Don Waddell
Don Waddell
Donald Douglas Waddellis the former, and last President of the Atlanta Thrashers and a former professional ice hockey defenseman. He is currently President of Gale Force Sports & Entertainment, parent company of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League...
call contribute enjoyed expect extremely jeff overall players proud quality season sit steve success
When we call up players, we don't call them up just to sit on the bench. We expect them to contribute to our team's success right away. This season has been no exception. I'm extremely proud of the overall success the Gladiators have enjoyed and the quality players that Jeff and Steve have produced.
best compete confident continues country difficult extremely gold group hockey means pleased pool position process selection solid statement talent team terrific together united
We are extremely pleased with our team and feel very confident that we've put a solid group together that will best put us in a position to compete for the gold medal. The selection process was an extremely difficult one and that's a terrific statement for hockey in the United States. It means our talent pool in this country continues to grow.
change decision guys injury maybe named performed positions roll ryan team three today wish
We made a decision back in December. We all wish we could make this decision today on your whole team because maybe some other positions would change also. Ryan has come back from his injury and has performed very well, but we're very comfortable with the three guys we've named and we're going to roll with them.
blow certainly game positive start tournament
We're going to try to take the positive that we were in every game. We're out of the tournament but certainly it's not like it's something we have to blow up and start over, because every game we were right in there.
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We've put a lot pieces in place this summer. The franchise is in position to take the next big step. Ilya gives us a better chance to take that step to go even further.
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We all talk about how we've been in a transition period. ... We have a lot of good young players and a lot of guys coming in, and we can take the positives out of that.
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We have a lot of good, young players at USA Hockey and a lot of guys coming. We can take the positives out of this game and out of the whole tournament.
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It's to everybody's advantage if we could just wait until the playoffs are over or mostly over. That way you don't want to affect any player's ability with their team right now either positively or negatively. If the players could finish the year out and then we could pick the team that would be ideal.
came easy guys judge sit step
It's easy to sit up there and judge and say, what if we did this or that. What I came away with as being encouraging ... was we had a lot of guys step up and play big in the big games.
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I'm disappointed, for sure. But you learn from it, and you find a way to move forward. ... You lose every game by one goal ... we're going to take the positive from that, that we were in every game.