Kon Made Most of Wild Experience

ST. PAUL -- Development camp can be an imposing challenge even for the most decorated of hockey players.
It's not easy to leave the comforts of a college campus or junior rink and put one's skills on display in front of a new group of coaches and executives, not to mention a collection of players that are often considered some of the best on their respective teams.

For Wild camp invitee Yusuke Kon, the challenges he faced while recently spending a week in the Twin Cities were much more intimidating.
The Tomakomai, Japan native's visit to Minnesota marked not only his first trip to a development camp, but his first to the United States.
"He did a great job of preparing," said Brad Bombardir, the Wild's director of player development. "He's come over here very well prepared so he could get the most out of this experience that he possibly could. When you're prepared like that, things should go well and they [did] for him."
The process of Kon coming to America came by chance, when former Wild forward Stephane Veilleux, a teammate with the Oji Eagles of the Asia League, got in touch with his former club.

Once the Wild extended the invite for Kon to attend camp, Veilleux and a translator went over the entire itinerary, making sure he knew exactly what to expect when he touched down in Minnesota.
Still, a vast majority of the camp involves teaching and running through drills under the direction of coaches who were speaking a different language. Because nobody else at camp spoke Japanese, it often meant learning by watching others and trying to replicate what he saw in real time -- all under the eyes of dozens of strangers he had never met.
"I understand broad gestures and the basic things that are being taught," Kon said through a translator. "Sometimes I wish I could hear exactly what the coaches are trying to teach in detail. I can't really understand the details."
The camp's first scrimmage was trial by fire for Kon, who held up well in the initial game-like situation. Despite having only a very broad knowledge of many of the concepts taught during the first couple days of camp, Kon stepped in and played well.
"He was fine out there," Bombardir said. "He actually did some really good things with the puck and understands the game of hockey. Once the game of hockey is actually played, players end up just feeling their way through games and that's what he ended up doing."

A defenseman, Kon said his favorite player growing up was former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. Just 18 years old, Kon has been playing hockey most of his life after his dad introduced it to him as a youngster.
By the time he was 4, Kon was on skates and his love of the game only grew from there.
"I want to bring this experience back to Japan and tell people about it," Kon said. "And hopefully [others can] use it to improve as a player."
"Hopefully, he is going to go back there and talk well and say what his experience was like," Bombardir said. "Hopefully it was all positive for him. It's a great game and it's got a ton of growth in it still worldwide.
"You've gotta start somewhere and hopefully with him, you never know where it ends up growing. I'll be long gone by the time this game is done growing, but there are areas of this world where the NHL would love to grow in."