Senators Officially Hires Burkholder as new General Manager

(Senators Owner Eugene Melnyk is at the podium, and President Cyril Leeder is at the table, and introduce new Senators GM Neil Burkholder, where Burkholder walks in and sit down at the table.)

Eugene Melnyk (EM): Want to say thank you everyone for coming out today, and taking the time to announce our acquisition of a new General Manager today in Neil Burkholder. We’re extremely happy to welcome you into the Senator family. It was a very fluid situation this past weekend, late Friday night we heard that Alex (Tousignant) was going to step down, and during the weekend Cyril (Leeder) and I sat down and thought we need to get a long term option in here now, specially right before the trade deadline, and we felt like Neil (Burkholder) would be the right person for the job. I flew out to Vancouver, and got permission to talk to Neil, and our personalities meshed really well, and I knew this was our guy, We offered him a contract and here we are today. What makes Neil a perfect fit is, he knows how to win, in two years he won over hundred games, back to back division championships, and the President’s Trophy. That’s an impressive resume, and it only made sense to get him here. Also if you look two years ago the Vancouver Canucks prospects weren’t up to par with the rest of league, now if you look at it, he has assembled a nice group of prospects that will be good players in the OTHL. With that combination it only makes sense for us to bring in Neil, So Neil get on up here and address the media.

(Burkholder gets up from the chair and shakes Eugene Melnyk’s hand, as Melnyk goes to his chair and sits down as Burkholder takes the podium)

Neil Burkholder (NB): I got to mention this first, I have to say thank you to Vancouver for these past two and half season’s, we accomplished a lot, not the ultimate prize, but I feel like they are going to be on their way, and I truly hope them success. Now I have to say thanks to Mr. Melnyk, and Mr. Leeder to give me this chance to get the Senators to the promise land. We’ll get there, but were going to get there the right way, I always believe in building a system first, and winning will happen, the proof is in my history, is spending resources in scouting, and try to find those gems in July, and use Free Agency, and trades as supplements, but were going to hold major emphasis on the Draft, and especially the mid to late round draft picks. Ottawa has a good system right now, so were going to spend a little bit of time to evaluate our current players, and figure out where to go at the trade deadline. We could still be buyers were not that far out of the playoff chase, or we can be sellers. This next week or so is going to be critical on where we’ll go. I have talked to Coach Wilson and I feel like he is the right guy for us, Injuries as really hurt us, and he can’t be blamed for what has happened. We have big things planned here in Ottawa, and just be patient fans, we’ll get there. I’ll take some questions now.

(Public Annoucner: State your name, and publication before your question.)

R1: Wayne Scanlan, Ottawa Citizen, When did you decide to take the Senators job?

NB: I got a call early Saturday morning from my agent, and he wanted to know if I was interested in the Senators GM spot, at first I was paying attention to what I needed to do Vancouver, but talking to my family, But the location of Ottawa, and the closeness to home, and the talent of the team made me reconsider, so I called my agent, and said yes, he set up our meeting, and was offered the job yesterday morning.

R2: Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun, You told the fans to be patient, but how long do you think it will take Ottawa to get to the promise land that you speak of.

NB: Not long, maybe a season or two, I know the standings suggest otherwise but the talent of this team is just too good not to make some noise not to long from now. Our prospect system has a lot of top end talent on offense, and we plan on keep building on that, and with two first round picks in this upcoming draft class which could be potentially top fifteen picks will make this club even scarier.

R3: Shawn P. Roarke, NHL.com, Have you, or do you plan on making any roster moves?

NB: We already made one minor trade, in trading center Adam Mair to Columbus for Mike Comrie, and two sixth round draft picks. We also signed forward Blake Geoffrion, and defenseman Tyson Barrie to entry level contracts. We also need to pay special attention to the new prospect maximum of fifty players, and we have released the rights to roughly fourteen players. So we have been pretty active, as for future moves, I’m not quite sure, like I mentioned we can go into buyers, or sellers it just depends on this upcoming two weeks.