Off-Season Conversation: Dane Byers

What have you been up to since the season’s been over?

I came back to Saskatchewan, to my cabin. The first month I just kind of hung out. It’s kind of quiet out there so I was just kind of been taking ‘er easy. Then I went out to Victoria (British Columbia) to see my brother for a week-and-a-half, and from there I came back and I’ve just been working out and training and enjoying playing a few rounds of golf. That’s about it.

How’s your golf game?

Not too great. It was good in May and June, but now the weather’s kind of getting nicer so I tend to get on the water a little more.

Where is your cabin?

It’s northern Saskatchewan, about two hours north of Saskatoon, on a lake called Christopher Lake.

Wow, that’s way up there.

Yep, lots of trees up there and lots of lakes.

Do you do the whole nine yards, swimming, water skiing, all that stuff?

Yeah, I do a lot of water skiing, a lot of fishing and a few other water sports, and there are lots of nice golf courses. So that’s pretty much all that I do during the summer, just chill.

Life could be a lot worse than that.

Exactly. It’s a nice place to spend the summer.

What kind of fish do you catch?

Northern pike and walleye, pickerel and sometimes perch.

Have you taken any vacation trips?

No, we haven’t. My girlfriend and I are still looking maybe to take a trip the end of July or early August before I head back (for the start of training camp). But up until now, no, just to go out and see my brother in Victoria.

Do you do any hockey schools or anything like that?

No, I usually go down to a camp in Fargo, North Dakota for my own skating and my training, but I’m not too sure yet whether I’m going to go or not. But I’m starting to skate a little more now, and as the summer ends I’ll be skating almost every day, starting in August.

When you’re not at the cabin where do you spend your time?

I train in Prince Albert. The cabin’s about 20 minutes from Prince Albert, where I played Junior hockey. I train with a couple of WHL (Western Hockey League) guys that I played with.

Taking you back to last season, obviously it’s a big disappointment when the team doesn’t make the postseason, but other than that, now that you’ve had a couple of months to reflect on it, what’s your analysis of last season?

Obviously, like you said, it’s disappointing to not make the playoffs. But I think we had a tough stretch from January to the end of February where we weren’t winning a whole lot of games. You don’t want to make excuses, but there were some reasons why, I think. We had a lot of injuries and a couple of callups, and I thought towards the end of the year, as we started to play a little better, if we were to make the playoffs I thought we could have made some noise or we could have gone a long way, just because we had everybody back and guys were playing better, guys were starting to step up. Personally, looking back on the season, I felt I was happy with my production for the team, but a big part of playing is to make the playoffs, make the postseason, and obviously we failed to do that.

Assuming the role of captain in December, I know you were real proud of that. For the balance of the season, how did that role work out for you?

Taking it over, I didn’t want to change a whole lot because obviously they felt I was a leader just from doing what I was doing earlier. And looking back at it, I think there are a few things I learned from, that if I’m back in Hartford and fortunate enough to get the “C” again I’ll be able to adjust a little bit. Obviously it’s an honor to be a captain for any kind of team, and I thought overall people looked up to me and listened when I had things to say.

Can you tell us any of the things you learned in your experience as captain?

Maybe just helping the younger guys along a little more. I tried to talk as much as I could to them, but maybe just helping them along the way. And maybe just taking more control in the dressing room and things like that, and other things that just will stay in locker room.

You signed a new deal with the Rangers earlier this off-season. You were a restricted free agent, so it’s not like you could offer yourself around to every team, but what went into your decision to re-sign with the Ranger organization?

I wanted to get the deal done as soon as I could, and we were able to do that before summer started. So I kind of new where I was at, which is kind of nice to start the summer. I’m absolutely happy to be back with New York, hopefully I can stay there longer this year or stay there all year. I’ve been there, I think I know what it takes to be in the NHL, and now I think it’s time for me to step up and hopefully get an opportunity to stay there.

You did get five NHL games last year and you scored your first NHL goal. How much did you grow as a player during those five games?

I thought quite a bit. You go up there and you see what the pace is like, so like I said, I’ve been there, I know what it takes. When you’re up there you learn from guys that have been there for a while, and obviously I know a few guys up there. They’ve helped me along a little bit and they’ve talked to me, and you just kind of take what advice they’ve got to give. I thought I did that, and came back down to Hartford and tried to improve on some things.

We talked about your leadership role earlier, and obviously you’re a guy who brings a lot of grit to the game, but you got to the 25-goal mark this year, a career high for you. How do you feel your offense is coming along?

I feel I’m kind of right where I need to be. Every year I’ve kind of improved points-wise, but I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. I’m not going to score the fancy goals, but maybe next year that’s what I’m going to try and do, mix in the odd highlight-reel goal, you never know. Obviously I’m going to get all my points around the net. As long as I go to the hard areas, things will happen that way for me.

You’re not going to be dangling end-to-end every time you get out there?

No, usually when I try to do something like that I get myself into trouble. So I try to keep it simple.

Coming back last year from that frustrating injury rehabilitation from the previous season, how big was it for you to have such a strong bounce-back year from that?

I think it was really important for me and for my career that I’m back to where I was. Obviously it’s a big injury. I’ve seen it a few times now with the Wolf Pack with players, and it’s hard to come back after an injury like that. Other than the injury, it’s just hard to watch your team play and not help them. I was excited to come in last season and prove myself again, and I felt I did that.

You talked earlier about continuing to work hard on your skating in the off-season. I always thought you were a real strong skater for the AHL level, but every year as you go forward, do you try to add a step and make that an even stronger part of your game?

I always feel you can always improve on your skating, no matter what level. The game is always evolving, and if you evolve with it you kind of stay with it. You’ve got to always keep working on your skating because the next guy beside you is doing the same thing. It’s more about the speed and quickness nowadays, and especially with a big body you need to be quick and agile, to keep up with the other guys.

The organization has lost a couple of guys who were big for the Wolf Pack last year in Corey Locke and P.A. Parenteau, but the Rangers signed Jeremy Williams a couple of days ago. He’s a Western League guy, and the Wolf Pack hasn’t seen him a lot in the AHL, but what do you know about him?

I played against Jeremy when he was with Swift Current in the WHL and I know he’s an offensive kind of guy. And I believe he and Kris Newbury played together in Toronto, so I think that’s going to help the team. Newbury was a big asset to our team when he came at the deadline, and obviously I enjoyed playing with him. And adding a guy that he’s familiar with to the team I think is just going to help the team even more.

If you do find yourself back with the Wolf Pack this coming season, do you have any thoughts right now on how things look for the Wolf Pack going forward?

I think things are good. We’ve got a good coach, Kenny, he always wants to win and that’s huge. From there down I think we still have a good core that we can build around, but obviously we have to be better than last year. If we just play hard every night and do the simple things, I’m pretty confident, with the personnel we have, we’re going to be there at the end this year.