Doug Wilson Year Quotations

There's always a transition period. We've played pretty well for a while. Unfortunately we put ourselves in a bit of a hole earlier in the year and now we're just trying to play up to our capabilities and see where it leads us.

Niko is another highly skilled player who has shown he has the tools to flourish under the League's new rules, ... He has continued to improve his play each year and we look forward to him taking the next step in his development during the coming season.

To me everybody has to share in the blame for the lack of success we had last year. The bottom line is that my job was to remove all the distractions and allow everybody to be completely focused on solely doing their job, having a great camp and getting ready for a great start. We don't dwell on last year anymore. We're excited about where we're at. To me how people respond to last year is the most important thing. I don't care about lip service. You can see the focus and the chance at redemption. Nobody wants to go through what they went through last year again.

He had a tremendous impact on my life on many aspects of it, so it was very difficult, ... He was my defense partner, my roommate, my coach when I had my best year and then I worked at Coca-Cola with him for 10 years. So both personally and professionally he's had a profound influence on my life and it's tough to see his family going through this.

When we drafted him, people said he was probably the most ready for the NHL. But that to me was a bonus. It wasn't something we factored into when we decided to pick him. But he obviously played against men last year and played in the World Championships for the Czech team, and the thing that impressed me when he came in this summer is that he tested like a man in his physical testing. It transfers over to his game on the ice. He's a very mature player.

When we drafted him, people said he was probably the most ready for the NHL, ... But that to me was a bonus. It wasn't something we factored into when we decided to pick him. But he obviously played against men last year and played in the World Championships for the Czech team, and the thing that impressed me when he came in this summer is that he tested like a man in his physical testing. It transfers over to his game on the ice. He's a very mature player.

We're certainly not going to rush him. He's a young man who is a tremendously important player for us, so we're real glad that he's worked his tail off. He's not your typical 19 year old -- he's lived in an apartment by himself since he was 14 and he's a man both physically and mentally. But he will be back this season. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody rehab as hard as this.