Q and A with General Manager Sviland
(3-21-09) - Washington Post
We sit down with General Manager of the Washington Capitals. This year has not just been a suprise to everyone, but to him as well. He breaks down the season, expectations next year and a look at the 2009 draft.
Q: You are currently in 6th place, did you think a year ago you would be in his kind of position?
A: No, absolutely not. We have a very young and inexperienced team. We felt as though we made great strides last year and we certainly kept them up this year. After trading away pieces like Kris Letang and Ryan Kesler for the soon-to-be injured Brenden Morrow, I really did not think the team would rally behind that. Brenden brought some spark briefly and to only think where we could be if we had him is beyond phenominal. We set expectations to improve little by little every year and to jump from 16th to 6th is incredible.
Q: Who was your biggest suprise this year?
A: Its very hard to say, but if i had to pick one it would be Loui Eriksson. This kid is the best player everyone has never heard about. He currently has 33 goals and 410 UHFL points. How much can you expect from a kid who got barely half of that last year? He has been phenominal and I think we are only seeing the start of a budding star in the making. I think Loui could become one of the best players in the league with his overall skill set. He can play every situation and it shows. He's got 33 goals and is a plus-15. We never thought we could get this kind of production from our youngsters this year but it really shows how important the draft is.
Q: If you had to pick one weakness on your roster, what is it?
A: Goaltending without a doubt. We lovve Johan Hedberg but he's getting older and we need to look eslewhere. His position has not gotten us much this year and if we want to make a run at the regular season championship we are going to need another guy in Fleury's range.
Q: With your strength going from defense to forward this year, does that change your draft thoughts?
A: Defintely not. Overlooking the past drafts, we didn't stick to a strict game plan and it shows. In 2004 we picked a lot of bad players and the one we released ended up being the best one we picked. The past few years we have done a better job at getting guys in all rounds and we need to continue to stick by our game plan. This year we have a game plan and we will not opt out of that.
Q: What are you looking at at the draft?
A: I cant say that for sure but we do have our eyes on one kid who we are completely blown away with. We are going to be aggressive once the trade lock is lifted and try to acquire a 2009 first rounder without ruining most of our assets we currently have.
Q: Who do you see becoming your Michael Frolik/Oscar Moller next year?
A: We really had no idea these two would make it out of the gates. Next year Johnathan Ericsson will be a full timer, so he will help give us that 6th defensive position locked down. Evgeni Dadonov is scheduled to come over and try out at training camp so he could be a late suprise. I think guys like Jimmy Howard and Marek Zagrapan will finally make it and hopefully we can build upon that. We need to keep building our team a certain way and everything so far is right on track.
Q: What are you looking for in the summer?
A: I would like to acquire another player in Morrow's calibar to add to him. If we can add to this roster a player of that kind of skill without losing much of a roster player then we will technically be gaining two players this year (with Morrow coming back). It would be a phenominal pick up for our organization and it is something we are looking into. We have held some talks with other organizations and we plan on keeping the phone lines open.
Q: Thanks for your time, good luck the rest of the way.
A: Thanks, we appriciate it.
We sit down with General Manager of the Washington Capitals. This year has not just been a suprise to everyone, but to him as well. He breaks down the season, expectations next year and a look at the 2009 draft.
Q: You are currently in 6th place, did you think a year ago you would be in his kind of position?
A: No, absolutely not. We have a very young and inexperienced team. We felt as though we made great strides last year and we certainly kept them up this year. After trading away pieces like Kris Letang and Ryan Kesler for the soon-to-be injured Brenden Morrow, I really did not think the team would rally behind that. Brenden brought some spark briefly and to only think where we could be if we had him is beyond phenominal. We set expectations to improve little by little every year and to jump from 16th to 6th is incredible.
Q: Who was your biggest suprise this year?
A: Its very hard to say, but if i had to pick one it would be Loui Eriksson. This kid is the best player everyone has never heard about. He currently has 33 goals and 410 UHFL points. How much can you expect from a kid who got barely half of that last year? He has been phenominal and I think we are only seeing the start of a budding star in the making. I think Loui could become one of the best players in the league with his overall skill set. He can play every situation and it shows. He's got 33 goals and is a plus-15. We never thought we could get this kind of production from our youngsters this year but it really shows how important the draft is.
Q: If you had to pick one weakness on your roster, what is it?
A: Goaltending without a doubt. We lovve Johan Hedberg but he's getting older and we need to look eslewhere. His position has not gotten us much this year and if we want to make a run at the regular season championship we are going to need another guy in Fleury's range.
Q: With your strength going from defense to forward this year, does that change your draft thoughts?
A: Defintely not. Overlooking the past drafts, we didn't stick to a strict game plan and it shows. In 2004 we picked a lot of bad players and the one we released ended up being the best one we picked. The past few years we have done a better job at getting guys in all rounds and we need to continue to stick by our game plan. This year we have a game plan and we will not opt out of that.
Q: What are you looking at at the draft?
A: I cant say that for sure but we do have our eyes on one kid who we are completely blown away with. We are going to be aggressive once the trade lock is lifted and try to acquire a 2009 first rounder without ruining most of our assets we currently have.
Q: Who do you see becoming your Michael Frolik/Oscar Moller next year?
A: We really had no idea these two would make it out of the gates. Next year Johnathan Ericsson will be a full timer, so he will help give us that 6th defensive position locked down. Evgeni Dadonov is scheduled to come over and try out at training camp so he could be a late suprise. I think guys like Jimmy Howard and Marek Zagrapan will finally make it and hopefully we can build upon that. We need to keep building our team a certain way and everything so far is right on track.
Q: What are you looking for in the summer?
A: I would like to acquire another player in Morrow's calibar to add to him. If we can add to this roster a player of that kind of skill without losing much of a roster player then we will technically be gaining two players this year (with Morrow coming back). It would be a phenominal pick up for our organization and it is something we are looking into. We have held some talks with other organizations and we plan on keeping the phone lines open.
Q: Thanks for your time, good luck the rest of the way.
A: Thanks, we appriciate it.
posted by Washington Post at 6:09 PM
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