BEIJING — Andong Song made sports history last week as the first Chinese player selected in the NHL draft, when he went to the Islanders with the 172nd pick. To his old coach, though, he’s just a nice kid who keeps his head and shows the proper respect.
“(Song) was very clever, learnt things very fast,” Fu Lei, who coached Song from 2003 to 2007, said in an interview Monday. “Meanwhile, he was very nice and polite to his coaches and teammates.”
Fu said he had no doubt Song would go far, even though the 18-year-old who goes by the name “Misha” started out playing on a smaller-than-normal rink in Beijing when his mother was trying to find him a sport.