(Owner Eugene Melnyk, General Manager Neil Burkholder, Vincent Lecavalier enter the press area and sit down at the table. Each having microphones in front of them)
Neil Burkholder (NB): On behalf of the Ottawa Senators organization we would like to thank everyone for coming down here tonight for the press conference. We would especially like to thank our fans who came into today and watching on television. Today was a huge day for the Senators and we would like to announce the signing of Vincent Lecavalier. I’ll hand it off Vince, and Welcome aboard.
(Burkholder pats Vincent on the back.)
Vincent Lecavalier (VL): I’m glad to be here. Thank you Mr. Melnyk for bringing me back close to home where I grew up. I love the city of Ottawa, and when I received a contract offer a couple days ago I sat down with my agent, and mulled things over and we went over the different teams that were interested in me I felt like this was the perfect place. We have everything you want as a player, we have a great owner in Mr. Melnyk, we have a successful general manager in Mr. Burkholder, and Coach Wilson is one of the great hockey minds in the OTHL today, and a nice mix on the roster of veterans and younger players made me feel like this is the place I need to be. I can really feel something building here and I want to join and be part of it, and I do believe we’ll be playing for a Stanley Cup very soon. I sat down and talked to my wife Caroline and she said go where your heart is telling you to go, and I knew this was it. Thank you Neil for giving me a chance to play with this group, and let’s get to work.
(Burkholder and Vince Stand up and shake hands, and Vince leans downs and signs the contract.)
NB: We felt like we were lacking a true number one center, and we looked around one the market to see what was out there and we felt like Vince would be a great fit for us. As for the market we still have some money to spend so this isn’t our complete team yet. Ideally we would like to add one more forward, and a defenseman to the mix, and a backup goalie. We’ll still be very active in upgrading our team. I believe our roster is a lot better than where we started this off-season. We have a solid four lines now, and if we can add another piece there we will feel really good where we are at. A lot of rumors were going around and wanting to know what was the move we were going to make, we’ll we made a big one today. We were waiting to see how the market was before going out blazing. Mr. Melnyk needs a lot of credit to this because without him signing off on this, we wouldn’t be here today.
Eugene Melnyk (EM): This is a big day for our fans. The signing of Vince shows were here to win, not later, but now. We know last year wasn’t the Ottawa Senator way of hockey, were use to success, and last season was a failure. With everything that has went down this off-season you can see we are going towards the winning, and not sacrificing our future as well. Our cupboards are stocked with quality prospects, and our roster is looking like were going to be a team to be reckoned with once the puck drops. Like Neil said we plan on making more moves so stay tuned. fans
(PA: Announcer: We are now opening up for questions, please state your name and publication)
Reporter 1: Jason York, of Team 1200 Sports Radio, Vince, when did you realize that Ottawa is going to be your likely landing spot?
VL: Well over this past weekend my agent called me and said Ottawa made an offer, four other teams showed interest as well, but Ottawa instantly perked my interest. I called Marian late Sunday and asked about Ottawa, and Marian had glowing reviews thus far, and that’s when the Senators really became a logical pick for me. We set up a face to face meeting for early this morning, and here we are now.
Reporter 2: Terry Marcotte, of CJOH TV, With the past success of the organization, and after a hard struggle this past season, has it been hard to sell players on coming here since it has been about a week and half into free agency?
NB: Well a lot of players are taking there time, with the salary cap as high as it is, and a lot of good players makes it a players market. We seen some guys signed like Jarome Iginla to Anaheim which really set the price on players, after that signings but not in mass like there is normally. Its been a slow push and we wanted to wait and see how the market unfolds before making a bunch of calls. We did make preliminary calls once the market opened, about middle of last week we got really serious and have been working the phones pretty hard now.
Reporter 3: Darren Desaulniers, Ottawa Citizen, Mr. Melnyk, as you stated last year was a rough year for the organization were you leery about spending money this off-season?
EM: Not at all, I told Neil at our state of the team meeting, and told him go out and make this team into a winner, I don’t want us too see us like we were this past season. It was fun for us at the top, the players, and the fans. This past trade deadline was really hard seeing us moving out our veterans but Neil had a plan, and it makes sense to me, we are sticking to the plan and I really see what’s coming together. Most of our core is under the age of 28, and we have high end forwards in Marian, and now Vince, and leaders in Robyn, and Milan, and Radek. It’s a really good mix and I see us going very deep in the playoffs. Our division is tough and you have to make big time moves to stay up to par with these clubs. I do believe we have put ourselves in discussions to be up there in terms of winning our division.
Reporter 4: Andy Tavegina, The Times, Vince, you have moved a lot in your career, do you believe you can find yourself finishing your career out in Ottawa?
VL: It’s part of the business about moving, I understand that, the longest team I stayed with in the OTHL is the Pittsburgh Penguins for three seasons. I started out in Tampa for a year, then went to the Predators, then ended up in Pittsburgh for three, then spend the 09-10 campaign with St.Louis, and Minnesota, then back to the Predators for the 2010-11 Season, then was traded to Los Angeles before the start of the season. At my age, I want to have security, for me Caroline, and the two kids. Ottawa is a great place for a family, and this is a perfect place for us. I know many don’t live out their contract in the same location but I’d like to string a couple years together in one spot, and have a shot at winning the Cup. As for finishing my career here I hope so, but I’m no where near close to think about retirement.
Reporter 5: Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun, Neil the market seems to be ramping up, do you think you can fill your roster out via free agency, or will you have to go through the trade route?
NB: Well we’re really active out there now, we have two positions we are actively trying to fill, and that we will fill before start of the season. Were looking more towards the free agent market than anything at this point. Were always willing to talk trades, but there is too much fluidity right now to really be concentrating on trades at this point. We do have cash to sign another big time player, or save it and go out on the trade market but that is more of a last resort type option.
Reporter 6: Dan Fagan, Ottawa Herald, Neil, Looking at your roster you do have a lot of centers with guys like Vince, Sam Gagner, Marcus Johansson, Patrik Berglund, Andrew Cogliano, Tim Connolly, Vladamir Sobotka, Jay Beagle, did you talk to Coach Wilson before the signing and see how he can make everything fit together?
NB: Well yeah of course I talk to Ron, he was a big proponent of us signing Vince, you need play makers and whenever there is one available you go and get one. We have a very versatile roster so a lot of our centers are suited to play on the wing in which we were planning to do. Ron does a great job and going through our lines and seeing what fits best for us, and I have complete faith that he will use the pre-season and get our lines down pat for us.
(PA Annoucer: That’s all the questions for the night).
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