Burns Weighs in on Teams Future
GM David Burns of the New York Rangers met with the press yesterday to and put forth his vision for his team.
Reporter: Are you pleased that you were able to bring back Alexandre Daigle for less money than you paid him last year?
Burns: Alexandre was a big factor on our team last year. We're a young team and at 27 he was in a leadership role and he put up a lot of points for us. He really enjoyed it here last year and took a pay cut from 4.5 million to 3 million per year on the understanding that we would use that savings to sign some people to put this team over the hump.
Reporter: What do you think it's going to take to move this team to the next level?
Burns: I'm really excited about what I see here. We have a core of excellent young players. We're deep on the wings, we have a superstar netminder in the makings in Lehtonen. I expect this team to make the playoffs this year. I think that if we can add a centre and a defensman or two through free agency we'll be in the playoffs comfortably and can threaten to go very deep.
Reporter: There's been a lot of criticism over the Bure for Hossa deal...
Burns: I've already commented on that. The funds received in that deal will help us sign some people that will push us upwards in the standings.
Reporter: You failed to sign 13 people on your farm team and 10 or so in the pros. How are you going to fill those positions.
Burns: We in New York feel that there needs to be some adjustments to the rules for resigings. When, by unlucky circumstance, you have to sign a large group of marginal players simply to keep your roster numbers in line it can bankrupt your team. We've spoken to the league and we'll be proposing a change to signing bonus structure. I'd love to keep most of those guys but at an average signing bonus of $400,000 I don't think there are many teams that could. And those that did severely damaged financially. Think about it. Not one of those players would be a regluar player on the New York Rangers but to simply hold on to them it would have cost us about 10 million dollars. Ridiculous. We'll be speaking to the league. Check the Rule Change board.
Thanks for your time.
Reporter: Are you pleased that you were able to bring back Alexandre Daigle for less money than you paid him last year?
Burns: Alexandre was a big factor on our team last year. We're a young team and at 27 he was in a leadership role and he put up a lot of points for us. He really enjoyed it here last year and took a pay cut from 4.5 million to 3 million per year on the understanding that we would use that savings to sign some people to put this team over the hump.
Reporter: What do you think it's going to take to move this team to the next level?
Burns: I'm really excited about what I see here. We have a core of excellent young players. We're deep on the wings, we have a superstar netminder in the makings in Lehtonen. I expect this team to make the playoffs this year. I think that if we can add a centre and a defensman or two through free agency we'll be in the playoffs comfortably and can threaten to go very deep.
Reporter: There's been a lot of criticism over the Bure for Hossa deal...
Burns: I've already commented on that. The funds received in that deal will help us sign some people that will push us upwards in the standings.
Reporter: You failed to sign 13 people on your farm team and 10 or so in the pros. How are you going to fill those positions.
Burns: We in New York feel that there needs to be some adjustments to the rules for resigings. When, by unlucky circumstance, you have to sign a large group of marginal players simply to keep your roster numbers in line it can bankrupt your team. We've spoken to the league and we'll be proposing a change to signing bonus structure. I'd love to keep most of those guys but at an average signing bonus of $400,000 I don't think there are many teams that could. And those that did severely damaged financially. Think about it. Not one of those players would be a regluar player on the New York Rangers but to simply hold on to them it would have cost us about 10 million dollars. Ridiculous. We'll be speaking to the league. Check the Rule Change board.
Thanks for your time.
posted by RangersGM at 9:37 AM
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500K in the bank
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