Other Business This Summer For Waddell...
In addition to Brind'Amour's contract, Waddell was asked about other items of potential business for the organization these next few months. Here's how he navigated answering those questions...
On the mass amount of unrestricted free agents the Canes have heading into this summer...
"We'd like to sign them all. We've got something good going here, and we'd like to keep it going. There's this thing called the salary cap that won't allow us to do that..."
"We haven't sat down to prioritize player by player, but we know we'd like to try to keep as much of our defense together. We think we have one of the best d-corps in the league."
"Players play for a long time to get to this point where they become unrestricted free agents and find out what the marketplace is going to pay them. We're hoping that we can nip that with a few of the guys, but there's going to guys going to free agency on July 1, that's for sure."
Discussing how he feels about the team's chances to re-sign Jake Guentzel...
"I think he played a good role here. I know Sebastian [Aho] talked about how much he liked playing with him."
Revealing one major thing the Canes would like to address over the summer...
"We'd love to get a right-handed shot center to balance our left shots..."
Regarding recent reports/rumors on Martin Necas wanting a change in scenery...
"I don't have enough toes or fingers to tell you how many players have walked into my office to ask about being traded. We're not opposed to trading players, but you have to look at the value of what you're getting back. Marty is an exceptionally skilled guy that you're not just going to give up on, that's for sure. We'll deal with it as the summer progresses."
When asked about the status of Alexander Nikishin...
"It's a work in progress. We've spent more time on this player trying to get him out of Russia than anybody else... I'm not going to say it's dead for this next year. We're still talking with the people we need to be chatting with. We're hoping something, one way or another, within the next 3-4 weeks, before the draft, we'll have a good feeling whether he's coming or not... One way or another, we'll probably get him signed and whether he's got a commitment or not to stay there or not, that's what we've got to work out yet."
Touching on the team's situation in net for next year, with Frederik Andersen, Pyotr Kochetkov, and Spencer Martin all signed...
"I don't know if anything is a given right now. Yeah, they all have contracts, but our goal is always to try and improve at every position. If there's something that makes sense for us there, we have to explore it..."
Shedding more light on the AHL affiliation agreement with the Chicago Wolves...
"The deal we made is that Chicago's ownership runs the business of the franchise and we run the hockey department - coaches, trainers, equipment, everybody works for us. That's a big change. We've started to talk to some coaches. Assistant General Manager Darren Yorke is leading the charge on that."
