CANTLON’S CORNER: LETTIERI A SEASON OF CHANGE 

Vinnie Lettieri has his site on the future

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The life of a hockey player can seem glamorous with all its fame and beauty, but there are also its drawbacks, like recall and reassignment situations.

“It’s more annoying than anything,” Lettieri said with a laugh. “Sometimes I leave my clothes in a suitcase by the door in case there is a recall. It’s more of a mental thing than anything else. I know I can play in both leagues. My time will come. I’ve been up and down at least ten times in the last two years.” It’s actually been five but could most certainly feel like 10.

“It’s a mindset when I’m down here. I have to be as ready as I can be. It’s getting goals and doing my job, but when I’m up there, sometimes my role shifts a little bit as you can see this year, I’m more of a fourth line guy up there. As I said, you can handle it in a good way and everything will be fine as long as you keep working, or you can handle it in a bad way and have a bad attitude.

“It’s just more annoying, packing and unpacking, where I’m gonna be. Hockey is hockey. I’m lucky to be doing this, and there have been some great people helping me there (New York) and here. I’m not worried. As long as I keep working hard, my time will come,” Lettieri stated with confidence.

When he left the University of Minnesota after four years, Lettieri signed a two-year, two-way deal with the New York Rangers. He just falls short of being a Group 6, Unrestricted Free Agent since he doesn’t turn 25 until next February. Also, he only has 37 games of NHL experience.

However, Lettieri will be a Restricted Free Agent in the off-season and stickhandled around the question as he does an opposing defenseman when asked about his future possibilities.

“I’ll just handle that with my agent and just keep moving forward and take care of that after the season.”

The swift skating, right-handed shooting, Lettieri is the Wolf Pack’s leading goal scorer with 21. His 42 points have him one behind his linemate, and six behind the active team leader, John Gilmour. Lettieri picked up his first pro hat trick and the second one for the team in two weeks.

“My linemates (Steven Fogarty, and Ryan Gropp) have been awesome in getting me the puck and Gilly (Gilmour) shooting and passing the puck has been great. It’s just not me throwing the puck at the net. They give me a chance to get shots on goal every game and however it goes in if it’s off a shin pad – it’s all good.”

He and his teammates wanted to help former UCONN goaltender Adam Huska in his first pro game Sunday.

“You want to get out of his way playing in his first pro game. He played great, but it’s tough when we took that many penalties and facing that many Grade-A chances. That was tough on one of them. It was a great tip (by Devante Smith-Pelly) on the first one. I was proud of him,” remarked Lettieri.