Corfield is the only GM the franchise has ever known, winning four championships since the team came into existence back in 2001. Making the playoffs in 11 of the league's 16 seasons, DAY has finished 1st over-all 7 times in the league's 16-year history.
Q: Before we look at the upcoming season, any final thoughts on last season's team? It was a difficult year for everyone. Coming off the Championship, to assess the terrain of the team, the finances, the league, etc. we had to make a hard decision to break it all down and look to the future. It had to be done and we're very excited about what the future holds.
Q: How were the off-season for the team and you personally? We said goodbye to a lot of players. Only 9 guys on this year's team were with us last season. That was kind of by design and we'll see a good bit of turnover next off-season as well. We know guys like Steen, Radulov, Oduya, Radulov or Dubnyck will be moving on as our younger kids step into the picture. Personally, it was great.. time with the family, traveled, relaxed...
Q: You had 40 draft picks in the last Entry Draft. Talk about the big names you selected and some of the not so big names you were pleased to get... Well, obviously Dahlin & Svechnikov were the big fish right off the top. After those two, we were very pleased to get two highly ranked netminders in Rodrguez & Skarek as well as NHL veteran Evgeny Dadonov, a guy who will step in and help right away. We had targeted Dadanov because he's going to likely play in the top line on vastly improved Florida team with Barkov and Mike Hoffman. The potential for a strong year offensively is high and can either benefit us directly or bring in another attractive asset before the trade deadline.
Other draftees that come to mind include Aaron Luchuk of OTT, Mac Hollowell - who almost made the Leafs in his first camp - CJ Smith of the Sabres, Skylar McKenzie a nice LW who almost made the Jets in his first try, Paul Cotter of Vegas is going to be a good one someday and Pavel Francouz, a netminder who projects to be a #1 guy for the Avs someday. Two other pros we drafted was a KHL all-star defenseman in Bogdan Kiselvich of the Panthers who's going to play in the NHL this season because he signed a 1-way contract. It's either the NHL or back to Russia for him. Finally, Joakim Ryan of the Sharks, who was voted their "Rookie of the Year" last season. He's also a dman who can eat minutes for us at a reasonable salary.
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