Checking In With Chad Langlais
9/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Ice Hockey
After two forwards and two goalies, "Checking In With" meets its first defenseman, Chad Langlais. Chad comes to Ann Arbor from a fairly non-traditional hockey market, Spokane, Wash.
Langlais
Although Chad grew up in Washington, he's familiar with southeast Michigan since he attended the Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills. The move was tough on Chad, but thankfully he had his twin brother Chase with him. Teammates for most of their lives, the brothers Langlais split up after high school hockey as Chad moved on to the USHL and his brother to Division III hockey.
Chad always knew he wanted to play college hockey growing up, but he didn't know Michigan was the place for him until he saw his first game at Yost during high school. A puck-rushing rearguard, Langlais sure picked a great player to model his game after: Brian Leetch.
On life with his roommate, Shawn Hunwick ... "It's good. We have a lot in common actually. We both graduated in 2005 -- he's still a year younger than me though -- and we both played two years of juniors. We get along well."
On the transition back to school ... "I probably made a mistake not taking classes two years out. But it's been pretty good so far. I think I'm getting into the swing of things now with midterms rolling around. We'll see how that goes."
On his fellow freshmen ... "I think (having 12 guys) is a lot better than having a group of three, four freshmen. Having a group of 12 incoming freshman is just amazing -- especially in the dorms and for next year when we're picking houses out. It's fun deciding who we're going to live with and how many houses we're going to have. One person threw out the idea of getting one house for 12 people; that would be pretty fun, but it would be like a frat house and I don't think that's for me."
On his twin brother, Chase ... "We grew up playing together up until high school. Then he thought he wanted to go to college and play Division III, nothing too serious. Then he decided he didn't like D-III and dropped out after the first semester. He's jumped around to a couple of junior leagues and came to Lincoln with me for a while in the USHL, but we really didn't have any roster spots open. He went to the North American Hockey League and that didn't work out, so he went to the Western Ontario League the next year.
"We started skating when we were four or five and then started playing hockey when we were six. My dad never played hockey, but my grandpa, Jack Langlais, played for the University of Minnesota. He broke his ankle, so his career got cut short. But my dad just came home one day with two hockey sticks, one lefthanded and one right, and I guess I grabbed the left one. And ever since then, we've been playing hockey. Every winter, my dad would freeze the backyard over and we'd just play back there."
On playing hockey in Washington ... "Hockey wasn't very big on the West Coast. They had the Western Hockey League, so no one really knew about college hockey. We always wanted to play college hockey, so we decided at a pretty young age -- probably at 10 -- that we wanted to play. We went to a couple of WHL camps when we were younger, but we both knew we didn't really want to do that. My grandfather really stressed to us the importance of education. That's part of the reason we went to prep school too. We really wanted to get a good education and have the chance to play college hockey."
On their decision to move to Michigan for hockey ... "We left Washington at a pretty young age. It was in eighth grade, so I must have been about 15. It was pretty tough; the first year wasn't fun. I think the whole first year we wanted to go home. But after the first year, we started making friends and it got a lot better.
"It was kind of random actually. My grandfather had family connections in Michigan, and he had heard about Cranbrook. Mainly, we applied to prep schools out East, and we got in everywhere. Cranbrook was kind of a last-minute decision. We found out we got in here last, but we visited in the summer and it was just the best combination of good hockey and a good education. My parents were all for it. By the time we were 15, all our friends had gone on to junior 'A' and junior 'B' and we were too young and too small to do that. So we decided to go to prep school instead."
On how he became a defenseman and his style of play ... "I don't know how I decided to become a defenseman. It just kind of happened actually. I just never really liked to go past the offensive blue line. I don't know why. But now you can't hold me back from the blue line. I love jumping up in the play. I like carrying the puck up. I consider myself an offensive defenseman. I like to carry the puck out, but I'll pass it up as well. But I need to work on putting the puck in the back of the net."
On his brother's style of play ... "He's got a lot of skill offensively. He's got a better shot than me. My shot isn't good. He's tough in the corners. I just think I have a little bit more drive than him. I think he's sort of lost his passion for hockey. I still have it because I want to play college hockey at a good school. That was really important for me."
On his hockey career post-high school ... "I knew I had to play junior hockey after high school because I didn't have any offers at that point. I got drafted by the Lincoln Stars, which I didn't think was even going to happen. I thought I was going to have to play in the NAHL there for awhile. But I got drafted by Lincoln, went out there, and had a good tryout camp. I struggled at the beginning of the year, but once I established myself, I became one of the better defenseman on the team."
On what he learned in the USHL ... "My confidence has really jumped up. The USHL is a really good league, and it's getting better every year. Playing there really boosted my confidence. Especially after my first year, it helped me a lot. The playing time they gave me showed they had a lot of trust in me. It all helped me."
On playing with U-M freshman goalie Bryan Hogan at Lincoln ... "It was a good two years. We played against each other in high school too. Then we played in Lincoln together and became really good friends. He's a really good goalie -- one of the best in the USHL -- and that will hopefully carry over into college. He's got the potential, that's for sure. He's a great puck-handling goalie too, which is helpful for the defensemen."
On his decision to come to Michigan ... "My coaches in high school actually took me to a hockey game when they were playing Miami. It was my junior year. They saw the potential in me and wanted to turn me on to the idea of playing college hockey. I don't know that it was for Michigan or if they just wanted me to see a college hockey game, but I just fell in love with Yost and the atmosphere here. I've been here three times for games, but I can't even imagine playing here for the first time. I'll probably be really nervous -- the whole idea of wearing a Michigan jersey and skating at Yost with 6,600 people is just crazy.
"I had an offer from UNO after my first year, but once Michigan offered me a spot, it was Michigan all the way. That's were I wanted to go all year. I just knew this was where I wanted to go."
On his goals for the freshman class ... "I'm just looking forward to keeping this class together. I know it's unlikely because people here at Michigan tend to leave early. I think it'd be great if our core class stayed together all four years and we stayed a really strong team."
On his favorite NHL player ... "My favorite player growing up was always Brian Leech. He played high school hockey too. He was a really offensive defenseman. I like the way he played."
On wearing No. 7 ... "It's always been my number. I wore that during high school, and I wore that before I came here. It's always been either No. 2 or No. 7, so if I didn't get 7, I would have been 2. But seven is my favorite number."
Checking In With ... Schedule
Sept. 20 -- forward Louie Caporusso
Sept. 21 -- forward Carl Hagelin
Sept. 24 -- goalie Bryan Hogan
Sept. 25 -- goalie Shawn Hunwick
Sept. 26 -- defenseman Chad Langlais
Sept. 27 -- defenseman Tristin Llewellyn
Sept. 28 -- forward Max Pacioretty
Oct. 1 -- forward Aaron Palushaj
Oct. 2 -- defenseman Kevin Quick
Oct. 3 -- forward Matt Rust
Oct. 4 -- defenseman Scooter Vaughan
Oct. 5 -- forward Ben Winnett
Contact: Matt Trevor (734) 763-4423
