Q: On Fedotenko’s experience and how it can help the team
 
“Moving forward here, we’re still a pretty young group.  I think the opportunity to add Ruslan, and his ability to play a lot of different roles on a team… he can play any wing, he can probably play center if you need… the fact that he’s won a couple times, the fact that he’s been here before, both played into the decision to move forward with him. We’ve actually tried to sign Ruslan a couple times over the last few years and we’ve always missed out.  I like him, and I think he’s going to bring a lot to our team in terms of leadership, and I think he’s a winner, I really do.”
 
Q: On Bruno Gervais
 
“I think he’s going to fit nicely into our group of whether we carry 7 or 8 defensemen, we’ll see.  But he’s a right-hand shot, and that gives us two right-hand [defensemen] shots in Luke Schenn and Bruno, something we haven’t had since I can’t remember.  Probably goes back to Bob Dailey and Mike Busniuk.  Bruno’s a good kid, he works hard, he’s got over 350 games of experience in the league.  I know he’s bounced around a little bit, but he’s an unassuming, quiet, good player that’ll provide enthusiasm and experience, and I think he’s a really good fit on our team.”
 
Q: Did you get any input from Max Talbot about Bruno?
 
“I just know they’re good friends.  I think Max is actually Bruno’s best man, I think he’s getting married here in a few days.  Did that play a role… anytime you have players that know players, they can give you a little bit of an inside scoop on something about them that you don’t know.  But we’ve always liked Bruno, even back to his Islander days early on.  He’s just a quiet, steady player.”
 
Q: Will you still be looking to add more defensively?
 
“We’ll continue to look to see what’s out there and what we can do.  I really like our team, and I’m hesitant to look at anything where I’ve got to give up something to get something back.  We have a lot of good young players that have tremendous potential.  Quite frankly I’m happy with our team right now.  That doesn’t mean we won’t look and see what happens. As you know we took a couple swings for the fences early on in free agency, and those are adding players that you’re not taking away from your team.  We had to slide to Plan B, and we’re happy with the players we got in Plan B.
 
Q: How much did Dennis Wideman’s contract raise the market above what you were willing to pay Matt Carle?

“Well, we tried very hard to sign Matt Carle.  At the end of the day he decided to go elsewhere.  I’m happy for Matt.  I’ll say that before free agency started, during free agency, right up to the time he decided to go elsewhere, we tried hard to sign Matt.  It’s just one of those things.  I’m disappointed, but we’ll move on.  Like I said, I’m happy for Matt.  He was a good player for us, and it’s not like we didn’t try to sign him.  We just move on. “
 
Q: How disappointed were you not to sign Parise or Suter?
 
“Well, we took our shot.  They’re both elite players in our game.  We’re not the only team that took shots, and whether we had a chance or not, I don’t know.  But we took our shots. I found out late on the 3rd that we were out on Ryan and then early morning on the 4th found out that we were out on Zach, so we quickly moved forward onto our next phase.
 
Q: Can you talk about what happened with Jaromir Jagr?
 
“I spoke with Petr Svoboda all through the process.  I don’t know if he got antsy or what.  I got a call late on the 3rd that he was getting excited and wanted to make a move, and I wasn’t prepared to do anything at that time.  We still had offers out on the table that I wanted to wait on, and I wasn’t prepared to move on Jaromir at the time.  I said the other, day, Jaromir was really good for us.  I’m happy for him and we wish him well in Dallas.  I think it’s a great addition for Dallas.  It just got to the point where I needed to move, and he wasn’t ready to wait.”
 
Q: If you had to look at what you’ve lost versus what you’ve acquired, how do you compare things?
 
“I don’t know how to quantify that.  We still have the nucleus of our young team that we had at the end of last year.  I think we’re going to be better with all those guys having one year under their belts… Jakub and Wayne Simmonds and Couturier and Matt Read, and the other young guys that gave us things like Wellwood and Rinaldo.  We’ve added Luke Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann we get to see and get full season out of.  You could argue that we lost a lot of good players and we did.  But the maturation process of our group and adding a solid guy like Ruslan to our forward mix and a steady guy like Bruno on our back end…  I think we’re still a good team that has a lot of potential.”
 
Q: On contract talks with Jakub Voracek
 
“That’s a process right now that we’re going through.  Jakub will be signed at some point… I don’t want to put a timeline on it.  But he’ll be signed at some point.”