Dumba excited to start NHL journey

Matt Dumba is a defenseman for the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. The 5-foot-11.75, 183-pound defenseman was named WHL Rookie of the Year after scoring 15 goals and adding 11 assists in 62 games. He also had a tournament-high 12 points -- all assists -- to help Canada Pacific win the bronze medal at the 2011 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. This summer, he played for Canada at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Tournament and also took part in the 2011 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp in August. Dumba has offered to maintain a monthly blog for NHL.com that will chronicle his season leading up to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

PITTSBURGH -- I'm glad to finally be in Pittsburgh after the last few days. Tuesday morning I had to take my diploma -- final exams in Canada. It was 60 questions, multiple choice, on social studies and civil liberties. Once I finished the first one I said to myself I got 59 more to go and it just went on from there.

When I was finished I was so relieved. We headed right to the airport from there, and we had a good flight with my family from Calgary to Toronto.

We stayed overnight in Niagara Falls, which was awesome. We went on the Maid of the Mist the next morning and then came down to Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon. It's been a whirlwind with my family, but it's been awesome.

Last night it was a good day off. I just hung out at the hotel with the guys. Then this morning I had interviews right from the start of the morning, and then we had lunch on the boat with the media.

People ask if I'm nervous or whatnot, but I think it's anticipation more than nerves. I think I've gotten over the nerves. Now it's just wanting to figure out where I'm going to start my journey to the NHL.

As far as which team picks me, I really haven't put too much thought on that. I've kind of stayed out of that. I'll just let it happen. It's out of my control anyway. Going into Friday, it's just exciting knowing I have this opportunity in front of me and that's it's going to happen. It's only a day away, so it's pretty cool.

Tonight might be tough. I'll probably be hanging out with the boys, just having a good time. I doubt I'll get any sleep. The time change already is giving me some hard times last night, and the anxiety and the anxiousness of everything happening tomorrow, I won't sleep much.

But I'm having fun, and I can't wait for things to start tomorrow.