5.31.23 RBA Donny

RALEIGH, NC. -The final official event of the 2022-23 campaign took place Wednesday, with Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour and President & General Manager Don Waddell taking questions from the media at PNC Arena.
Below are their thoughts on several pressing topics as the organization shifts into off-season mode.

Exit Interviews: Waddell & Brind'Amour

Waddellon the season that was, on the ice:
"We're all disappointed (with how it ended), but we also have to look at the fact that we had the second-best record in the NHL. Three straight division championships. Five straight years in the playoffs... You're always disappointed when you don't win the Cup. You can't be satisfied. But when you look at what we went through and some of the adversity we went through and how it turned out, we have quite a lot of accomplishments to be proud of."
Waddellon how evaluating this year's elimination is different from last year's, because of the injuries:
"We don't have a lot of holes, but we have some areas we'd like to address, if possible. Goal-scoring is always a premium. But overall, you can't predict the injuries we had to key players."
Waddellon if there have been any preliminary talks with Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Brady Skjei, and Brett Pesce, all of whom are entering the final year of their contracts before potentially becoming unrestricted free agents:
"We have a plan in place. We haven't started negotiations yet, but the guys that are pending unrestricted free agents are going to come quickly. We'll talk to Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas about their extensions too, but the good thing is that those guys are restricted (free agents) after this year, so if we don't get something done, it's not the end of the world. The other guys, we'd like to go into the new year knowing we have them for the future."
Brind'Amourreflecting on the season:
"I can count on one hand the amount of nights I was disappointed in the way that we played. It's going to be hard to duplicate... We still have that one thing out there that we have to accomplish and everyone knows it."
Waddellon if the team still feels that they need to add a pure goal-scorer this offseason:
"It's not like we're looking for just a pure goal-scorer. We'd like to get a little heavier, if possible... We also need guys, like Teuvo, to have a bounce-back year. He had a tough year this year. And guys like Jarvis are only going to get better. So we might have a lot of that goal-scoring internally, and there are other things that we might be able to address then."
Brind'Amourcritiquing some of his team's game from the season:
"I'd love to see our power play be more effective. During the year it was something we worked on to be a bit more dynamic. On the flip side, our penalty kill was great. It's that one area we definitely want to see improved."
Waddellon the upcoming free agency, which begins July 1:
"I always say (the first day of free agency) is probably the most dangerous day in hockey, besides the trade deadline... I still think the trade route is something we're going to explore very heavily before free agency."
Waddell on the goaltending situation:
"We believe (Pyotr) Kochetkov is our future for sure. Is he ready for the full-time gig right now? We'll find out at the beginning of next year. We went through this before (Andersen and Raanta) were here, you always seem to have injuries at this position. We're going to have to have three capable players for sure, and obviously, Kochetkov is going to be one of them... The days of goalies playing 55/60 games per year are behind us. If we have to use a three-goalie system like we did this year, we were fine with it."
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