Last night Michael Del Zotto was on Sportsnet radio with Elliotte Friedman and Mike Zeisberger.

This is a recap of what he had to say:

• On trade rumors, DZ said “It is definitely tough when you hear your name involved and it went on for quite a few months and even through the offseason. It’s the nature of the business and you realize that whatever happens off the ice is out of your control. I’ve heard rumors for the last six or seven months but I love being in NY and all those rumors make it tough to play on the ice especially in the twitter world with the fan access and hearing what they are saying. If you are mentally tough you can block it out or use it as motivation”
• On finding out about Nash coming to the Rangers “I was coming off the ice and reading through some texts from people asking if I was going to Columbus. I hadn’t heard anything yet so I was a bit surprised and a little worried not knowing what was going on and then my dad called me with the details of the trade.”

Below Del Zotto talks about Rick Nash, working on his new deal and the negative feedback he gets on twitter.

• On Nash “It’s a huge pickup for us and it’s tough to see them go, but it is a business. To have someone like Rick Nash coming over is only going to make us more lethal.”
• On what John Tortorella said in his exit interview, “I made huge strides this year, it was a tough second season with going down to the minors for a bit and getting hurt. Coming into camp I was motivated to prove I could help the team. You wanna keep building off that and I think I think we are just scratching the surface and we want to keep building off that and building as a team. We are happy with how we played last year but disappointed with losing in the Eastern Conference Finals. Getting Nash is just gonna make us more lethal and hopefully we can build on that”
• On watching the cup, “I watched the first period of the final game and that was it. It was too tough to watch. You get that smell of competing in the final round of playing for what you dreamed of your entire life, it was too tough”
• On healing from blocked shots “you are still going to have some aches from the season but that is how we play. If we don’t play that way we aren’t successful. Our team is built for playoff hockey, we play that way the whole season. Adding Nash is going to help our offense because we have the defense style and a goalie who is going to be there every night for us. That little bit of extra offense is going to be huge”
• Is anyone happier than Hank to see a big time goal scorer added? “No. He is very competitive and wants to win every night. For how much pressure we put on him every night, adding that extra scorer is gonna take some more pressure off of him”
• On a new deal “we just started talking a week or two ago and that is all I have. I did my work in the season and now it’s up to my agents and the Rangers management to get it done.
• On twitter being “too much” You get a taste of it everyday. The interaction is great for the ones on your sides but the ones who are not fans of you say some hurtful things. It’s almost to the point where it’s too much and I think it’s only going to be worse. If you are going to be on there you have to take the negative.”
• On how much negative feedback he gets on twitter, “It’s not too bad during the offseason. During game two of the Ottawa series after Erik Karlsson scored off my skate I had a couple of people telling me to kill myself and stuff like that. It takes a lot of mental toughness to deal with that.”