Aaron Ward

Here's the past.

And do all those things fit.

And I'm not worried if Pesci walks or Hamilton walks and who in our Eastern Conference might sign him and how it might come back to bite us.

I'm focused on our team.

I'm going to minimize the noise around me.

The great part about Carolina is we are the most biased hockey environment.

in existence i mean toronto might be up there with us but carolina like it's just us and there's 31 other teams we don't really care about them we're just focused unifocused on the carolina hurricanes and they are so systematic and and what's the word i'm looking for like so like

They already know before they make the move where they plan to go.

They have a system of a plan and they follow the plan.

And there's no knee-jerk trying to satisfy this reporter who's criticizing you or this part of the fan base that hates this part of you.

Everybody's on board and pulling in the same direction.

Like firing a coach with eight games left might be like a... I don't know.

right so vegas has a boldness and a brashness to both their team and their approach and their management style on their and their ownership carolina is highly secretive quiet likes to do things under like leaking out doesn't really happen that very often with uh with the carolina hurricane so yeah the the the polarity of these two teams is not lost on me especially i mean you got you got torts who

costs them a second rounder, still wants to stir it up in the middle of the Stanley Cup play.

Like, for me, if I'm ideally put in a situation like this, I'm embracing it.

I'm trying to create fewer distractions for my teams, less questions like, hey, for guys, I know you're in the second or third round of the playoffs, you're trying to win the Stanley Cup, but how do you feel about your team losing the second round or your coach being fined $100,000?

Like, all these things would never kind of, you can't transplant these distractions and put them in this environment currently in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It wouldn't happen.

He taught me humanity at like age nine.

Like he taught me that an athlete could have a relatability and a level of empathy for not just his teammates, but people in the sport and anybody else.