A Look at Camp Through the Eyes of Ryan Carter

Different players have different views of training camp based on a number of factors. Among them: NHL experience and contract status.
Wild.com has caught up with several Wild players, all with varying approaches to camp. Over the course of the preseason, you'll read about these views in a series entitled "Camp Through Their Eyes," a glimpse into the mind of a professional tryout, a rookie, a veteran, a superstar and a goaltender.
Today, you'll hear from Ryan Carter, a two-year Wild veteran attending this year's camp on a professional tryout. With no guaranteed contract, all that's promised for Carter at this point is an opportunity to show up to the rink tomorrow.

"It's a new coaching staff and what they want their players to do and what they want to see is important. I don't think, at the end of the day, that my game can change that much. What can change is the amount of risk that's taken out there.
"It's a weird year, too. There's the World Cup, so you don't know what the lineups are going to be on a nightly basis. You don't know who your line mates are going to be. You may have never played with them before, so it's going to be difficult. But [you have to] go out there and play, play hard and do the little things that I think have kept me in the game and in the League.
"But I think it's going to be managing risk out there. I mean, do they want me to try and make plays? Sometimes, you try to make plays and it doesn't work. Do they want me to play safe? It's kind of that balancing act. You don't want to play so safe that you don't stand out. But you don't want to take so much risk that you stand out in a bad way. I think it's going to be a balancing act.
"Maybe it goes on a game-by-game basis. Maybe you play the first game and see how it goes and then you try the next one, depending on how many games you get in and what you have to prove.
"There's no question, [communicating with coaches] will be very important for me, getting to know what they want and if they have an idea of what they want their team to look like and how they want to build it. It's going to be a matter of who is going to be the best fit. You don't want to have a skill or an ability and not show it and maybe miss out on an opportunity. I do need to talk to them and see what they think, what they want to see and little things on the ice that could change my game.
"I still have confidence in my ability and that if somebody gave me this shot, I'd give them what I have and then it's up to them to decide if it's what they want or not. I was pretty confident that I'd get a chance to go to a training camp, there were offers to go to a couple training camps with the World Cup and things like that.
"It's not like July 1 came and went and then hockey is going to be done. I felt like there was going to be an opportunity, and I'm happy that there is and was one here and happy to be here for that."