2025 NHL Draft Media Availability – David Bedkowski (71st Overall, Buffalo Sabres)
david may how’s it feel
amazing um i’m sure everyone says it’s probably a word you hear a lot this week but just surreal um you know doing interviews downstairs and you know looking in the mirror in front of me and you know seeing myself in the blue and gold and i don’t think i i’ve ever seen it look better and um
just awesome
did you think buffalo was a possibility at all for you no for me uh you know being rated in around the second round like it could could have been anyone really um they were a team i interviewed with over the combine and um interviewed with uh one of the local scouts grant penish uh spoke with him a lot throughout the year and i i knew it was a possibility but you just really never know on draft day when did you start to believe that this was a possibility that i actually could get drafted to the nhl this year
i think it it’s always been a belief of mine um and i think you know ever since getting the ohl and and growing in my faith and um you know becoming a christian like i just always have this belief that everything’s going to work out you know as long as i put everything into it that i can so um it’s always been a belief of mine but maybe still even now it doesn’t still doesn’t feel real
what did owen sound mean to getting you to this moment a ton um obviously that was you know a huge part of the journey for me and you know getting there and and just you know getting the investment from them and you know the belief in me and obviously i was a player that they wanted in that trade and um i just i’m so excited to get back and you know um you know in an elevated leadership role this year and uh you know try and carry us to a championship that’s my goal and you know do it not only for definitely not just for myself but for my teammates coaches staff um and the community too our fans support us no matter what and they you know they really appreciate our hard work
do you think you know having a great fan base know and sound and a really strong fan base in buffalo and there’s a between the two there yeah i was just saying in the on the zoom there i see a lot of similarities between the two towns you know two blueco collar cities um you know little sort of smaller markets like relatively speaking to the rest of the league and um you know i’m sure they’re fans that just appreciate hard work and um probably don’t care how skilled you are and you know just like both markets and um just want to see you compete every day and loyal fans there you know supported the team through maybe some tougher times over the uh p last 10 years now so um i’m just excited to play for them
what do you think about josh allen
josh allen man i’m not the biggest football fan but i know he’s a stud um and i know they love him there in buffalo and that’s an amazing organization as well and i’ll definitely um be going to my first bills game in the near future and um maybe maybe chop it up with him a little bit if he’s ever around but um yeah i mean a a great athlete in the city of buffalo what was your experience in buffalo for the conference
yeah it was awesome i mean that was a beautiful area there um you know in the afternoon you had some downtime once the uh schedule meetings were over and you know was doing a lot of walks down um down uh to the water there and it was gorgeous and um you know the facility there’s is awesome like especially for the combine is perfect like everything under one roof uh you got the hotel there practice facility um main facility um and there was one security officer there joe who i was chopping it up with a lot throughout the week and you know when i was waiting he was working the lounge there in the medical areas which i had a a lot of medicals throughout the week so um i said i was going to say hi to him when i was playing in buffalo so um looking forward to seeing him
what’s this last you know just waiting last night and today what was that wait like with you and your family just uh just had to be patient a little bit
yeah of course um and especially with the decentralized draft you know once you get to the you know near that third round it’s a pretty empty building but um yeah it’s nerve-wracking you know every pick you’re you’re like “okay this could be me.” um you know once you get to that end of the first round and uh onward for myself and uh nerve-wracking to say the least like every team you’re like oh you know i had a good interview with them and then uh you don’t see it’s them and then it was really perfect you know seeing that video seeing greg’s story um really put into perspective for me you know just how grateful i am for little things just like health and maybe you know you’re not always conscious of that but um i’m sure greg would do give up absolutely everything and his family give absolutely everything for him just to be able to play hockey again so um just being grateful for things like little things like health and i mean will show how grateful i am to be playing in the national hockey league and drafted now so
what you heard from owens sound before you even said “was the stomach of the butterfly starting to go a little more?”
yeah i think my butt was already out of the seat when they said owens sound um i know we have a couple other players that i’ll be watching for tonight but um maybe weren’t ranked as highly as me so i i kind of had a good indication there and i knew um buffalo was interested so uh maybe it just maybe just had a feeling and you know felt right so yeah my butt was already out of the seat at that point
what’s one thing that teammates know about you that fans probably don’t um i think that i just care a lot and i’m not afraid of you know confrontation in in the room and you know maybe sometimes can come off as um maybe not arrogance but um you know just being rude but really i just want what’s best for everyone on our team i want to see them have success so me being hard on them and um being honest is just trying to get the best out of our team
what are some of your hobbies outside of hockey yeah for me i’m a pretty simple guy and hockey takes up most of my time um so if i’m not playing hockey i’m i’m probably cooking eating or sleeping or walking the dog but i do track golf on the weekends uh when i broke my toe last month i like was pulling out a bunch of like jigsaw puzzles and so kind of got into that um but yeah i’m a pretty simple guy
and what’s an underrated aspect of your game that you think goes overlooked i think maybe my mobility um you know as as a big guy i think i can move really well and when you when you pair those two together you know my size strength physicality and you pair that with you know mobility and good skating it’s a it’s a dangerous combination for opposing forwards and you know i can cover a lot of ice and that’s something i want to continue to improve on and and take steps in that direction um you know and like efficiency and stuff and gap control but uh i think i’m i’m at a good uh starting point right now
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1 Comment
Buffalo is getting BIG without question. Welcome to the Sabres David! Sabres are bringing in some quality people. Fine job!