupuis keeps a close eye on the prospect.
In an interview we’ll publish soon, Dravecky told Chris Botta he’s determined to put in the development time required to become a mainstay on the Isles’ blueline.
“Davie’s unreal,” Dravecky said. “He’s helped me so much since my first day here. We work together all the time – on the ice, looking at my shifts on video. So many small details have improved my play.”
While working on a profile of Dravecky for a future newsletter, Botta reached out to Rob as the Storm traveled to Sarnia for a Tuesday night game.
The coach was so generous with his insights that we decided to share the conversation with Isles Fix readers right away.
In my conversation with Dravecky, he comes across very committed to developing his complete game. How has he been in the first few weeks that you’ve worked with him?
He’s definitely a player with a lot of drive, and he’s very teachable, very coachable. He asks a lot of questions, as you probably might expect, on the defensive side of the game. “How can I be better”? “How is my positioning”? We spend a lot of time talking about different routes he can take. He’s very eager to learn.
I get the sense he’s someone who lingers for a little while after practice, looking to work with you.
Davison: I wouldn’t say he hangs out for a little while. He does for a long time (laughing). He’s got a great work ethic. Every opportunity we get, there’s a lot of one-on-one time with Vlad.
Dravecky said there’s also a lot of instruction from video.
I have weekly one-on-one video sessions with all of our defensemen. Typically it’s a review of the weekend. We’ll have the two games, say Friday and Sunday.
The videos are cut, edited, separated into each player’s folders, and then we review between 15 and 20 clips.
It can be anything from how they’re breaking the puck out to entries against, depending on the player’s need. With Vlad, it’s a lot about entries against. Each player will get all their shifts on video. We use Sportlogiq. But I’m also a believer that players see what they want to see.
As I review the game with Vlad, we focus mainly on areas where he can make little adjustments. He averages probably about 23-24 minutes per game, so they’re probably 10- to 15-second clips, usually one per shift on average.
Dravecky seems very self-aware that he has the tools to be the offensive defenseman to make it to the NHL, but he has to continue to improve defensively.
He’s very gifted, as the Islanders and their fans know, especially with the puck. Very dynamic. Every player has areas where they need to improve. As he transitions to pro hockey next year, we want to get him fully ready for the defensive side.
Since Guelph is the host city for the Memorial Cup, you’re guaranteed to be in the tournament. Late in the season, do you see those 23-24 minutes increasing even more for Dravecky?
He’s definitely a go-to guy for us. There’s no question he’s our most dynamic defenseman offensively. And he has the will to improve in all areas. If that continues to grow, then I see no reason why he won’t be a guy we look to in the closing minutes of big games. As it is, he kills penalties for us. He’s on the power play. He plays in all situations.
What is his NHL upside?
I don’t see any reason, if he continues to emerge, why he can’t play in one of your top-two pairings. He’ll be able to run a power play and he’ll be able to take regular shifts.
Vlad still has room to grow physically, but he is very dynamic with the puck. He makes good decisions with the puck. To defend, he has to keep getting in the way. We talk about this a lot in our sessions. He doesn’t have to throw the big hit. He doesn’t have to crush guys. Contact is as much about obstructing guys’ routes, disrupting their speed patterns. It’s about learning to defend against bigger bodies. The American League will give him a lot of experience at that.
Do you have any other examples of areas you’ve worked on?
Another aspect of his game we talk about is his offensive zone blueline defensive routes. How is he setting himself up to recover to face a rush? There can be times when a puck-mover like him can find themselves drifting and moving north-south immediately off the line. But Vlad really works at this and is moving more east-west. The benefit to that for Vlad is that he has good skating ability. Let the forward close his own gap, as opposed to you just increasing it.
Do you use the iPad with him during games? I was watching the Islanders recently and Simon Holmstrom and others were looking at video on the bench during the game. It’s come a long way in the 20 years since we were on the Island.
I encourage the defensemen to not go to the iPad during the game, to stay present so they can watch the game in front of them. There are opportunities during breaks when I’ll show Vlad where he’s doing the things that are translating in a positive way from practice to the game. He gets really excited about that, and he gives me a fist bump every time.
I clip it on the iPad. If he has a question, like, “What do you think of this play?” then I’ll bring it back up on the iPad, and we’ll review it together. But most of the time, I use the iPad for Vlad to reinforce the defensive side of things -- everything we’ve been working on in practice.
What makes Dravecky so effective offensively?
He is very dynamic with the puck – the way he can jump-start a breakout, the way he can start the transition game and then activate into it. He had a game the other night where he had two goals and three assists, and that comes naturally to him. He’s very excited to have the puck. He wants the puck on his stick. He wants to make plays.
The funny thing is there are opportunities where he defends well, and because he shuts down a play, now he gets to activate offensively right away. He likes that part. He’s like, “OK, if I stop it in the neutral zone, that means I can jump right into the offensive zone.” Yes, you can jump in the offensive zone. He really helps our transition game.
I’m not comparing him to Quinn Hughes, but what he does for us in the OHL is what Quinn Hughes does in the NHL, where he can be a one-man breakout machine. He can jump-start a breakout on his own by finding plays that the average OHL defenseman won’t find.
He told me he didn’t celebrate after he signed his contract with the Islanders. He is focused only on the Storm’s season and on developing.
We were really happy for Vlad. It was an awesome first step, but he was business as usual. Nothing changed with how his practice went. There was no dip in his performance. He went right back out there like, “OK, this is step number one. What’s step two? Let’s get after that.”
How does Dan Girardi – who had a long NHL career in New York and now consults in Guelph – fit into your development work with Dravecky?
We have one day a week that is strictly based on development. Dan and I work closely on those days and we coordinate a plan. Dan watches the games and we discuss what we saw. Then we come up with a plan for Vlad and execute it.
As Dravecky continues to develop physically, how should that impact his game?
That’ll help with his overall explosiveness and how competitive he’s going to be in the corners and the tough areas defensemen need to play in. For him to reach his potential, he’s going to have to fill out and he will. That comes with age and maturity.
What is your overall impression of him after these first few weeks?
It’s early days for us together. I’m still getting to know him. But I’ve been blown away by his work ethic. He always wants to be on the ice. He’s always looking for extra ice. (laughing) We have to slow him down a bit because he’ll be exhausted by the weekend. I’m sure the Islanders saw that too in training camp. He’s been a pleasure to work with so far. In junior hockey, the sky’s the limit for him.
Honestly, he’s such a great kid.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Matthew Schaefer has played at least 20:00 in 76 straight games; it is the longest streak in NHL history by a teenager in a single season since ice time became official and the longest by an Islander since Mark Streit set the record (since 1997-98) by doing so in 141 consecutive games from 2009-2011.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On October 15, 1991, Derek King scored the fastest hat trick in New York Islanders history, scoring the first three goals in 1:18 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. David Volek assisted on his first (14:01) and second (14:26), before King scored his third on the power play (15:19).
The Islanders led 6-2 in the third period, but Mario Lemieux’s 27th hat trick helped the Pens rally with four consecutive third-period goals and win on a Phil Bourque goal at 2:30 of overtime, 7-6, at the Nassau Coliseum.
📺 Isles House: The .500 Club
🔗 Palmieri making up for lost time with Islanders following ACL surgery by Brian Compton, NHL.com “Palmieri described the 10½-month recovery process as something he is still learning from physically and mentally, even after returning to the lineup. He also said he hopes to become the same kind of resource for Alexander Romanov that Anders Lee was for him during his own ACL rehabilitation”
🔗 Matias Maccelli showed off what he can bring to NY Islanders in breakout performance by Jiggs Westfall, Eyes on Isles “Maccelli scored his first goal as an Islander, added an assist on the winner and matched his career high with six shots despite starting the night on the fourth line. His pace and creativity earned him an in-game promotion alongside Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri, and he now has points in four straight games.”
And we leave you with this…Schaefer was a guest on OverDrive
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