Offseason Q&A with Dwyer

The latest offseason Q&A on the River Rats' Web site is with forward Pat Dwyer, who was called up for one game last season but didn't play.

Well it was a pretty big up and down ride for me. My parents came to Albany that weekend to watch me play. So I got the call and they actually drove down from Albany to Carolina and my wife flew out; we were all so excited. I got there and took warm-ups and Patrick Eaves was questionable with a shoulder injury, but they were playing Ottawa so there was no way he was going to sit out that game. I came in after warm-ups and I was ready to go and the assistant coach told me I’m not going to play. So it was up and down, but the experience and the fact that they trusted me enough to call me up was great.

Dwyer also talked about the prospect of Justin Peters taking over for Michael Leighton as the Rats' No. 1 goalie:

He went down to Florida in the first half, and he didn’t go down thinking it was over; he went down there and worked hard and had a great year. Then he came up for us halfway through the year and did a great job for us. I think he’s gotten better over the past two years that I’ve been with him and I think he’ll be fine. He’s a hard working kid and he’s going to work hard over the summer and come into the season prepared. I think he’ll step in and do just fine.