Don Waddell
Don Waddell
Donald Douglas Waddellis the former, and last President of the Atlanta Thrashers and a former professional ice hockey defenseman. He is currently President of Gale Force Sports & Entertainment, parent company of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League...
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We are extremely pleased with our team and feel very confident that we've put a solid group together that will best put us in a position to compete for the gold medal. The selection process was an extremely difficult one and that's a terrific statement for hockey in the United States. It means our talent pool in this country continues to grow.
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Keith's knowledge of the U.S. program will be a tremendous asset to us. We're extremely pleased to have him as part of the staff.
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When we call up players, we don't call them up just to sit on the bench. We expect them to contribute to our team's success right away. This season has been no exception. I'm extremely proud of the overall success the Gladiators have enjoyed and the quality players that Jeff and Steve have produced.
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We feel bad for Aaron that he's unable to be part of the team. At the same time we're extremely fortunate to be able to replace Aaron with someone the caliber of Bret Hedican.
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We're extremely excited to add a player of Bobby's caliber to our lineup. He's a hard-nosed player who has enjoyed a distinguished career that includes valuable Stanley Cup championship experience. He is a veteran who will play an important role in our success.
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The selection process was an extremely difficult one and that's a terrific statement for hockey in the United States. It means our talent pool in this country continues to grow.
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We did a rating system all year and these guys deserved to be here. It wasn't that Brian was a bad player or anything than that it was just that these guys performed better and these guys were a better fit for what we were looking for.
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We're out of the tournament, but it's not like we have to blow it up and start over.
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We're going to try to take the positive that we were in every game. We're out of the tournament but certainly it's not like it's something we have to blow up and start over, because every game we were right in there.
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We're very excited, you know, and Ilya is the final piece we had to get done. I've said all along, 'We're going to score some goals.' Watching some of what's happened with the guys we've brought in here and not knowing exactly how they would do, I think we're going to win a lot of hockey games this season.
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We feel that Chris is not only a tremendous player, but also a terrific leader. For us to have success, Chris is going to have to be a big part of it.
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We have 12 players that have never competed in the Olympics. That's exciting because these guys have never been through this before and they'll bring a lot of excitement to the game.
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We've put a lot pieces in place this summer. The franchise is in position to take the next big step. Ilya gives us a better chance to take that step to go even further.
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We all talk about how we've been in a transition period. ... We have a lot of good young players and a lot of guys coming in, and we can take the positives out of that.