GM Transcript

On February 13, the NHL Media conducted a conference call with Detroit GM Ken Holland, Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren, Atlanta GM Don Waddell, and Anaheim GM Brian Burke.

I didn't have time to write an article about it, but I found the discussion rather interesting, so here is the complete transcript. And all these quotes are real. No shenanigans.

KEN HOLLAND

Q. Ken, with the injuries you're suffering, does this make you change your trade program going into the trading deadline? Are you still on the same program you would have been if everybody was healthy?

KEN HOLLAND: We'll be on the same program. We expect our players back before the playoffs start. In Nik Kronwall's case, he's skating. I think he's still probably - we don't have a definitive date, but certainly think in the next two weeks, give or take a few days, he'll be back in our lineup. In Dan Cleary's case, we definitely think he's going to be ready for the start of the playoffs. Hopefully he can play a couple of league games before we go in.

So I think injuries are a part of the league. And there's lots of teams around the league that have had real key injures and they've found ways to win games. That's what we'll have to do.

Q. Do you sense this year that the teams won't be as willing to give up as much to get rental players?

KEN HOLLAND: I'm interested as everybody. The calls are slowly starting to come in now from general managers basically saying, you know, we're on the bubble and we're going to see here over the next week or 10 days whether we're a buyer or a seller. And if you look at last year's trade deadline, there was some real steep prices paid and ultimately only eight teams can win a playoff round.  

When you look at the way the CBA has - I think we're three years into the CBA. We're starting to get, in my opinion, getting a real feel that the draft developing in the back end of your roster have to be cheaper players. If you don't have those players through the draft, through development, where do you get them? And I think teams are going to have to make harder decisions about trading first-round picks and real good prospects. I'm not saying it's not going to happen. But I think as we go along here, it's going to be harder and harder to do just because of the way the CBA is starting to flush itself out now.

We're starting to get into the system, and I know in our case we've got 15 players on our roster that make a million two or less. And over the next two or three years some of those players will retire. Some of those players will move up into our group where we're going to pay them more. How do you fill out the back end of the roster if we continually trade away high picks and prospects?

On the flip side, I guess when you get a legitimate chance to - anybody that makes the playoffs in my opinion can win the Stanley Cup - when you get a legitimate chance for a playoff run it's hard not to spend some assets to try to go in a long playoff run.  

I think every team depends on the depth of prospects and depends on where your team is age-wise, and I think different decisions for different teams. [I] certainly expect to see lots of trades between now and trade deadline day. I'm interested like everybody else to see who is going to step up and pay some steep prices. But I certainly think in two or three players' cases you hear some rumors out there that somebody is going to pay a pretty good price.

 
Q. When the CBA came aboard and there was a lot of talk about how GMs had to adjust their thinking and maybe accept the idea that guys were going to ride off into the sunset in free agency and you weren't going to get anything in return. But I've taken note and I wonder if you agree with this, that it's been more difficult than maybe anyone anticipated for general managers to sort of get away from that thinking, that even now do you agree that it's still hard for GMs not to get anything; it's hard for them to say, well, I'll just play it out. Or do you think they are crossing over in that?

KEN HOLLAND: Well, I think, if you're a playoff team - obviously in our case Dan Cleary is an unrestricted free agent and Andreas Lilja is an unrestricted free agent. And Hasek and Chelios are different circumstance because of their age. But teams that have got a chance to go for a long playoff run, you're going to hang onto your unrestricted free agents and deal with it prior to July 1 and in some cases playoff teams are even acquiring players who are going to be unrestricted free agents because when you get a chance to go for it you want to go for it.

But I think what's happening, the feeling coming into the new CBA was on July 1st there was going to be lots of players to choose from and players were going to move around. And I think what's happened is we've all realized working with free agency, teams are tying up players for longer term, and I think you'll see less and less top players hit the market on July 1st. And to me that really puts the importance on drafting and developing. And you need to have home grown talent, because you can't rely on July 1st. It's just - the players that do hit the market, everybody's got money.  

Lots of teams have cap space. So there's no guarantee you're going to get a player that's important that you draft and develop. Again, that dovetails what we were talking about earlier about how aggressive do you get. It's something we're internally deciding. We kind of know some of our assets that we'll trade, and there's assets that we won't trade.  

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KEN HOLLAND: We like our one-two punch. We feel that we have a real strength that we're comfortable with either guy. I still think heading down the stretch Dom is the guy. We won the Cup with him in 2002. Last year he took us to the Final Four. But really Mike Babcock's plan going back probably a month ago was basically to rotate them game for game until we get into probably, what, the last 20 games. And we thought it would do two things. One it would keep them both sharp. Two, we wouldn't wear either one out. Dom's 43. Chris is 35. Down here the stretch the last 15 to 20 games, I think, Mike is going to lean on one guy more than the other. Maybe 60/40 instead of 50/50, or two-thirds one-third, to get somebody ready for the playoffs.  

I'm expecting it's going to be Dom, but certainly Chris Osgood really has come back to Detroit and he's accepted the role of being the number two guy. He's built a relationship up with Dom, and I think he's comfortable that Dom's the guy. If we have to go to him, he's ready to go.

Q. Ken, is it true there's a rumor out there you've gone from a buyer to a seller because of the four-game winless streak? (laughs)

KEN HOLLAND: We haven't played very well lately. It was actually before the four-game losing streak. We won in Minnesota last Tuesday. We weren't good for two periods but over 82 games everything evens out. So we probably won some games we shouldn't have and played not bad over the weekend in Toronto and Anaheim and didn't really come out with much. But so far we're still a buyer. (laughs)

Q. What are your general needs? Obviously you can't throw out names. But it seems to me just looking from the outside that maybe if the price is right you could add - this is a magical catch phrase that all GMs are using - the top six forwards maybe?

KEN HOLLAND: Everybody in the league is looking - obviously scoring is something - with parity, you know, the scoring is spread throughout the league. And I think everybody's got probably three or four guys on their roster that you can count on to score and we're all looking for different people to step up.  

And I think this time of the year everybody can use a top six forward. And you can never have enough D. And I look back toward our run last year, the Final Four, when we lost Kronwall before the playoffs started, and we lose Schneider in the San Jose series.  

I thought that Markov and Chelios and Lilja did a tremendous job stepping up the minutes. Last year, we had really seven NHL defensemen, experienced NHL defensemen. This year, we have six. Derek Meech. He's a rookie, we like the way he's played, but he's a rookie. This time of the year you're looking for experience. Again, everybody would love to have a top six forward or a number four, number five defenseman. Everything depends on price.  

Q. In light of what happened to Richard Zednik, did you get a sense from your team, the mood of the team, their thoughts on what happened and how it affected them from a mental/emotional perspective? And second part of the question is do you believe the NHL needs to consider in the future some additional safety measures, neck guards, things of that nature?

KEN HOLLAND: You know, I talked to a couple of our players. Obviously it was a horrific situation that happened to Richard Zednik. But emotionally it didn't really - obviously I think their thoughts are with Richard. But as far as their own situation - I think in our sport, a lot of our players, we have players who are going high speed and it's a physical game. And I think when you go out for the game you know that there's always - I don't know that you think you know, but there's always the chance that you could get hurt. I think that's just something that the players grew up with the game, and they play the game, and you've got guys that are six-foot-three, 200-plus pounds, and they're in tremendous shape, and they're going high speed, and they're banging.

So there's a chance you can get hurt. Obviously the Zednik situation is a bit of a freak injury in the sense it happened a long time ago. I think to Clint Malarchuk. I played in the American League one year. One of our defensemen had a similar situation happen right in front of me. So it's something that's happened in our game. But very, very infrequently.

As far as neck guards go, I'm not sure what to - again, it happens so rarely that I'm not sure you need neck guards. But certainly I think probably a committee should look into it, and it should be something that you would want to have players to weigh in on and people in the game to weigh in on.

Q. Over the years, has your philosophy changed approaching the deadline? I remember you used to be a big-time player and have made some significant deals at the deadline. Are you more cautious now?  

KEN HOLLAND: Well, Eric, you look at last year, when we traded Shawn Matthias and a second-round pick to acquire - it was a draft pick last year with Shawn Matthias and it was anywhere from no draft pick, if Todd Bertuzzi couldn't play in the playoffs, became a third-round pick if he played in the first round, became a second if we went two rounds, became a first if we got in the finals. So we found a way to get a deal done. But Shawn Matthias is a good prospect. But we thought last year for our team, it was important to try to do something with some impact because we'd lost to Edmonton two years ago in the first round just before the work stoppage, second round LA.  

We thought that last year we had a younger team. We've kind of evolved. Yzerman has retired. Shanahan has moved on. Fedorov has moved on, if you think of our team before the work stoppage. We got a lot of younger players. Kronwalls and Lebdas and Samuelssons and Clearys and Franzens, and we thought we wanted to try to bring in some experience and some physical presence. We traded Jason Williams to bring in Kyle Calder. So we were fairly aggressive last year.  

I don't know that you can be aggressive every year. And I think that's what we have to determine here the next two weeks. Do we be a little more conservative or - and I think that's why you work the phones. We've had our internal meetings. We've evaluated. We've gone through our list. We're sitting and waiting and eventually when the phone call comes and you're on the phone call and you're talking to somebody and things start to go along, they've got something they're looking for and you've got something you're looking for and you work towards and eventually you work to a deal or you get to a point you say you know what we've gone far enough.

I think it's the experience and the preparation that your staff does ultimately comes to gut instincts.

Q. Have you noticed any difference in terms of your owner's response to this? Because it seems to me that they, too, would be looking at more big picture thoughts than maybe that they were prior to the lockout?

KEN HOLLAND: Yes. I've spoken to Mr. Ilitch and explained the CBA and our philosophy. Basically Mr. Ilitch has just told me whatever our hockey department is comfortable, he backs us 100 percent. The old CBA prior, we knew we had - there was eight to 10 teams that spent salary-wise what we did. So we knew that if we traded some younger players away, we had the financial advantage where we could hit the open market on July the 1st and maybe replenish some of those things.

Everybody's on a level playing field now. And it does alter your thinking. And again you want to try and go for it but you also want to try to - we were fortunate we got off to a great start the first 50, 60 games we've now come off of it here. But it's going to be a race every year to try to get into the playoffs. And I think the goal is to try to be a playoff team every year and build a program, and I don't know that you can all of a sudden run for it one year because it takes a long time to build.

Q. Are you trying to get Pete Forsberg?  

KEN HOLLAND: We're a team I don't think that he's got any interest in. I did have a conversation, I'm not sure, a couple of weeks ago with his agent Don Baizley, and I think there was a number of - my understanding there was a lot of teams expressed interest. And but in our own specific situation, Don Baizley told me that there were other teams that Peter had more interest in, and we were a team at that time that he didn't have any interest in.

So I haven't heard back, and I just know what I read in the newspaper. Basically my feeling is we're out. We're not a candidate for his services. He's got other teams that interest him more.

Q. Would it be Detroit and Colorado a factor?  

KEN HOLLAND: I don't know you, have to ask that to Peter. But that would certainly be my - that would be my guess.

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Q. Paul, was hoping you'd kind of comment on the progression of some of your Phantoms prospects this year and particularly guys that maybe weren't too well known such as Matsomoto and Greentree?

PAUL HOLMGREN: Yeah, actually Kyle Greentree played for the Flyers last night on Long Island. So he's come along nicely, as well as Matsomoto. They both started out real good and both kind of got injured at the same time. Took them a little while to bounce back from their injuries that they were suffering from but since that time they've been good again.  

Our defense, the kids down there on defense have been real good. Ryan Parent has been good. And Nate Adams. Picard who played a lot of games for the Flyers last year has been real good. And young Oscar Bartulis is a first-year pro has been pretty good down there, too. So very encouraging with the play of some of those guys.

Q. Obviously you guys added a lot of new faces between the end of last year and this, and there was talk of a team-building trip you took. I was wondering if because this sort of team culture, chemistry, if you will, is a little bit less newer or little less formed or newer than other teams; does it make it more delicate this time of year making trades, or in your view does it make more of an advantage because things aren't so entrenched in the dressing room?

PAUL HOLMGREN: I think you gotta be careful there for sure. But at the end of the day, if you can make a deal you believe improves your hockey team, chances are you're going to move forward. I think right now there hasn't been a lot of movement to date so far, and I think that's probably more due to, A, the salary cap, and, B, the closeness of the league. It's unbelievable how close it is right now.  

And I don't see a whole lot of separation between now and the deadline either. So it's going to be interesting to see what transpires.

Q. As far as your team you're happy with sort of how culture, bond is?

PAUL HOLMGREN: I think we have a close-knit team. Right now we're struggling a little bit. We have a stretch here where we've lost four games in a row. We just need to play better. We're playing the game right now, looks like we're looking for the easy way out sometimes and to win hockey games in the NHL if you're not ready to play 60 minutes you're probably not going to win. That's how close it is. That's a fact of life in the NHL today.

 
Q. Paul, I know you're close with Don Waddell, do you get the sense how he handles this Marian Hossa situation this year, probably one of the most difficult decisions in his tenure here in Atlanta?

PAUL HOLMGREN: I'm sure it's a difficult situation for Don. I know he wants to sign him. I know his team is back and forth from the division lead there between Washington, Carolina, them and then Florida is obviously in the hunt, too and Tampa Bay, that's a team that could come on any time.  

It's going to be close down to the wire. Don has got here a couple of weeks now to decide what he's going to do. And to be honest with you I have no idea what he's going to do. I do know, as I said he's trying to sign him. If he can't, it's going to be difficult for him. Certainly going to be a guy I would think would be a hot commodity if he went to move him.

Q. Looking at what you were able to do last year, can you talk about the long-term impact, what those acquisitions mean to your organization.

PAUL HOLMGREN: Well, some more than others. I think the deal we made with Nashville for Peter Forsberg last year gave us some pieces that we're able to use and other deals later. Ryan Parent is a kid developing with our minor league team. We called him up here today. He'll probably play tomorrow for the Flyers. He's an outstanding young prospect, tremendous skater. Tremendous defender. We look for big things from him in the future.

Scottie Upshall is kind of an unknown guy. He came in last year after that trade and played very well and this year he's been hurt more often than not. So it's kind of hard to get a read on him. But we're certainly happy that - we're happy at the time we were able to make that deal. We thought it kind of gave us a jump-start into the summertime and what we needed to do to get back into the thick of things in hockey. Last year we were the worst team in hockey and at least this year we're kind of in the mix right now.

We're going through a difficult time right now and we've got to turn it around quickly in order to get back into it.  

Q. I'm just wondering, how much does your conversations that you had with other general managers about trades this time of year, how much is that based on relationships you have with the people that you're talking to as opposed to the trades you're trying to make?  

PAUL HOLMGREN: Well, I can only speak for myself in that regard. I like to believe that I have conversations with all the GMs from all the teams at some point in time. Obviously, I think we all have different relationships with different guys where perhaps we're a little closer. I'm fairly close with Brian Burke because we worked together in the past.  

I'm fairly close with Lou Lamoriello from some past contacts. I don't know that the Devils and the Flyers would ever make a trade, but that doesn't mean I don't talk to them from time to time.  

So I think it's different for each guy, to answer your question. But I think it behooves all of us to - if you're going to make a move with your team, to call around and see just what's available if, in fact, you decide to move the guy.  

Q. As a follow-up to that, how much does what you do up leading up to the deadline relate to whether or not Peter Forsberg decides to come back with you guys?  

PAUL HOLMGREN: Well, I think right now we're looking at a lot of things that might improve our hockey team. And I don't believe there's anything imminent. We may just end up not doing anything other than playing maybe some of our young kids in certain situations.

I think the last thing the Flyers need to do is do something crazy for a short-term fix right now, to try to, A, give us a push into the playoffs or, B, try to do something crazy. I just think we need to be patient here and take a look at the big picture.

Last year we were the worst team in the league. I think we're certainly a better team this year, and I think our future is still bright because of some of our young players.

So we'd like to keep that intact if we could.

Q. Can I ask you how difficult it is to make a trade now when you can't tell who the buyers are and who the sellers are? I mean, deadline, the clock's ticking. You'd like to do something like Bryan Murray did maybe two weeks ahead so you're not in a bind with all the frenzy at the last minute. But you can't tell, teams keep putting you off probably, saying, Give me another week here.  

PAUL HOLMGREN: Other than kicking tires, Jim, at least from me there hasn't been a whole lot of substantial talks going on. And I think, as I said earlier on this call, the salary cap is an issue and so is the - and the standings are an issue. Nobody has really fallen out of it far enough for who the heck knows.  

We're in a position now where 10 days ago we were in first place in our division and we're second in the conference, and now we've dropped to third in the division and we're sixth or seventh in the conference. I'm not even sure. Now we're in a spot where teams are creeping up from below and we seem to be sinking. So we need to get our own ship in order here and just go from there.  

But the trade front, there's probably going to be more and more talks as we get close to the deadline. Whether anything substantial happens or not, I have no idea. Probably more to the closeness of the teams in the standings in the salary cap at that point.  

Q. Do you need another experienced defenseman with your guys going down?  

PAUL HOLMGREN: More than anything we need to play better in our own zone. We've struggled in our own zone for the last four, five, six games. Our goaltending hasn't been great either. I think we need to have good goaltending. I think we need to be better in our own zone as a team. Whether that's the defense or the fours that are back helping out, we need to do better in our own zone.  

Q. I wanted to ask you, with the Mats Sundin rumors out there, automatically it was just assumed the Maple Leafs were going to get a first-round pick and a top prospect. Do you think last years deals with Tkachuk and Forsberg really have established that as a precedent that's going to go forward?  

PAUL HOLMGREN: That's a good question. I don't know. Personally talking with the teams that I talked to last year with regards to Peter, there's a lot of things floating around. And David Poile in Nashville had a good team. And he had extra assets to give up, and he made the trade that he felt would put them over the top. That's going to happen all the time.

I don't know. I find it hard to believe that it is just because not everybody is in a position where you're deep like Nashville was last year. He had extra assets.

I think we all, all the managers, need to keep an eye on the future. Sometimes Stanley Cup winners come out of nowhere, and in the last few years. And you just never know. I think the idea is just to get into the playoffs, just build your team to try to get into the playoffs every year and see what happens and go from there. I don't know if that's true, Kevin. Right now I would say we certainly wouldn't do something like that.  

DON WADDELL  

Marian Hossa photo by Matthieu Masquelet

Q. I'm just curious, you had a couple of years now to kind of work with the new CBA, and you've had a deadline to do that with. Has the art of the trade changed at all in the new circumstances?

DON WADDELL: Well, it certainly has. I think listening to previous speakers, you know, managing the cap not only today but going forward, making sure you have enough room to do the things you want to do. Last year we made a lot of deadline deals and we had a lot of cap space to be able to make those deals.

So whether it's managing the cap or, as Paul just said about protecting your assets, trying to move forward, we're all trying to win today but we've got to remember that there is a tomorrow.

And I think that's something that we ought to keep in our minds here.

Q. Has it become a more conservative thing than maybe in the past where almost anything was doable? You could just kind of pluck things out of the air and say we'll trade this and trade that? Has it become more of a formula exercise?

DON WADDELL: Before, money was never an issue. Teams that could afford to spend more money and, you know, there used to be money involved in trades and everything else. So all those days are all behind us.  

So certainly I think the aspect of the job has changed, again, with the new CBA, for many reasons, not just for a cap but unrestricted free agent at an earlier age. Those are things you need to be aware of when you're trading players and trading for players.  

Q. Don, probably no better example of the new NHL and new CBA than the Atlanta Thrashers in the sense that you could be a buyer and seller at the same time. You're contending for your division and at the same time you're also looking at the big picture. How difficult is that right now from where you sit?  

DON WADDELL: Well, certainly, as we all know, we have one of our stars that's up in the air. If we don't sign the player, then we've got to make a decision whether we're going to trade that player or ride him out for the rest of the year and try to keep our team as strong as we can.  

The buying and selling, if we decide to trade a player, might happen all in the same equation, because certainly if we do take the player to the marketplace, we're hoping that we're able to get back assets that not only would help us today but help us in the future.  

Q. Not to put words in your mouth, but is that an indication that if you do have to trade Marian - and, obviously, I know you still want to sign him instead, but if you have to trade him, that you'd rather make more of a hockey deal as opposed to getting draft picks?  

DON WADDELL: No doubt about it. If we're just looking at draft picks, we've got to take a step back and say, hey, those draft picks are going to be valuable to us three, four years from now, and you're not even sure what you're going to get in the draft. When you have a known player, as we do with Hossa - you know, we won the Southeast Division the last year, I believe we're in a position were we could repeat and win it again this year. To me, that's got to be our first goal is to make sure that we get ourselves in the playoffs. As Paul said, once you get there, you never know what happens. Saying that, we also got to keep the eye on the long-term future of our franchise.

Q. Have you tried or are you interested in Peter Forsberg?  

DON WADDELL: I'd be wrong if I said I wouldn't be interested in Peter Forsberg. I haven't spoken with the agent real recently here. We had spoken early on. And obviously I think we all know what Peter's hopes are, and so I think as we sit here today I think everybody's waiting for Peter to make a decision, first of all, if he's going to play in the NHL and where he's going to end up going.  

Q. Would it be too much of a gamble to sign him with his injury background?  

DON WADDELL: No, I don't think so. You're signing one of the marquee players that's played in the game. There's gambles on every player you sign. I think the biggest thing is Peter - this is a player that knows his body better than anybody. And obviously if he's just out for money and that, he could have signed a contract a long time ago and came in and played some games.  

But he hasn't done that because he's a proud athlete and wants to make sure that if he is going to commit to a team, he's ready to; if a team's going to commit to him, that he's ready to commit back to them. Certainly we'd be for sure very interested in having a player like that.

Q. Can you say something about Tobias Enstrom?  

DON WADDELL: I can't say enough about this young player, came over and watched him last year in the World Championships and thought he was one of the best defensemen there. Really composed with the puck. Very rare does he put himself in a bad spot. He usually makes the right play. And for a player to come in and lead our team in minutes played, he's been a tremendous player for us and he's only going to get better. Remember, it's his first year in the league. I think he's going to be an All-Star in this league for a lot of years to come.  

Q. I was just wondering, considering what happened with you last year in your deadline deals for Tkachuk and Zhitnik, has that changed your attitude toward this year's deadline and has it also changed the ownership's attitude? Are they looking at deadline deals with a different eye not only because of what happened last year, but just because of the new CBA in itself?  

DON WADDELL: I think going back to last year, we had a tremendous first half of the year, then we couldn't win in January. We only won a couple of games. We were one time 12 points up on our division or playoff spot and at the trade deadline we were one point. So we really feel strongly that if we didn't make the deals we would not have made - not only not have made the playoffs but not win our division, of course.  

And for our franchise last year, you know, we paid a price. But it was a price that we felt we had to pay because we were in our seventh year of our existence. Hadn't been in the playoffs yet. Had a tremendous first half of the year.  

We're still trying to build this market, build the interest in hockey. We knew that we had to make a statement last year. And so rewinding to last year, last year served us, yes. Certainly we'd like to go deeper in the playoffs, but last year, if we don't make those deals, I don't think we get in the playoffs.  

Q. What about the ownership? Have they had any kind of change of heart this year like when you're talking to them about what you'd like to do at the deadline?  

DON WADDELL: No, I actually had a meeting with all of them this morning. As always, they've always said, bring any deal to us and we'll discuss it. But I can also say any deal I've ever taken to them it's always been approved.  

So if it's the right deal that makes sense for us, this year, I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to move forward as we have in the past.  

Q. The deal that you made and the one Garth made on Long Island are held by some GMs - I've heard it referenced as sort of a cautionary tale against spending too much on a deal at this deadline. Do you think this year that GMs will show more restraint than they have in the past? Or when it comes right down to it with so little between the teams, will the possibility of acquiring an impact player just be too much for people to resist and we're going to see huge prices paid again?  

DON WADDELL: I think the latter, for sure. And I'll tell you why. Because we all talk about free agency and July 1st. And all it takes is one team to step forward. And then we talked about it last year on July 1st and looked at the deals that were done right away and some of the monies paid. So all it takes is one team to want to do something and that usually sparks other teams to try to match or stay even with them. So I won't be surprised if there's deals made again this year that come with a very high price. And the price for a lot of these teams is what success they end up having.  

It won't be measured at the time the trade is made. It's obviously measured once the season is over.  

Q. Have you had a deadline for Hossa? The clock is ticking; it's two weeks to the trading deadline. Have you told Rich Winter, Look, I gotta know by this weekend or something because I gotta get on this? And the other question I have is you mentioned about you're just not going to take whatever you can get in terms of the down-the-road things for Hossa. Is that because you traded Dany Heatley for Hossa? You traded a great player to get a great player. You can't just say, I'll take a couple of draft picks and a couple of young players.  

DON WADDELL: No. Certainly the second question, not at all. That deal was made for lots of reasons. And that deal helped both teams. And Ottawa's been able to re-sign Dany, which he's been a great player for them and he's having a great career, which we all expected would happen. So, no, it has no bearing at all on that.  

The first part of your question was the deadline with Rich. No, there's no deadline. Certainly we are coming up. We all know this. It's like everything else: When there's a date that you have to do something by, both sides have to make decisions and move on. We have remained and our number one goal is to sign this player. And in the meantime - you know, we're in a big race here. He's one of our most important players. So we're utilizing the player as much as we can to try to make sure that we stay in contention. And if you're going to trade - if you end up trading a player for lesser players right now, makes more sense to keep the players for as long as you can to try to establish yourself within your division.  

Q. Have you told teams to just hang tight here?  

DON WADDELL: I've had lots of phone calls. Best friends with a lot of guys here in the league in the last few weeks, but I've told them all I've not solicited or had an offer made. I told them I don't want to get into that at this point.  

Our goal has been to sign him. Certainly we've done all our homework and I know what teams obviously have talked to that will be interested. If we ever get to that point, I'm pretty confident that there will be multiple teams that will be interested in Marian.  

Q. You folks are probably as talent rich at the AHL level as any organization, folks like Bryan Little and Brett Sterling. What are your general thoughts about what you have in the organization and can you speak to Brett Sterling in particular?  

DON WADDELL: That's one of the reasons why last year we felt we could give up our first-round pick, because we finally - back to the question earlier about Enstrom, we're finally seeing the dividends. The draft takes a long time. This is our eighth season playing.

I can remember Gary Bettman last year when he presented the Stanley Cup to Brian Burke and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and he said, In only their 15th year they've won a Stanley Cup. To me that was the ultimate statement, because it takes time to build up your assets. You're going to have draft after draft and you might get one, two, three players out of a draft and they get depth in the organization. Takes many, many years of draft.  

So we finally felt last year we were in a pretty good position where we had never traded our first-round pick before. That we could trade our first-round pick to try to help our club right now. So we feel really good about our young players and where we're headed with them.  

Brett Sterling, rookie last year, 53 goals, came up here this year. Haven't put him in the most opportune situations to succeed. Obviously playing behind Kolvalchuk and Kozlov and some of those other guys on the left side haven't given him the best opportunity. But I know we sent him back down, and I think he's got 25 goals again in less than 40 games or so in the American League.  

This guy can score. And I think he can score at every level. So we're real happy with having Brett in our organization and part of our future.  

BRIAN BURKE

Q. In light of what happened to Richard Zednik, should the league consider, I guess, stronger safety measures, neck guards, things of that nature, in the future? Or is it just a situation where the belief is it's an inherently dangerous sport with sticks and skate blades and so forth and everyone accepts that fact to be true?  

BRIAN BURKE: That question was neck guards and the injury?  

Q. In light of what happened to Richard Zednik, should the league consider stronger safety measures, neck guards and so forth? Or is it a situation where the belief has always been it's an inherently dangerous sport with sticks and skate blades and that's just the way everyone accepts it to be?  

BRIAN BURKE: You can equip a player in such a way that he cannot get hurt from a stick or a skate. You can equip a player so he can't get facial cuts. You can put a football helmet on him. But every layer of equipment that you put on a player that's protective also becomes a weapon. You watch players in the National Football League with that helmet and how they block and tackle.  

So we've tried to strike a balance here. It's never going to be an inherently safe workplace altogether. Not when there's no out of bounds and contact is encouraged.  

So as horrific as that injury was - I think the last one comparable to it was Clint Malarchuk - I think we can live with that. If that's the incidence, we can live with that.  

Q. How much of the talking that you do to other GMs and other teams coming up to the trade deadline is impacted based on your relationships with the GMs? I believe you said in the past - you can correct me if I'm wrong - that you wouldn't consider listening to any deals or making any deals with Kevin Lowe in the future.  

BRIAN BURKE: I don't talk to him, so it would be hard to make a deal. I guess our right-hand man can make a deal. But, no, I have no intention of speaking to him. So it's going to be real hard to make a deal. I'm not sure how you do that.  

As far as the other talking, yeah, a lot of it is based on relationships. You figure out there's 30 guys. There's 29 other guys you deal with. You figure out the guys that have your style. If you look, GMs tend to make pattern trades, repetitive trades. They seem to have success making deals with a group of guys, five or six guys and not with other guys.  

I call certain guys more than I call other guys.  

Q. Your team has made a couple of moves recently without having to really give up anything and bringing back Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne. Are you still looking to add any major pieces? Or will what you do, if anything, just be little chinks, I guess, here and there?  

BRIAN BURKE: We're trying to figure out - right now we've got one line that's been strong offensively for us all year. That's Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and then either Chris Kunitz or Todd Bertuzzi. With Teemu coming back, we'd like to leave Kuny with those guys, Chris Kunitz with the kids, and then play Todd with Doug Weight and Teemu. And now Doug Weight has a shoulder injury and is going to miss at least a week.

So we're not sure what we have. I'm going to the GM meetings really kind of groping around like a sightless person because I'm not sure what I have yet and what I'm looking for.  

We're going to add if we can, our ownership. We want to win. And if we can add at the right price, we will. I've been asked the last couple of days repeatedly is the Edmonton pick in play. And the answer is, yes, it's in play. We have their first, second, and third. We are going to wait until much closer to the deadline to see what it is.  

They've managed to put some wins together. And it may not be as attractive as it appears today. But if it looks like it's going to be a top seven pick, we think there's seven players in this draft and then there's a drop-off. If it looks like it's going to be a top seven pick, then it's not going for a rental. It can go in a hockey deal, but it's not going for a rental.

Q. Brian, thanks for being available. Your AHL affiliation picture seems to be kind of up in the air. What can you say about that? And have you ruled out coming back to Portland next year?

BRIAN BURKE: I think it's a fair question. But given that there are other franchises involved, I would leave any discussion - I think that should emanate from the Portland Pirates if and when they think it's appropriate.  

We have not ruled out anything as far as next year. Any combination of things is possible. We're looking at a broad spectrum. This sounds like a lawyer's answer, and it is. We're looking at a broad spectrum of options that could very well include putting players back there.

So I think it's premature even though it's a legitimate question and I'm not offended by it one bit. I think the right person to answer it is not on the call. And it's probably not the right time.  

Q. In the past you've kind of been reluctant to be involved in a sharing situation with another NHL club. Would that be one of those options for next year?  

BRIAN BURKE: Sure. Long-term we're committed to our ownership group, the Samuelis are committed to growing hockey in Southern California, and long-term that would be our goal to have our farm team in Southern California. They're going to start building ice rinks following the Dallas Stars model where every time you build a rink you dramatically increase the number of kids who play, and then those become your customers down the road.

So long-term that's our goal. But there's no urgency on that and that may take several years. We might be in the very same place we're at for two or three more years before we do that. So we would share. I just gave you a 45-second answer. I could have answered with one word, yes, we would look at sharing.  

Q. Brian, do you feel like you have an edge on your fellow contenders in terms of having the extra picks to dangle? It sounds like they share a lot of the contenders, they're a little reticent to make the type of deals that we saw last year for the top rentals.  

BRIAN BURKE: As I've said, you guys know this, we make more mistakes at the trade deadline than we make the whole rest of the year combined. The pressure to win is so intense and unrelenting and unremitting that we as a group make horrible, horrible decisions at the trade deadline.  

And I'll give you an example of what the people will say in retrospect to a decision, but I know exactly why Donnie Waddell did it last year, traded a package to get into the playoffs and then they ended up getting eliminated in the first round. But that was essential, I think, with the ownership battle that was going on and the credibility of the franchise at stake. I think that made sense for that franchise at that time.  

But that's the type of pressure that goes into those decisions. Now, if you're a team - let's pick a team that's in the playoffs right now. Say Boston. And Peter can call me and slap me with a 2-by-4 if he wants. But if he's offering his first right now today, what would that pick be?

Q. Mid-round, pretty much.  

BRIAN BURKE: 16. 17. I haven't looked at the paper. Something like that. Whereas the Edmonton pick could be - again, I'm not going to put up any bulletin board materials for the Edmonton Oilers. They've managed to win some games playing real well despite serious injuries, and God bless them. They're watching us. They've got our first-round picks, so they're watching the standings just like we are. But that pick could be a considerably higher pick than 16 or 17 or 18.  

So that's I think where we have an edge, if we're willing to deal that pick for a rental. But if it's high enough, I'm not dealing it for a rental.  

Q. You want to make a hockey deal with it. As a follow-up, Brian, last year you were kind of singled out by a lot of us in the media for not doing well at the deadline, other than Brad May, and of course as it turns out you got the last laugh by winning the Cup. Is that sort of the prime example, if you have a good enough team, that maybe the deadline is a little overhyped by the media and fans?  

BRIAN BURKE: I don't think I got the last laugh. It's a fair criticism. It's a fair criticism. And I probably poured gasoline on it by writing the column for USA Today and detailing all my failures. So it's a fair comment. I'm not a big trade deadline guy. I never have been. You can go back over my whole career as a general manager; I've never been a big trade deadline guy. I try to fix my team in the fall and try to leave it alone and grow together and solidify. Last year we had a Brad May and he was an important part of our success.  

But this year we'll see what's there. We do have assets. I think we could probably use the assets we have and we've got some good, young players. We've got some picks, and I think we might be able to do something on a hockey deal basis that makes us a better team and that's what we're going to try to do.  

Q. In light of the question in Atlanta regarding Hossa, kind of in general terms as a general manager, how do you balance getting something in return for a potential free agent that you may or may not be able to sign versus winning down the stretch here?  

BRIAN BURKE: First off, I think people better get used to guys walking at the end of their contracts with the cap system. I remember I was in training camp with the Indianapolis Colts couple of years ago looking at the depth chart with Bill Polian and he had boxes, like squares, around four starters.  

And I said, What does the box mean? He said, Unrestricted free agent. And I said, Are you going to try to get something for him? He said, No, they're good players. They're playing. We'll drive them to the airport.  

That's what I did with Ruslan Salei, what I told him two years ago. You help us, you play well down the stretch, I'm not moving you at the deadline. You're going to walk and we're not going to get nothing, but you've earned that. I said, We need you right now.

So what Donnie Waddell just said I support completely. And if he does walk - let's say he does not trade Hossa, he gets the most out of him and then the guy goes somewhere else as a free agent, that frees up the assets that we have as a manager. We've got draft picks. We've got players. We've got cash. We've got cap space. We've got tagging room. That's all you have.  

And what that does right away, if Hossa does walk, is it puts Donnie right back in the market to sign the next available best free agent. So I think people better get used to that. I remember telling my owner, We're going to get nothing for Ruslan Salei. Now, Rusty Salei is a good player. He's been good for Florida and he's a good guy. But we needed him to get into the playoffs that year, and ended up playing in three rounds. And we absolutely needed him.  

I think people better get used to it. It's not take the best offer at the deadline. It's exactly what Donnie Waddell said: See what this guy can do to get you in. If he walks, he walks, then you've got that cash back to spend.  

Q. Do you think it matters if you think you're a bubble team versus a team that you think can go all the way and win a Stanley Cup?  

BRIAN BURKE: Sure. The character, if you look at the Islanders trade last year, look at the Atlanta trade, that quality of trade that you make to try and make sure you get in, again, in both cases, not being critical of either team, because I think for the Islanders I think it was critical to try and get in. So it changes your outlook as far as what you're trying to do. Doug Wilson or Les Jackson have very different wish lists and very different priorities probably than a guy that's in that eighth or ninth spot. I look at Dallas, how strong they've been. They're probably figuring what piece do we need to add to win it. And that's different than saying what piece do we need to add to get in.  

Q. Do you have any confidence after the prices paid by last year and seeing what happened to the teams in the first round - I've heard you mention why those teams made those deals - but have you any confidence that GMs this year will show restraint because of what happened to those three teams last year in the playoffs?  

BRIAN BURKE: Well, it's not just GMs showing restraint. A lot of times it's an owner barking at you, too. Owner's saying we have to make the playoffs or we have to do this. When you see the GMs get blamed for some of these deals, it's not that simple. When you see some of the long-term contracts and you want to blame the general manager, it's not that simple.  

But the pressure in our job doesn't change. You guys aren't going to let a guy sit there for three or four years and not do much with the deadline and go out in the first round and say, well, he's husbanding his assets wisely. He's marshalling his assets wisely. This is a sharp guy. You're all going to say, put him on a rail and throw some tar on him and get him out of town.

So the pressure on the manager doesn't ever change. Our job is to win. Get up in the morning you're trying to figure out a way to win. And go to bed trying to figure out a way to win. If you can't you get canned. So, no, I think you'll see a whole slew of deals. It was a pretty big deal yesterday. And that to me is when you see a guy - it's like the ice on the lake in the spring: The first big piece goes out, then the other pieces start to move. Usually a trade like that triggers a chain reaction. And Carolina and Ottawa's deal I think will produce a flurry, especially when all the GMs are going to be at one place on Sunday night.

Q. I'm not sure how many people foresaw this phenomenon we're seeing right now where teams are paying essentially unrestricted money to restricted free agents to prevent predatory offers on them. Does that impact what teams do at the deadline?

BRIAN BURKE: Absolutely. I mean, what happened last summer - people have to understand this. I know Matty's on the call and I've had the conversation with him. I didn't pull an Irishman last summer and just fly off the handle. We got the offer sheet on Thursday. I didn't speak to the media until Friday. My comments were very carefully measured and considered and I stand behind them 100 percent today.

What Edmonton did last summer was eliminate the second contract in the NHL. And you typically have a guy in the entry-level system, he's capped, the mandatory two-way, he comes out of entry-level and he's got no arbitration rights. So you still have some control over what he's paid, and then he gets arbitration rights and then you hand him the hammer. And he's got the hammer for the rest of his career. And that's fine. Now we're all paying the guys right out of entry-level. We're paying them that third contract right away because one team extended two offer sheets in one summer.  

So, again, I know you guys think I have a horrible temper, but I slept on that and thought about it very carefully. Stand by every single word I said last summer.  

Q. I know you were asked before about returns of Niedermayer and Selanne, that if that has made you less likely to now go out and make a bigger deal. But I was thinking the return of those guys, being that they have a short window left in their career, do you feel any kind of balance you have to keep with your young players but also trying to go for it now with guys that you're not going to have for too much longer?

BRIAN BURKE: General manager, you've generally got a window on a team where you can look at your team and say, In this period of time, we have a shot at winning. And if you're realistic, there's never more than three or four teams, maybe five in the window that have that window, that are close. And your job, when you get in the window and when you're in your window and you've got the assets and you have the ability to win, you've got to try to win. Because you might not be in the window for 10 more years, depending on drafting and what happens.

So that is the tightrope you walk. And this is why I say people say, Well, would you trade the Edmonton pick? Let's assume it's a high pick. Again, not disparaging Edmonton one bit. But let's assume it's a fourth pick or fifth pick overall in what we consider to be a very deep draft, and you're talking about a 10-year guy. You're drafting a guy who is going to play 10 years in the league. Do you trade that for a rental?

And to me that's where the other part of your job is, to not leave the cupboard bare. Because when you do come out of your window, usually you have to strip it down right down to the chassis and rebuild it. And I don't think it's fair to your successor to leave that cupboard empty either.

That's the balancing act. You have to try to go for it. You've got to spend the assets. We paid a horribly high price for Chris Pronger. We traded Ladislav Smid, who is an excellent young player. We traded Joffrey Lupul, another fine young player. Both good guys, both the kind of players we really try to find, and two first-round picks. And everyone says, well, you know, it paid off because you guys won. If we hadn't won, I would have had a meeting with the owner saying, What the hell were you doing?

That's the tightrope. There's a gambler's mentality to it. You have to be willing to gamble a sizable amount of organizational assets, a sizable amount of playoff revenue. You've got to be willing to gamble and go for it when you get close, if you're in the window.

Q. Do you feel your window changed in that it got smaller when Niedermayer and Selanne returned?

BRIAN BURKE: Scotty is in a contract for another year. I don't know yet what that means, but he's under contract for another year. And Chris Pronger is under another contract for another year beyond that. Giguere is under contract for two more years. So we've got most of the core assets on our team under contract for at least next year, including all of the defensemen, virtually.

So the core group - we won last year with, in my opinion, you guys might differ - we won last year with I think the best starting defense in the NHL and with quality goaltending and a big menacing team. We have virtually all those blocks back.

So, yes, I think if we can get into the playoffs, and obviously we had a successful road trip and put us in a little better position than we were the start of the road trip, if we get in I think we're a team that other teams are going to look at and say, man, that's a good team.

So I don't think our window is just this year. It might be for Teemu. It might be the last we see of him. But we haven't built this team to be competitive for one season.

Q. You've answered the one question, but I was just wondering have you seen a change in the attitude of owners towards the trade deadline since the lockout? Are some of them a lot more cautious now because of the way some of these deals have turned out and the expense involved?

BRIAN BURKE: Again, I think if you ask Garth - I don't mean to speak for him, but I think if you ask Garth would he do those deals again, he would say yes. In terms of what that franchise needed at that time. And I wouldn't disagree with him. If you ask Donnie Waddell, the major ownership dispute, your season ticket base, all the things you're trying to preserve, would you make that deal again, I think he would say yes.

And I think from your question as far as where the owners are on this stuff, that varies from team to team. I don't sense - I think people are viewing this deadline as saying, well, a lot of guys touched a hot stove last year and got burned, they won't do it again. I don't sense that. I think there will be a lot of activity. Because the pressure doesn't change on us. If you say to the owner, I want to make a silly deal at the deadline, I want to keep all of our top young players and then you miss the playoffs, owners tend to forget those conversations.

Q. Are you trying to get Peter Forsberg? Is that an option for you?

BRIAN BURKE: Yeah, we've been informed by Don Baizley that we are not one of the teams that Peter Forsberg is considering.

Q. He told you that?

BRIAN BURKE: I got an e-mail from Don Baizley saying we're not on the short list.

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