Paul Holmgren's presser before the game ... transcript courtesy of the Flyers:
hiladelphia Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren
“I’d like to thank Ed Snider and Peter Luukko again for this contract extension. I am truly excited about this opportunity. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Mr. Snider and with Peter, along with our coaching staff and of course our players in pursuit of the ultimate goal here with the Flyers, and that is to win the Stanley Cup. Philadelphia is such a great sports town. I’m really honored and proud to be a part of what is going on here. I think our fans are ravenous, and our fans are passionate. I think that all of the sports teams in this town are all pushing each other and pushing the envelope trying to win the championship in their respective sports. I look forward to trying to accomplish that goal over the next few years here with the Flyers.”
Q: Paul, I talked to Peter today and he said that when you took over after the lockout the game has changed. He said it’s called differently and the game is a lot quicker, yet you have kept the Flyers identity. Can you talk about the difficulty of doing that since you took over?
“I think part of being a Flyer involves bringing your lunch pail to work. I don’t think that’s ever going away. That is part of our culture and tradition here. In terms of talking about the way the game has changed; you’ve got to be able to handle the puck. Fixing your defensemen is one area that we really set out to attack and try to make better over the last few years. If your defensemen can’t go back and get the puck and make plays, you’re going to have a hard time.”
Q: Paul, no general manager can do his job alone. Can you talk a little bit about your staff and what they bring to the table?
“Obviously the guys I lean greatly on are John Paddock and Barry Hanrahan more often then not, and also Chris Pryor, who is the Director of Hockey Operations on our staff. Those three guys I talk to daily. John is a guy that’s accomplished as much as he has in the coaching ranks, he won three Calder Cups as a coach in the American League. He’s just got a tremendous eye for the game and he’s the guy I lean on in that regard. Barry is knowledgeable with the salary cap and what we can and can’t do. It gets tricky at times but Barry is very in-depth at figuring things out. It’s not rocket science but sometimes it seems like it is, and Barry helps out in those regards. Chris’s knowledge and expertise in the scouting end of the business is tremendous. He is very well connected with other scouts throughout the league and has a great tree of who to contact and who to talk to, and he actually gets out there a lot and finds players.”
Q: Do you ever allow yourself the opportunity to think back to 2006 when you first took over, and think how far the team has come the first year and how far they’ve come since?
“The one thing I remember is getting back to how passionate and ravenous our fans are. That was an awful year. I don’t want to think about it but thanks for bringing it up [laughs]. At the end, we started to turn around a little bit. We made a couple deals, bringing Scottie Upshall and Braydon Coburn in. I thought that gave us a little push of enthusiasm. But, the fans were great that whole year. Thank God for ‘the dancing man’ [laughs].”
Q: You played, you coached, you assistant general managed, you scouted. Was there a point where you thought that this was the job you wanted?
“You know, not really. I was perfectly comfortable doing what I did for [Bob Clarke]. I like getting out and seeing junior games, and I like going to college games. When Clarkie stepped down I sort of made a vow in my own mind to not get away from doing that. But, the nature of the job sometimes has kept me from doing as much as I’d like to do. That’s something I still think about and I want to do is get out there and do that. But, I was perfectly happy doing that. Clarkie is still a good friend of mine and I still talk to him on a daily basis. Had this never happened I would’ve been very comfortable. I’m happy that it worked out the way it did. Clarkie is doing good and he looks great. I love this job; it’s great. Again, this is a passionate town and it’s just great to be here.”
Q: You’ve mentioned Bob Clarke. How have you benefitted from him?
“He’s been around a long time. He’s got a lot of experience, especially last year when it was nip and tuck whether we were going to get into the playoffs. He really brings a lot to the table.”
Q: Does he see things that you don’t see?
“Yeah, I would say he probably does. He sees the game a different way than I do at times. I mentioned John Paddock. [Clarke] and John can watch the game up in the [press] box and they can see different things going on during the game. I think that it’s good that they each bring that perspective to the game.”
Q: Very few, if any franchises in any sport have as many former players around as the Flyers do. Why do you think that is?
“I think some of that probably goes back to Mr. Snider. I think he’s done very well to get them. A lot of those players won Stanley Cups here, and it probably goes back to him more than anything. Just look at Bobby Clarke. Following his great career as a player, he stepped right in. I know this: he didn’t want to become a general manager when he did. He was sort of forced into it. He went in kicking and screaming. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, but he’s made a good career out of it. He’s a real loyal guy, too. One of the things I’ve learned from Bob is that you’re in a tough business. You need people around you that you can lean on and that’s one of the things that I do with him as an assistant.”
Q: You mentioned briefly about the other teams in this town. Does that make your job more difficult, more fun, or more challenging?
“Probably a combination of all those things, but also it’s exciting, because I know for a fact our players are going to Sixers games. I know when the Eagles are playing, and when they were in the playoff hunt, and when the Phillies were on their run at the end of last year, and even when they made the World Series a few years ago. You can see the excitement of coming to the football field, the ballpark, and the basketball court. I think it’s great for the players, and that’s what’s exciting for me about it. I think we can keep pushing each other as sports franchises.”
Q: Paul, where did you find Sergei Bobrovsky?
“Sergei is a kid that we knew about in his draft year. To make a long story short, a lot of times we’re afraid to draft Russian players because you can’t sign them. They stay in their own country, where they can make more money than they can from coming over here. It came up last year, the opportunity to maybe sign him as a free agent. One of our scouts looks at the KHL [Kontinental Hockey League] exclusively. Sergei was stuck for the last couple of years playing for a not very good team, but his goals-against was good, his save percentage was good. We watched some tape on him and decided to take the plunge.”
Q: Back in your first year you lost all of those games. Was there any particular acquisition that helped turn things around?
“To get a player such as a Danny Briere as a free agent, but that’s not necessarily all me. You also have to mention the guys we picked up in trades, a guy like [Braydon] Coburn. We got the rights to Kimmo [Timonen], and Scott Hartnell. That was a little bit of luck. At the end of the day I think those guys recognized that the Flyers were in it to win it, and that’s why they wanted to play here.
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