Where do you see yourself fitting in with the Canadiens in 2018-19? What role are you hoping to play with the big club?
NJ: I just want to be on the team. Whether I'm a third-pair defenseman or a second-pair defenseman, it doesn't matter to me. I want to play. Coming into camp healthy and staying healthy is huge. That's my plan. I want to show what I can do right from the start and hopefully stick the whole year. At the end of last season, they had me on the penalty kill. That's a role I want to keep on playing. I've always been a penalty-killer. I want to block shots, too. That's what I like to do.
How's the training been going?
NJ: I think the biggest thing for me was to keep putting on weight. Gaining a little more strength is always good, too. Those were the biggest things for me this summer. I'm at 203 pounds right now. For me, the message I got heading into the season was to put in that gym time and train hard. It was about going in there with the mindset that you've got to get better today in order to be better in the future. I wanted to have a good attitude, focus the whole time and show myself what I could do. But, you also have to enjoy it. You have to have fun while you're doing it. The group we have there, we're always having fun. We're always doing activities away from the gym, too, like a little beach workout that ends up with a kayaking race. That was awesome.
Did you do anything different training-wise from previous years?
NJ: I kind of got into the cycling side of it and spinning. The classes help you stay in shape. I think that was the major change, along with more power lifting this year than I've done in the past.
Did you keep in touch with any of the guys over the summer?
NJ: Gally [Brendan Gallagher] texted me a little bit and Shea Weber sent me a couple of texts the other day just to see how things were going. I think that means a lot to a young guy. You're not really expecting that, especially as a younger player who was only up with the Canadiens for the last couple of months of the season. For them to reach out and send a text here and there, it means a lot to a guy hoping to be in the NHL for a very long time.