0:00

I just want to start out by thanking

0:04

our fans all across

0:08

the state of Minnesota. Even

0:16

though it was not the year that we thought

0:18

it could be or wanted

0:20

it to be, we

0:23

appreciate the amount

0:25

of support that we get each and every night. You

0:30

know, I believe

0:32

we sold out 39 out

0:34

of 41 home games this year. We

0:41

went down to Arizona twice and took over

0:43

that building a couple of times, which was

0:45

nice. We've always had, we travel well, our

0:47

fans are everywhere, and

0:50

we feel the support. We feel that

0:54

we have the best fans in

0:56

the league and we

0:58

greatly appreciate it and that

1:01

is sincere. I'd

1:04

like to thank all the employees that work

1:08

in the Excel Energy Center on game days, and

1:10

non-game days, and just keeping this place spic

1:14

and span and serving

1:16

our fans beers and popcorn

1:19

and hot dogs and helping

1:21

people find their seats. It's a

1:23

big operation that goes on, and we have just so

1:25

many great people that work around

1:27

this building. We

1:30

just want to make sure that they

1:32

know that we appreciate what they do.

1:36

And lastly, the Minnesota Wild,

1:39

the employees at the Wild. There's

1:43

so much that goes on in operating

1:46

a hockey team. What we

1:48

see on the ice is the final product,

1:51

but there's so much more that goes on in

1:53

it, especially on

1:55

the business side, with selling tickets and PR

1:58

and social media. and selling

2:01

sweets and all that stuff. So

2:04

without the employees of

2:06

the wild on the

2:08

business side, we

2:12

wouldn't be able to operate. So we want

2:15

to say thank you. And I'd

2:17

like to say a personal thank

2:19

you to my hockey operation staff,

2:21

scouts, and

2:26

just everybody that works in

2:28

hockey operations. And everybody

2:31

just works so hard to get this team on

2:33

the ice. I

2:38

just appreciate it. In

2:41

getting to the season, I can honestly say this

2:43

was a crazy one.

2:49

It's disappointing where we are. Not

2:52

making the playoffs is disappointing. This

2:55

was basically a season of inconsistencies. There

2:58

were some really good stretches. There

3:01

were some real tough stretches.

3:04

Our start was slow.

3:08

We were behind the eight ball right away. And

3:10

in this league, that's unforgiving. You

3:14

can't afford to start the way

3:16

we did and expect

3:21

to give yourself the best shot at the playoffs. We

3:25

put ourselves behind the eight ball early. We

3:31

had some good performances by individuals. We

3:33

had some other

3:35

players had tough years. That's

3:38

the way it goes. But

3:41

we couldn't afford it. It

3:47

was an up and down year that way. And

3:53

I also have to look at

3:55

myself in the mirror and what

3:57

could I have done better. You

4:00

know, I feel

4:03

like I could have

4:05

done a better job at insulating

4:08

our team, insulating our top

4:10

players, creating

4:12

more depth within the

4:15

organization. I feel

4:17

that's something that we

4:19

fell short on, you know, and

4:21

that's something I need to get better at. You

4:25

know, it was a tough

4:28

year in a lot of aspects. Making

4:30

a coaching change is

4:32

always very difficult. But

4:35

we had a good run with Dean. I appreciate

4:37

everything he did. But

4:39

when we made the change, it gave me the

4:41

opportunity to reconnect with John, who

4:45

I have a strong relationship with and a

4:48

long history with. And he's

4:50

somebody I really believe in. I think our players excelled

4:54

under him. Krell

4:57

scored 40 goals while John

4:59

was here. Matt Boldy scored 27, 28. Oh,

5:07

no. Yeah. Under

5:10

John, under John. Sarah. Yeah.

5:13

Yeah. One.

5:16

One. One. Anyway. Mute.

5:21

Yeah. Next topic. You

5:28

know, and just touching on a few. Look,

5:31

there's a long season. There's 82 games.

5:35

There's a lot ups and downs, even if you

5:37

have a great season. We

5:39

did add some great efforts, like I said.

5:43

We had some good runs when John first came in.

5:47

We slid a little bit, but then we got

5:49

back on our horse and played well. I will

5:51

give this team credit. These

5:53

players never quit until

5:57

they heard they

5:59

were mathematically. eliminate until it said you're

6:01

limited. Our team did not stop playing and

6:04

I respect that. I have

6:07

a lot of respect in

6:09

that and I yeah I

6:11

was proud of that that

6:13

they never stopped and you

6:17

know it's

6:19

it's it

6:21

was nice to see that they didn't have any

6:23

quit in them and you know

6:25

and there was some there were some good there

6:28

were some good individual seasons as well I

6:31

know there was some good we have some good

6:33

players that just didn't have great seasons but

6:37

we've seen great seasons in them before and we're

6:39

expecting them to be better next year and

6:43

that again that that happens that's

6:45

part of the human

6:47

element of the game guys aren't

6:49

robots but

6:51

you know if you if you go through like it

6:53

we had the you know Brock

6:56

Faber had a great year he he

6:58

has emerged as you know a

7:01

top pairing defenseman he was our top defenseman this

7:03

year so

7:07

you know that that is that is

7:10

an unbelievable unbelievably

7:13

good thing for our organization going

7:15

forward like I

7:17

said map all the ad an incredible second half I

7:19

think the potential is there for Matt to be a

7:23

star in this week Eric

7:26

Sinek had another incredible year of just

7:28

solid two-way hockey and I think

7:32

I think every player that plays against him gets mad

7:35

at him at least once as

7:37

they play and he's just so effective and

7:40

and 30 goals while

7:43

he's doing all that like

7:45

I said Correll had 40 goals under

7:47

John's tenure so far and and put

7:50

together a 96 point season even

7:52

though his first half didn't go that great he battled back

7:54

and I think he really just tried to put the team

7:57

on his back coming

7:59

down the stretch And that

8:02

is just such a luxury for us to have a

8:05

talented player that competes like that. Marco

8:08

Rossi, you know, a year ago,

8:10

I don't think we'd be saying that he'd have 21 goals. 21,

8:14

right? Yeah. I

8:17

mean, he put the work in last summer. He improved

8:19

himself, you know,

8:21

off the ice or his habits changed his way

8:23

of doing things and it paid off for him.

8:26

So that was great.

8:29

You know, our scouting department, our

8:31

pro scouts identified

8:34

Declan Chisholm as somebody who we should grab

8:36

off of waivers. And you

8:38

know what, it looks like this kid's going to be a pretty good

8:40

player. He didn't

8:42

get to play a lot of hockey the first half, but he

8:45

was pretty impressive when he got in there. And we're

8:49

looking forward to seeing what he can do in

8:51

the future. And

8:54

like, as for new faces,

8:57

to get Murat, who's a Dean off over

8:59

here from Russia finally, I

9:04

think he did a good job. I think he's kind of

9:06

feeling his way around the league. You

9:09

know, coming over to North America for the first

9:11

time, getting

9:13

acclimated to a new country, just

9:16

a new way of life, a new league, I

9:18

think he did a good job. And

9:22

I'll be excited to see him when he's a

9:25

little more familiar with everything going on. It

9:28

was great to see Liam Ogren get

9:31

his first couple of games. I

9:33

know John likes him. I think he handled himself

9:35

real well. It's good to see him get a

9:37

couple points, his first NHL goal. And

9:40

it was great to see Jesper Walsett

9:43

get back in the net and

9:47

get a couple of wins under his belt. Like

9:50

I said, 82 games, you

9:53

know, make the playoffs, don't make the playoffs. There's always a

9:55

lot of ups and downs. There's

9:58

always some negatives and there's always some positives. and

10:01

we've got to look at everything and

10:03

assess everything that's going on here

10:05

in order to get better. And

10:08

that's what our offseason is all

10:10

about, is getting better. And that's

10:14

going to be our goal. Bill,

10:20

you know... We'll get over the hump eventually. We'll

10:22

recreate our young... We didn't even get to the

10:24

hump this year. Exactly. So,

10:29

you know, the one thing you didn't say there, I

10:31

don't think you used the word injuries once, and talking

10:34

to the players today, the gist of it is that

10:36

there are no excuses. They were pretty

10:38

honest on how they became

10:40

a, you know, mentally fragile team this year,

10:42

that they, you know, some of them said they

10:44

are not a hard team to play against anymore,

10:46

that there's a woe is me attitude during games.

10:49

As a former player, how do you explain that

10:51

and how... Like, this is

10:53

a stark contrast to the team that scored 26

10:56

on 5 goals a couple years ago, that never

10:58

had that attitude. So how do

11:00

you get back to being a hard, hard

11:02

team again? Well,

11:09

that's a... You know, I

11:11

think that's interesting to hear that from the players, and

11:16

I'm happy to hear that because there are no excuses. I

11:18

don't... The injuries...

11:21

Yeah, the fact of the matter, there were injuries, but

11:23

that's not the reason we didn't make the

11:26

playoffs, I believe. It's

11:31

a contributing factor to... But

11:33

it's not the big... It's not

11:36

the big reason. When

11:38

I hear that our players say

11:41

that we were mentally fragile, I'd

11:43

agree with them. And

11:46

when they... If they said

11:49

that they

11:51

weren't competitive enough in the big games, I think that's what

11:53

you said, I would agree.

11:56

And the guys have...

11:59

We have to find out. We have to find

12:01

our swagger again. And

12:03

when you talk about those six on five goals and stuff like

12:05

that, we had swagger, we had

12:07

confidence, we had a

12:09

lot of FU in our game. And we need

12:12

to find it. And we didn't have it this year.

12:14

And that's... In

12:20

my mind, you have to

12:22

be a playoff team, to be a championship

12:24

team, you have to have that confidence

12:27

and that swagger and that

12:29

resiliency to be able to overcome things

12:33

like injuries. Bill,

12:36

you played in the league for a long time. How do you get

12:38

it back as a player when you lose it, when you lose a

12:40

resilience, when you lose a swagger, when you... You

12:42

mentioned mentally fragile and that kind of thing. How do

12:44

you get it back? Well, to be

12:46

honest with you, I think

12:48

sometimes the break is good. Like I

12:50

said, it was a crazy year. I

12:53

think sometimes you just need a mental

12:56

reset. I

12:58

think... I

13:02

think the coach and the coaching staff has a

13:04

lot to do with that and having the players...

13:09

John and I have talked a lot about like, it'll be

13:11

exciting to get to training camp, get

13:14

everybody on the same page, start

13:17

building from scratch. And

13:20

like you saw when John first got here, the

13:22

team did play with swagger. We were going. And

13:26

just be able to build more off of that.

13:28

And I know he's got a lot more in

13:30

his... You know, a lot more in your bag of tricks,

13:32

right? I hope so. You

13:34

better. But it's

13:36

just building back, building

13:38

that back and confidence

13:40

is tough to gain and

13:44

easy to lose. And

13:46

sometimes it can take a long time to

13:48

build it back up. But when you're doing

13:50

the right things, when you're in shape, when

13:53

you train properly, when you're fresh and

13:58

you compete and you do all the right things, things

14:00

it will come back and

14:02

I expect it to. I

14:07

really do. You

14:09

try to bring in any players

14:11

that can enhance that swagger by

14:14

getting bigger, stronger, tougher and what

14:16

other areas would you like to see or do you

14:18

feel need to change to become a playoff team? Bigger,

14:24

stronger, faster, those

14:26

are those are all nice ingredients in a

14:28

player. They really are and I think we

14:31

could use that. To

14:34

me too the compete

14:38

is our

14:41

compete night in and night out has

14:43

to get better and

14:45

I think when we had

14:47

100-point seasons it was each

14:49

and every night it was it was

14:53

relentless and we have to

14:55

get back to that. Bill, what

14:57

are some of your top priorities heading into this

14:59

offseason? Is it kind of evaluating what's here, what

15:01

pieces you can add or where does what does

15:03

that list start with for you? Yeah,

15:06

I mean we'll look

15:08

at our salary cap situation see what our

15:10

options are but to me upfront is going

15:13

to be one

15:16

of our main

15:18

objectives to improve the forward group

15:22

and like I said earlier like one of my

15:24

I think what I missed on this year was

15:26

the depth and we need

15:28

to create better depth in the organization to you

15:33

know to help insulate the other guys and

15:36

whether whether those players are in the

15:38

NHL or in Iowa to start or

15:41

wherever it's we have to be

15:43

better. Do you feel like you

15:46

don't know the cap yet? I assume it's going to

15:48

go up a little bit the salary cap. Do

15:52

you feel like you will have more maybe more

15:54

tools that your more options at your disposal than

15:56

you did last summer? I

15:58

do. I mean, obviously if

16:00

the cap goes up, we'll have more

16:04

money. I know everybody else will too, but we

16:06

could really use it. So, like

16:10

I said, we'll do what we can. You know what?

16:12

We'll look at every possible option

16:14

that we have, whether that's free agency, trades,

16:19

anything we can do to improve the team. And

16:24

again, we're starting

16:26

to see, I think

16:29

some of the patience pay off when you see

16:31

some of these younger players getting into

16:33

the mix. So we

16:35

want to continue that as well. But look, if there's

16:38

an opportunity to improve our team right away, we'll do

16:40

it. This is probably a

16:42

stupid question, so forgive me. But

16:44

if you get some cap space, I didn't

16:48

have any options last year, but do you want

16:50

to assume with a little bit of, like, if you

16:52

try to build a cushion in there, does that matter

16:54

too much to you guys to really have a

16:57

zero cap? That is a stupid, not sure. No.

17:00

Yeah, I always like to leave a little bit of

17:02

cushion. I

17:05

don't love just going right to it, and

17:07

then you

17:09

have to leave room for injuries

17:11

and call-ups and things like that. So a

17:14

little bit of cushion is preferred.

17:18

For both Bill and John, I understand

17:21

that the importance is on trying to

17:23

win as quickly as possible. But with

17:25

the kids who are now starting to

17:28

develop, you got some late looks. How

17:31

important is this next season

17:33

two to sort of transitioning

17:35

with those guys, where veterans

17:37

obviously can help, but

17:40

you've got a chance to come out of the

17:42

cap purgatory in really good shape as far as

17:44

talent goes. How do you

17:47

weigh that with trying to win now

17:49

when the future could be really bright

17:51

in developing guys over in Marat?

17:54

Go down that list. I

18:02

think I understand your question. We

18:05

want to win now. What

18:10

we want from our younger players is

18:14

to push to

18:16

make our lineup, to push, you

18:19

know what, push the older players,

18:22

get some internal competition. You

18:24

know what, if one of our

18:26

younger players can push out an older player and take

18:28

his spot in the

18:30

lap because he's better, then do it. You know,

18:34

if you can jump up on the second line and put

18:36

our second line guy down on the third or fourth, then

18:39

do it. That's what

18:41

we want. We want the internal competition.

18:43

That's what drives great teams and great

18:45

players. You

18:47

can't wait around and wait

18:50

for a spot to open up and us to put

18:52

you in there. No, take it. And you know what,

18:54

and I hope the older players get scared that somebody's

18:56

going to take their job and that scares them into

18:58

playing better because it

19:00

happens. It's

19:03

a cycle. You know, when

19:05

you're young, you're

19:08

so scared, you just want to

19:10

play and you have to

19:13

survive every single day in the lineup. Through

19:16

your career, there might be a little comfort zone where you're

19:18

in the lineup every day and this and

19:20

that, but then all of a sudden you're an older player

19:22

and then there's younger players coming and if you're not scared,

19:24

you're stupid because they're going to take

19:26

your job. I think

19:28

that's healthy and that's what we want. All

19:33

right, my turn. No,

19:36

I, you know, what Billy

19:38

just said is a reality. I think

19:40

in the salary cap era, I think

19:42

in all teams, you need to have

19:44

young players be able to come

19:47

up through your system and then you need them to

19:49

make impacts on

19:51

the NHL lineup. I think it was really

19:53

good that what Walset went through this year,

19:55

you know, obviously had a tough game and the first

19:58

opportunity to go back down to Iowa, on his

20:00

game and then was able to come up and have

20:03

some success here and play well. And he

20:05

looked like a different goalie, just

20:07

much more confident. A lot of times it's different

20:10

to come right up into this league and make

20:12

a strong impact, particularly at the goaltending position. You

20:15

look at Marat came in and he

20:17

got a really good feel like the exit meeting

20:19

with him is the first thing

20:21

out of his mouth was how fast the league

20:23

is and how much skating it is and

20:25

things that he wants to work on this summer. Liam

20:28

came in and got a quality opportunity.

20:31

Now with that being said, you can't force

20:34

younger players onto your team, that

20:36

if they're not ready. Part of their development

20:38

is when they're ready to make an impact,

20:40

when they're ready to take someone's job. Sometimes

20:43

they get a couple different looks and then they

20:45

develop and then they're ready to make an impact

20:47

on it. But to have young, you need younger

20:50

guys to be able to come in and make

20:52

impacts. We have several

20:54

good players right now that we're

20:56

excited about. Obviously they've been with the team a

20:58

little bit, there's more guys coming. But

21:01

I think as Billy said, internal

21:03

competition is a reality. And lots of

21:05

times even if you have veteran players, when you

21:08

have younger guys on your team, there's a different

21:10

energy too about your team. They're

21:12

hungry, they're eager to learn. They

21:15

push certain areas of

21:17

the game, they push certain players. So

21:21

the good thing is we know that they're coming.

21:23

And I think the smart thing is now what's

21:25

the right timing and how do you do that?

21:27

And when they're ready, they're

21:29

gonna be ready. And you wanna make sure that

21:32

you don't force them in when they're not ready,

21:34

because that could stall their development. John,

21:37

obviously you had like 60 games to get to

21:40

know these guys. You've had individual meetings of course of the season

21:42

too. So I'm sure you felt comfortable maybe doing some tough love

21:44

with exit meetings. What was your general message to some of these

21:46

guys? And did you feel, what was your feeling from the guys

21:48

coming back to you as far as their

21:51

accountability or kind of honesty and kind of that response

21:53

there? Yeah, every player

21:55

is different. I think in

21:57

these times it's not, a

22:00

tough love, I think it's

22:02

building relationship through honesty and

22:05

knowing that you're all in it together. That

22:07

it's not, you know, you

22:09

can't fix what happened this year

22:11

with particular guys but, or

22:14

the team in general. I would say the

22:17

guys are disappointed. They're disappointed in how the

22:19

season went. Certainly disappointed in not being

22:22

able to make the playoffs. I

22:24

liked a lot of their responses. I think

22:26

as Mike said or someone said that, you

22:29

know, there weren't excuses. It was things

22:31

that we could have controlled collectively

22:34

as a group or individuals that we didn't do

22:36

a good enough job of that. So that's encouraging

22:39

to me. I think

22:41

individually with players we had, it

22:43

was, there were good meetings. There

22:46

was honest feedback, honest communication. There

22:49

was plans for them moving forward, you know,

22:51

check-ins in the summer. I

22:54

thought the feedback on the team in general was

22:56

very good but I give the guys credit today

22:58

that we wanted to make this day productive and

23:00

spend quality time with them

23:02

and have some honest conversations. But to

23:05

me it's not about reading the riot

23:07

act. It's understanding what we need

23:09

to do to get better collectively, individually.

23:11

And then the next part is we want to

23:14

follow up. You know, it's one thing

23:16

you can have these meetings and then you don't talk again.

23:18

But continuing to build

23:20

the relationships, the accountability, even

23:24

throughout the off-season is important to make sure

23:26

that we are all back together on the

23:28

same page better individually which then

23:30

will make us better collectively when we get

23:32

into training camp. Bill,

23:35

it sounds like, you know, there is urgency just

23:37

not to get through next season and

23:39

get to summer 2025. How

23:41

realistic is that though? How

23:44

is this season not just a preview of

23:46

next season with the restraints that you dealt

23:48

with and the injury and the

23:50

depth that was exposed? How do

23:52

you make this not just be the norm for

23:55

another year and then you get your, you

23:57

know, all the restraints come off the

23:59

next summer? Because I don't operate like that. Just

24:02

wait it out. He

24:05

doesn't operate like that. I know that. We're

24:08

not just going to wait. Can

24:15

do a lot. Can get involved in

24:18

free agency. We can make trades.

24:21

I'm sure some of our players are not going to

24:24

have the seasons that they had this year. Our

24:28

special teams need to improve. There's

24:34

a lot we can improve on. And

24:37

with that will come, I think,

24:39

better success than we had this year. It's

24:43

not just trades

24:45

and free agencies and this and that. There's

24:47

a lot that we have to work on.

24:52

I mean, I think you see the same way,

24:54

right? Yeah, I mean, I

24:56

think you have to be able to control the controllables of

24:59

it. There's certain things

25:01

that you can do in the off season

25:03

from management coaching perspective, whether

25:05

that's free agency or trades. Those

25:07

are always on the table every year. But

25:11

I think it goes back to what I

25:13

just talked about with Joe was how

25:16

do we help the players improve? How do we

25:18

get the culture to go

25:20

to where we wanted to get to,

25:22

individual performances to be better, the team

25:25

collectively better

25:28

in certain areas. We talk about being

25:31

a mentally fragile group. These

25:33

are all things that are real. But they're

25:35

things. That's what coaching and playing is about,

25:38

is you got to find internal solutions. And

25:40

certainly this year was a lot of different adversity

25:44

for whether we had cap limits or

25:46

not or the injuries. We

25:49

were there lots of times coming down the stretch.

25:51

Now we didn't win the games that we needed

25:53

to win. So there's valuable lessons in that. And

25:55

I think you want to take those collectively, individually

25:58

to the players and the team. and now

26:00

we've got to work to get better. With

26:02

all that being said, these guys pushed it

26:06

pretty far for some of the circumstances

26:08

that we were under, but

26:10

now I'm excited because I

26:13

think there's lots of rooms for improvement

26:16

and those things are controllable. Bill,

26:19

I remember we were

26:22

all talking to Craig Leopold before the year and

26:24

he brought up Karel Kaprizov and how important he

26:26

is to this organization, but only if he's here

26:28

was the quote and he basically said

26:30

he'd be lying if it's not on

26:32

all of your minds on how to really make him

26:35

happy in the next couple years so he's going to

26:37

sign on the data line. How

26:39

much is that on your mind right now that

26:41

really these next couple years you've got to not

26:43

just win but show him that the

26:46

future of this team is bright so when

26:48

you can sign into extension as early as

26:50

next summer that gets done? Yeah, that's what

26:52

I love about him is that he wants

26:54

to win and I do. When you have

26:56

star players I think you have to show

27:01

them how committed you are as well and

27:03

that doesn't always mean in their

27:07

personal situation,

27:10

their contract or their stats or whatever.

27:12

It's about the team, it's about surrounding.

27:14

Karel wants to win. I know that

27:17

and yeah I

27:20

do feel that we need to show

27:22

him that we're committed to winning. I

27:26

know he likes it here, I know he's

27:30

enjoyed playing here, I know

27:32

he's had success playing here

27:34

but you know we

27:36

can get better and I think

27:38

we can continue

27:40

to surround him with, you know keep building

27:42

to surround him with a better team. Bill

27:46

you had mentioned a couple days ago that you

27:48

were not quite disappointed but not

27:50

thrilled with the way that the defense has played

27:53

in front of your goaltending and that was

27:55

kind of a part of it. No, the

27:57

team. The team, okay. How are you going

27:59

to Address that aspect defensively, you

28:01

know big emphasis on getting some of those

28:03

guys to be more expensive. But no, I I

28:07

I think we're talking about gold tending and Yes,

28:12

you can look at gold tending numbers and you

28:14

know say this guy was good that guy was

28:16

good this is

28:18

my opinion and The

28:23

The better we are in front

28:25

of the goalies the better they're gonna play Whether

28:28

or not gonna have to we're not gonna have to rely

28:30

on them to make you know a number

28:32

of great a You know Saves

28:35

every single game we have to we have

28:37

to protect them better than we

28:40

did this year. We have to Part

28:43

of that is being a better offensive team being

28:45

a better puck possession team in the offensive zone

28:48

Not putting so much pressure on them coming out

28:50

of coming out of our end easier Although

28:54

all those things that that him and I talked about

28:56

I think that was probably the first thing that we

28:58

talked about was coming out of D zone When

29:00

John first got here and you could see it right away,

29:03

but it's things like that not spending time in the D

29:05

zone Well, I

29:07

guarantee you if we do those things better.

29:09

We'll have better goaltending Because

29:11

they're the same guys They're

29:14

capable of it, you know, and I think

29:16

you saw like, you know coming down

29:18

the stretch I think Gus played really well like

29:20

his last handful of games and I think that

29:22

was more of what His

29:26

talent level brings, you know and flower, you

29:28

know same Was

29:30

your message to Gus and he kind of

29:32

addressed it speaking with us who was to

29:35

focus on that fitness aspect? I didn't talk

29:37

to him. He did Yeah,

29:39

we had it. Yeah Gus Gus is uh It's

29:43

a lot for him, you know Coming

29:45

into this year and you know

29:47

the expectations of transitioning, you

29:49

know from You

29:52

know being a support guy to being

29:54

the guy or supposed to be the guy and Fitness

29:58

level some of his practice practice

30:00

habits, some of the things that he needs to. I think

30:02

he was very, he was really well

30:05

thought out in his meeting. I think he

30:07

recognizes some

30:09

things that need to improve. There's a clear plan

30:11

in place for him. We'll

30:15

stay connected on it this summer, whether it's

30:17

myself or Freddie with him.

30:19

And you know, sometimes a

30:22

tougher year or you learn those lessons of maybe you

30:24

could get away with certain things before and then when

30:26

you go in a situation where it doesn't, I think

30:29

sometimes it ignites or ignites

30:32

someone just to realize that there needs to

30:34

be a certain improvement. And he's a

30:36

very talented guy and I think the big thing a lot

30:38

of players have to learn is, a

30:40

lot of them are here because of talent, but then how do you

30:42

take that talent and make it, you know,

30:45

excellent or elite. A lot of times it's

30:48

all the things surrounding the game. It's, you

30:50

know, your mental toughness, it's your mental mind

30:52

state, it's your fitness, it's how you practice,

30:55

it's how you prepare, you know, and sometimes

30:57

guys need to learn that they need to

30:59

take it to another level to maximize their

31:01

talent. And that's encouraging

31:04

to us that

31:06

Gus is in that place. John,

31:09

congratulations on today's news from USA Hockey. I just

31:11

wanted to ask how that came about, you know,

31:13

what you've learned from your previous go-arounds

31:15

in the World Championships and just kind

31:18

of what's your level of excitement to

31:20

get this opportunity? Yeah, thanks. I mean,

31:22

it's a great opportunity, you know, to

31:25

be able to represent your country and the Men's

31:28

World Championships is, you know, a

31:30

big stage and, you know,

31:32

I talked a little bit about it with

31:34

Billy and Brett Peterson and John Van Biesberg

31:36

just about the opportunity and the team and

31:39

it was really, it was, it's exciting. I

31:42

think the team is going to be a

31:44

motivated group. I think there's a lot of

31:46

NHL players going, a lot

31:48

of, you know, pretty prominent NHL players

31:50

that are gonna go that

31:52

either haven't had success or not in the playoffs

31:54

and I think that that's

31:57

really important. Obviously, you have the four nations

31:59

in the Olympics. you know, on

32:01

the forefront coming in after that where, you know,

32:04

I think players feel like if they go

32:06

they give themselves the best opportunity on the international stage

32:08

to show what they can do wearing

32:10

the USA jersey. I think

32:12

there's lots of players on the team that are looking to

32:14

play in meaningful games and show

32:16

what they can do and show guys like Billy

32:18

and you know his Olympic management group that

32:21

these guys are committed. It's a

32:23

sacrifice to go but

32:26

also that they can play winning hockey. They

32:28

can play their best when the stakes are

32:30

the highest and that's I'm excited for that

32:32

even as a coach, you know,

32:34

it gives you another opportunity to test yourself.

32:36

You're with different players, different coaches, you're going

32:39

to be in high stakes games. All

32:42

those things you're going to work with other

32:44

coaches, other general managers and all my experiences.

32:47

I've been lucky enough to

32:49

do a lot of them with USA hockey. I've always

32:51

become a better coach. You

32:53

get different ideas, you get challenged in different

32:55

ways but to me we're not in

32:57

the playoffs either this year. Like I want to play

32:59

in meaningful games and coach in meaningful games and coach

33:01

under pressure and try to get

33:03

a team to win a championship. So I couldn't

33:06

be more excited and honored to go. Billy,

33:10

just you know penalty kill killed you this year

33:13

and how do you fix that

33:16

if especially if the personnel is largely

33:19

the same? Obviously we've talked to John a lot

33:21

about you know training camp and how important that

33:23

will be to get the details. Do you

33:25

feel like that you're going

33:27

to have to really look at the personnel that you have in place?

33:30

I've killed like five penalties in my

33:32

life. Some

33:36

of it could be personnel. I really do

33:38

think that's a better question for John. You

33:41

think training

33:43

camp is where you can really hammer

33:45

it in? I do. I think

33:48

it's always

33:50

a multitude of factors when something struggles.

33:54

Can we coach the details of it better? It's got

33:56

to be better. It starts there. personnel

34:03

wise, we

34:06

have to look at that. Are

34:09

the details on the penalty kill good enough? Is

34:12

our goal tending good enough in those situations?

34:14

It's something that all

34:16

those things you continue to look at. I

34:19

will say this, the penalty kill is a

34:22

harder thing to adjust a lot in

34:25

season because the power plays are so good

34:28

and there's different dynamics to it where

34:30

there's not a lot of practice time, it's got to be a

34:32

lot of video time. I always think

34:34

when you go through every season, there's

34:38

always parts of your game that struggle.

34:40

I think it's your job and you

34:42

try to fix it and you try

34:44

to do the right things in season

34:46

to get it there, but

34:48

that's something where you have to spend

34:50

time on. Sometimes

34:53

it also comes through, it's struggled

34:55

all year and sometimes

34:57

when it comes back to that confidence factor, sometimes

35:01

when you get off to a bad start

35:03

or there's an area that struggles, it doesn't

35:05

just change overnight. You work at it and

35:07

you have some success with it. Sometimes

35:09

it struggles again. It does

35:11

take time to be able to get that

35:15

back and that's something that you're

35:18

going to look at. I also think there's different trends on

35:20

power plays now that change

35:23

every year. I think we've got to start the season

35:25

ahead of the curve. That's

35:27

a big one too, is really studying the

35:29

power play. It's not just the penalty kill

35:31

guy. I think it's working in combination of

35:34

how you kill certain things, how

35:37

you kill certain rotations and then

35:39

really hammering that in training camp

35:42

where you can spend time. You can practice it

35:44

live. It's intense. You can make

35:46

mistakes in exhibition games. You can see if this

35:48

works or that doesn't work. When you're trying to

35:50

make adjustments in some of those

35:52

situations in season, the bullets are flying. It's harder

35:54

but that's something we all got to be better

35:57

at. Billy, your staff, your

35:59

front office. what's your timeline on

36:01

filling the rest of that out and

36:04

injuries, any off-season surgeries

36:07

coming up for anybody? I'll

36:10

have some front office announcements

36:15

probably I'm thinking

36:17

mid-may, not

36:21

till then and surgeries we have

36:23

medicals tomorrow I don't foresee any

36:26

off the top of my head we'll

36:28

see what we'll see what comes of the

36:30

medicals tomorrow. Bill

36:32

gave me updates on who's going to world so you

36:34

have an idea of who all is going or not

36:36

going? No. Yeah you mentioned getting

36:39

better depth in the organization not just here in Iowa

36:41

what's your view of Iowa season and what

36:43

you have there and I know how what can you

36:45

do to better support I guess what there is. I

36:48

thought

36:53

Brett did a great job a

36:57

challenging year but

37:00

I do feel that that the

37:03

coaches did a good job

37:05

with a very difficult situation the

37:08

players always play hard I mean

37:10

they're those guys down there they just

37:13

battle it's a tough tough league and

37:15

they're all just trying to play

37:17

their hardest and can get to the next level but

37:21

when you have situation like we had this

37:23

year when we just

37:26

we just took their players it's

37:28

it can get

37:31

tough and you

37:33

know John and I went through that and Wilkes-Barre he used

37:35

to never complain about it though. Short

37:40

memory this guy. But

37:43

it can be tough but it can be

37:46

tough but I do think they did a very good

37:48

job you know we've like

37:51

I said we've had a number of young players come

37:53

up to play games for us and

37:55

contribute and then It's

38:00

it's because of what they do down

38:02

there. That's their that's their main objective

38:04

is to get players ready for us

38:08

This is kind of for both of you But Billy

38:10

if you want to start you had mentioned the need

38:12

for depth and secondary scoring a little bit Marcus

38:15

Johansson and Freddy Goudreau are two big pieces

38:17

of that How do you evaluate their seasons

38:19

and what do their futures look like moving forward

38:21

here? Well, they're under

38:23

contract. So they're their futures are

38:25

with us I Feel

38:30

like Freddy it seemed

38:32

to be a really tough year just because Injury

38:37

right off the bat. I think he I think it

38:39

was in Toronto. He got hit by Revo and That

38:43

just kind of started it and if you get sometimes

38:45

if you get hurt early on in the year like that

38:47

and I know He

38:49

came back and re-injured it. It's just it's a

38:52

terrible cycle to get in So I don't feel

38:54

like he really had the

38:56

chance to to catch up Jojo

39:00

had a year that that

39:07

I'll put it this way. Jojo has

39:09

so much talent that he

39:12

He always leaves you wanting more or he did

39:15

this year I

39:18

think the world of him and his his

39:20

ability to skate and Transfer

39:23

the puck and his patience

39:25

with it Is

39:29

is so good We

39:32

will I'm

39:35

almost shocked that he doesn't or didn't

39:37

produce more than he did this year. I

39:41

Would love for him to come back

39:43

and and regain the form that that

39:45

he had when he first came back

39:47

to us because he was unbelievable and

39:52

You know, he has that capability but

39:56

Yeah, that's what I expect and I expect ready to

39:59

bounce back You know, they're

40:01

both guys that love the game and they

40:04

nobody likes to have a Subpar

40:07

season, you know and As

40:13

much as you guys want to write about it or I

40:16

want to Say

40:19

things about it or John does or whatever.

40:21

Nobody wears it more than the player They

40:25

take it home they keeps them

40:27

up it Nobody

40:31

It's heaviest on the players shoulder.

40:34

So they don't Like I

40:36

think John made a really good point like these these

40:38

meetings and getting together at the end of the year

40:40

This is not to beat guys up. This is to

40:42

support guys just Figure out

40:45

how do we how do we help them get better? How

40:47

do we get them over these humps and and move

40:49

on from it? What's done is done this year's over You

40:52

know, we got it. We have to move on and help guys get

40:54

better build it potentially Making

40:57

some moves coming up What

41:00

is your thought process on going

41:02

to guys with no moves and no

41:04

trades if there is an opportunity to

41:07

move them and? How

41:10

that conversation transpires just because they do

41:12

have a certain amount of protection then

41:15

Yeah I

41:18

get it. I Don't

41:21

love dealing in what if so I'm

41:24

not I'm not going to anybody right now if I have

41:26

if I ever have to I would

41:28

but not right now Hey,

41:31

Bill, you started by joking about the hump and getting over

41:33

it My

41:36

cuz Mike didn't have the guts to say What

41:39

do you when you looked at what your young

41:41

core did? Does that kind of reaffirm in your

41:43

mind the plan that you have and that you'll

41:45

have an answer that yeah Yeah, I mean it

41:48

gives you hope it gives you that like

41:50

I said That's one of those positive things

41:52

during the season that that you have You

41:56

always go to the negative right you

41:59

have to go to the positives too. You

42:01

have to give the guys credit where credit's

42:03

due and like it's not... Look

42:08

I'm disappointed. John's disappointed. The players

42:10

are disappointed. Like nobody's happy with

42:12

the way this year went but

42:14

like we have to

42:17

look at some of the things that did go

42:19

on that were good

42:22

and some of these young players that really took

42:24

a big step is

42:26

a positive and we

42:29

have to be encouraged

42:32

by that. Yeah I am.

42:34

I'm very encouraged by it and I... You know

42:37

what? Marco Rossi a year ago we didn't know what

42:39

was gonna happen right? Like we're... He's

42:41

gonna stay in Minnesota. How's that gonna work? What's he

42:44

gonna be like? He had a pretty good year. You

42:48

know 20 goal score. Like that's a

42:50

lot in this league now and

42:53

you know for everything he's been through that's great.

42:55

You know Matt keeps emerging. He keeps... We got

42:57

to keep working with Bolts to get him to

43:00

keep developing him into into what he really

43:02

can be. You know faves as good

43:04

as the season he had. He's got

43:06

to come back next year and

43:09

and and do it again and like but

43:11

but man what a great first year. Like

43:16

I went through it with all the other young guys.

43:18

Like there's there's some good pieces. Yeah

43:27

sure as hell hope so. Mike

43:29

keeps bringing it up. Yeah it

43:31

is a thing and you

43:38

know we talked about this last

43:40

year and the hump and

43:42

getting over and getting past the first round

43:44

and this and that. I

43:47

don't know. Look I haven't been here for 25 years.

43:49

I haven't been here. I'm not I'm not

43:51

as crazy about it as you

43:54

guys are because I haven't gone through it. I'm

43:57

I'm doing what I feel is right as a

43:59

general manager. in building a team,

44:01

building a team that is going to be

44:04

built for long-term success. I don't, I could

44:06

care less what's happened in the past here.

44:09

I wasn't here. These players, most of these

44:11

players weren't here. We don't care. We

44:14

don't care. It's all about moving forward.

44:19

John, do you expect everyone back on the

44:21

coaching staff? Yeah,

44:24

we always go through, you know, coming in,

44:27

we worked really, really well together. I think everyone

44:29

does a good job. They

44:32

were helpful to me. You

44:34

know, sometimes you go through with different guys too. We'll

44:38

have meetings with those guys. And, you know, from

44:40

my perspective, it's always seen how they feel. You

44:42

know, you always think it's coming from your side,

44:44

but maybe a guy wants

44:46

a head coaching position. Maybe someone wants,

44:49

so I haven't had those discussions with

44:51

them, but I

44:53

think every one of them, we have a great

44:56

relationship, good working environment. Everybody's worked

44:58

hard, and I thank them for everything

45:00

we went through, and then we'll, you know,

45:02

move forward and see how everybody feels. Bill,

45:05

Brock mentioned not going to the world. What

45:08

are his injuries? He's got a big mouth. The

45:12

ribs. He said a

45:14

few, but it's all... Oh, did he give you

45:16

his injury report? He said a few injuries.

45:18

Yeah, yeah. Brock's been playing with fractured ribs

45:20

for two months. Do

45:25

you think that's how it happens? No, I

45:27

don't. But yeah, he's... I

45:30

mean, that's the type of kid he is, you know. He didn't... Never

45:34

complained, never said boo. He could have been out of

45:36

line up a number of

45:38

times, and he just wasn't. I

45:43

don't think John wanted him there anyways. I'll

45:46

take him with one rib. No,

45:51

he honestly... He's got a, you

45:55

know, under advice

45:57

from our medical staff, too. It's

45:59

best. that he gets healthy.

46:02

You also mentioned the other day

46:04

after Fleury resigns you weren't making

46:06

any decisions obviously right now about

46:08

the goaltending but I'm curious what

46:11

factors will you consider in deciding

46:13

for tandem for next season and what order

46:15

you want to see these goalies back

46:17

in. What factors? What will you consider in

46:19

deciding that? Yeah

46:25

I honestly I don't know if I have a

46:27

great answer for that question right now like I

46:30

I mean there's a lot that goes into it

46:33

you know

46:35

I'm comfortable I'm comfortable with our

46:37

goalies the way it is now I mean we're

46:39

gonna have to talk about it assess

46:42

everything really

46:46

find out where where

46:48

everybody is you know how like what's a workload

46:50

gonna be like for flower what you know what's

46:53

it gonna be like for Gus is how many

46:55

games do we need Wally to get because he

46:57

needs to get more than than he got this

46:59

year so all those things are

47:01

gonna kind of come into

47:03

play I just don't have anything

47:05

definite for you we're gonna we're gonna talk about

47:07

that. John you reflect

47:10

on the season that Correll had what were you

47:12

most impressed with? I

47:16

would say the combination of his his talent but

47:19

his drive and competitiveness just

47:24

you know I know I've said it lots of times but

47:26

he just his love for the game I mean

47:29

you know you go around different

47:31

teams and you work with different players and different

47:33

status of players but you come here Correll

47:35

I mean he loves the game

47:38

like whether it's practice or game he comes

47:40

out in pregame skate it's like a normal

47:42

practice like he just every day he

47:45

drives the team that way but

47:48

the combination of his his skill

47:51

set and how hard

47:53

he competes that's that's rare to

47:55

find a player that skilled that

47:57

talented that has that competitive edge

48:00

to his game has been

48:02

really impressive. John,

48:04

I wanted to ask you about Ryan Hartman. He

48:08

seems like he'd be a big piece next year. You want

48:10

to score more. He's got the ability. What

48:13

did you learn about? He also seems to be in the

48:15

middle of big wins. Anecdotal or anywhere,

48:17

he seems to be. What did you learn

48:19

about him getting 60 games with him? And

48:22

what did you see him learn next year?

48:25

I've learned that I'm really excited about him. I

48:28

think that he

48:30

has something that he's, what I

48:32

learned from him is I think there's so much more

48:34

upside to Hartsey. The

48:37

reason I say that number one is

48:39

he has that competitive gene when the

48:41

temperature gets turned up, when

48:43

there's pressure in games, when you need

48:45

a big play, he doesn't shrink. He

48:48

can perform in those environments. And I

48:50

think that's hard to

48:52

find sometimes. He's

48:57

a guy that he's a versatile player. He can play

48:59

wing and center. He's shown that he

49:01

can do a good job killing penalties. He obviously can

49:03

play in the power play. He has the ability to

49:06

score. I think

49:08

that moving

49:10

forward with him, what excites me is all those

49:13

things that I just said. But now, how can

49:15

we help him and work together with

49:20

getting him to a level where he's impacting

49:22

games regularly? He's got the big moments, and

49:24

he has these parts of his games that

49:26

you see, like there's some real potential here.

49:30

We need him to be good. I know he wants

49:32

to be good. We had a great meeting. And

49:35

I think that Ryan Hartman's upside, still

49:37

even though he's a veteran player. I

49:40

think it certainly can

49:42

go in the right direction. And

49:44

when you have players that have that

49:47

competitive nature and they can play in

49:49

those things, they do help you win

49:52

in key situations, hard situations. Now

49:55

it's how do we help him and he helps

49:57

himself become a much more

49:59

consistent player. a reliable player to get the

50:01

most out of his talent and his competitiveness.

50:04

And that's what excites me even when you go back to say, how

50:06

is the team going to be better next year? In

50:09

my experiences with them, whether it's

50:11

Gudrow, whether it's Johansson, whether it's Hartman, when

50:15

you have quality people and they care,

50:18

it's our job to try to help them to be better. And

50:22

whether that was Freddy or whether it was Johansson, you

50:24

look back to when we can blame the player. But

50:27

we also got to look back at coaches maybe

50:29

we didn't help them enough to get out of

50:31

certain situations or to drive them

50:34

in certain ways. But they

50:37

are guys of high character. They

50:39

are competitive. And they're good players.

50:42

So they have some things to do. But I think

50:45

as coaches, we need to do a better job and also look

50:47

in the mirror and say, how do we help get

50:49

more out of them? What can we do better with

50:51

them? And Hartsey is certainly one of those guys.