Don Waddell Quotations

We still need someone else who is capable of playing 20 to 25 games a year.

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.

We're going to do depth charts by team. Every team is going to have guys we're going to watch, some teams are going to have more guys.

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.

We feel that with Bob's leadership, professionalism and winning track record, he is the coach that will guide this team to success for many years. We are pleased to have him leading our team and look forward to the future of the franchise with him behind the bench.

We feel that Keith will be ready. He's the type of player we need to compete and win the gold medal.

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.

We're hoping that there are some guys that maybe we on the fence who didn't go to the World Championships will go now. We're trying to get their A game for the World Cup. And particularly if we end up with the same coach for both tournaments then I think it would be ultimately important for all of the players who are available to go.

Ultimately it won't be systems that win or lose the hockey games, it will be how hard those players play within the system.

We're not having one meeting about who has been the best player here or anything like that. That's not the purpose of it.

We'll be in the playoffs. If you want to write: 'Guarantee,' I have no problem with that.

The process will begin when the season begins. This is an orientation camp, it's not a tryout camp that we're having.

We made a decision back in December. We all wish we could make this decision today on your whole team because maybe some other positions would change also. Ryan has come back from his injury and has performed very well, but we're very comfortable with the three guys we've named and we're going to roll with them.

We're excited about where this franchise is headed. I'm very confident in the group of players we've put together. We're taking it one step at a time. But this franchise is poised to take the next step, and we will take the next step.

We're confident that it'll be reported back to us within the next 24 hours. Once they OK it, they'll just send us an e-mail immediately, and then the paperwork will follow in a few days. Once we get that, he'll be good to go.

Some of his patterns come in legal and some come in illegal.

One of our scouts said he was the best amateur goalie he had seen in the past 10 years.

Peter has proven himself through the ranks as a coach. This is the next challenge for him. I think he's very capable and ready to handle these duties. I always felt that international experience is a key for this type of position, and Peter certainly brings that to the table.

If we continue to play as well as we did against Slovakia, we are going to be fine.

I don't know exactly how it happened. From what I've been told, he caught a rut or something and parts of his knee cap shattered off. His doctor says it's the kind of accident you normally see in a car accident.

Certainly he was on the bubble as we started, but played himself on the team. That's what our goal was when we were selecting this team. Let guys play themselves on or off the team.

Chris's name was the first name mentioned by everyone. That just speaks volumes for how he's respected in the game of hockey, and for what he's done not only in the National Hockey League, but for what he's done for USA Hockey over the years.

Chris' name was the first name mentioned by everyone. That just speaks volumes for how he's respected in the game of hockey. He does everything at a high level. There was no other choice for us but to pick Chris.

I can't say Peter is an up-and-coming coach because he is past that. He has proven himself. This is the next challenge for him.

He understood it. It's part of the business. He wishes he could have done more. He?s hoping only for the best for all of us that are involved here. I thought he handled it very well, but it was very emotional for him.

I always say the players pick this team, not us. You can't have a team of 12 first-line NHL players. You need role players, checkers, penalty killers. You can't just take the 12 most skilled forwards.

He will be in the mix. I think we have to take a look at him.

He has rehabbed very well so far and if it continues the way it's going we're anticipating maybe practicing in the next four to five weeks with the team. And then we're probably still two or three months away from him playing. But we're just moving along and we're handling the hockey side of it. So far to date, his rehab has gone very well.

We're pleased to have someone with Mike's knowledge and passion on board to assist in guiding our Olympic team.

What I'm going to say to the guys on the first day of meeting is that basically they are going to pick this Olympic team.

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.

He's going to play the first game. If you go back to Jan.1, he's been the best goalie.

He was begging us to let him on the ice, but there's no reason to put him in any kind of jeopardy.

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.

Just think we're going to have this player for the next five years.

I think sometimes experience can play in your favor also. Unfortunately, not everybody had the jump that he had. If they did, we'd probably be talking about something different now.

I watched him play four times and he may not be as fast or as effective offensively, but he's still outstanding on defense and he's a great leader. That's why we wanted him to help us compete for a medal.

Jim enjoyed a successful career at Michigan State and we look forward to his continued development at the professional level. He has a great deal of potential which will be enhanced as he competes for a spot on our roster.

Some guys show up when you tell them to, like two hours before a game or a practice, but Chelios will be there three or four hours earlier than that. I wish all players in the NHL had the passion and drive that Chris Chelios has for the game.

Marian is arguably one of the top players in the world and is always a scoring threat. He consistently places among the league leaders in all offensive categories and holds several of Ottawa's team records. He also competes hard on every shift and sets the tone for his teammates. We believe he is the type of exciting player you will want to come out to Philips Arena and watch.

Marc is a proven offensive player who excels at creating chances for his wingers. He bolstered our top line and will continue to play a pivotal role in our success.

We have a lot of good, young players at USA Hockey and a lot of guys coming. We can take the positives out of this game and out of the whole tournament.

We had a lot of players playing very well. We said all along that we were going to base this team on not so much what was the history of players ... but how guys were actually playing.

We're really pleased to have Peter guiding our Olympic Team. Peter knows what it takes. He played on our 1988 Olympic team and came back as captain of the 1994 Olympic team. He's coached our last two world championship teams. He's passionate about the game and we're confident he'll do an outstanding job as our head coach.

We're really pleased to have Peter guiding our Olympic Team.

We have all of the best American scorers here. But it's hard to score here. Look at the low scores. The defense and goaltending is so good here.

We probably didn't talk about Chris for the first two months and then on one of our (team evaluation) calls in early December, the name was brought up and everyone jumped on board with it. He played himself on this team.

We have lots of priorities and things to do. Marc had a good year. We have to sit down and analyze all this.

We did talk about Ryan Miller quite a bit. The other three guys are all starting goalies in the NHL right now.

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.

We're out of the tournament, but it's not like we have to blow it up and start over.

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.

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.

The orientation camp will be a terrific opportunity for our staff to come together with the candidates for our Olympic team to assess the potential makeup of our squad. It will not be a tryout camp as the evaluation process will continue through the first part of the NHL season, however it will be an important first step in the process.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Emotionally, you have to believe that it's going to be a lift for everybody. Regardless of what the contribution ends up being from Dany, I think it's going to be a lift just to have him back on the bench and see him on the ice. So whether he has an impact on the game or not is yet to be seen, but I think emotionally it's been a big lift for the team, the coaching staff and me personally.

It was the right thing to do at this time. I'm not nervous about it because I'm around our team so much and I know our team very well. I've seen every game this year and I haven't missed anything, so I feel like short-term I'm best prepared to run the bench.

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.

Probably our oldest guy in the tournament was one of our best players.

The oldest guy in the tournament was one of our better players. Unfortunately not everybody had the jump that he had. If we did, we'd probably be talking about something differently.

This is an important first step to the process.

I told him that 3 1/2 years with one franchise is pretty good in today's world. Coaches tend to get fired as soon as teams lose a few games.

It's very disappointing. Sometimes players in the emotion of the game don't realize everything that goes on behind the scenes that need to happen to make these tournaments happen. As a player, I don't expect them to know that.

It's very disappointing, because the people at USA Hockey do a tremendous job. There is a lot of pressure on people. The top people at USA Hockey are volunteers.

It's not practical to have four goaltenders dressed for practice, so we felt it best to have Ryan remain at home and be available.

It's to everybody's advantage if we could just wait until the playoffs are over or mostly over. That way you don't want to affect any player's ability with their team right now either positively or negatively. If the players could finish the year out and then we could pick the team that would be ideal.

It's easy to sit up there and judge and say, what if we did this or that. What I came away with as being encouraging ... was we had a lot of guys step up and play big in the big games.

The nice thing about our team is that our depth is so much better. And our goaltending will be strong.

The new system doesn't change much for the top-end players, because they are still going to get paid.

Once he could put his blueprint on the team, I knew they would be successful. Hopefully, we'll catch up to them.

Not only do we feel we have a lot of speed and the grit, but enough scoring. We think our depth on defense is as good as it's ever been. And when you get in these short tournaments, a hot goaltender can lead you a long ways.

Anytime you're talking about the knee and you have surgery, it's not good.

I'm disappointed, for sure. But you learn from it, and you find a way to move forward. ... You lose every game by one goal ... we're going to take the positive from that, that we were in every game.

Ilya is an important part of our franchise and we share in our fans excitement that he is back with us for many seasons to come. He is one of the league's elite players and will play a pivotal role in our success.

I had the green light to go out and do this. This hasn't always been the case before. This ownership recognizes that we're close, and this is an opportunity to take us to the next level.

If you're left off this team, it doesn't mean you're a bad hockey player. It just means we have other good choices.

In signing Mike, we have added a solid, veteran goalie with more than 300 games of NHL experience to our club.

I hope he plays all the games and I hope we're paying the whole thing.

In the back of my mind I said why call a bluff. Let's do everything we can to sign him and we did.

His injury is healing, but the endurance part is not going so fast. He's been sore after every game this year.

His fast start has been very important with Dany out. We needed guys to step forward, and Ilya certainly has done that. He's taken this team on his back. He wants to be the go-go guy and he's proven that he's capable of being that. He's got nine goals in seven games and it's been an unbelievable start.

His all-around game has been especially good. That's why he's warranted more ice time, because he's played solid at both ends of the ice. I thought he was capable of playing good defense because he's a smart player. When you grow up in Russia, you learn to play defense, even if you are an offensive player. We knew he was capable of it.

But I did think we would score more than we are now. We've gotten chances to score, and we haven't buried them. And you don't get as many scoring chances in this type of tournament as you get in the National Hockey League.

He's the ultimate competitor. He's capable of being a part of this team. He plays all the hard minutes in Detroit.

Certainly there are guys who would have to play their way off the team and others who have to play their way on to the team.

He's an excellent offensive player. He's the catalyst on Colorado's power play.

You come here with higher expectations and it?s disappointing, no doubt, but we have to move on now.

All three of them are starting goaltenders in the NHL right now.