The Flyers welcomed Ruslan Fedotenko and Bruno Gervais to Flyerdom on Thursday.
Gervais and Max Talbot are the best of friends, going back to their youth, growing up in Quebec.
"Rusty" is no stranger to Flyers fan and gives an honest performance on the ice. He might not make up for the 50+ plus points of Jaromir Jagr, but he is capable of half that many.
Gervais, like Luke Schenn, is a career minus player. Again, the Flyers did not upgrade on the back end after losing Matt Carle. They are younger but moving the puck up the ice is still an issue, not to mention who is going to come up with Carle's 38/40 points back there.
The Flyers need another veteran d-man. This isn't enough to get it done and this team is NOT as good now as it was in May.
Here are the transcripts, courtesy of the Flyers, from the Gervais/Fedotenko conference calls:
Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren
Q: On Fedotenko’s experience and how it can help the team
“Moving forward here, we’re still a pretty young group. I think the opportunity to add Ruslan, and his ability to play a lot of different roles on a team… he can play any wing, he can probably play center if you need… the fact that he’s won a couple times, the fact that he’s been here before, both played into the decision to move forward with him. We’ve actually tried to sign Ruslan a couple times over the last few years and we’ve always missed out. I like him, and I think he’s going to bring a lot to our team in terms of leadership, and I think he’s a winner, I really do.”
Q: On Bruno Gervais
“I think he’s going to fit nicely into our group of whether we carry 7 or 8 defensemen, we’ll see. But he’s a right-hand shot, and that gives us two right-hand [defensemen] shots in Luke Schenn and Bruno, something we haven’t had since I can’t remember. Probably goes back to Bob Dailey and Mike Busniuk. Bruno’s a good kid, he works hard, he’s got over 350 games of experience in the league. I know he’s bounced around a little bit, but he’s an unassuming, quiet, good player that’ll provide enthusiasm and experience, and I think he’s a really good fit on our team.”
Q: Did you get any input from Max Talbot about Bruno?
“I just know they’re good friends. I think Max is actually Bruno’s best man, I think he’s getting married here in a few days. Did that play a role… anytime you have players that know players, they can give you a little bit of an inside scoop on something about them that you don’t know. But we’ve always liked Bruno, even back to his Islander days early on. He’s just a quiet, steady player.”
Q: Will you still be looking to add more defensively?
“We’ll continue to look to see what’s out there and what we can do. I really like our team, and I’m hesitant to look at anything where I’ve got to give up something to get something back. We have a lot of good young players that have tremendous potential. Quite frankly I’m happy with our team right now. That doesn’t mean we won’t look and see what happens. As you know we took a couple swings for the fences early on in free agency, and those are adding players that you’re not taking away from your team. We had to slide to Plan B, and we’re happy with the players we got in Plan B.
Q: How much did Dennis Wideman’s contract raise the market above what you were willing to pay Matt Carle?
“Well, we tried very hard to sign Matt Carle. At the end of the day he decided to go elsewhere. I’m happy for Matt. I’ll say that before free agency started, during free agency, right up to the time he decided to go elsewhere, we tried hard to sign Matt. It’s just one of those things. I’m disappointed, but we’ll move on. Like I said, I’m happy for Matt. He was a good player for us, and it’s not like we didn’t try to sign him. We just move on. “
Q: How disappointed were you not to sign Parise or Suter?
“Well, we took our shot. They’re both elite players in our game. We’re not the only team that took shots, and whether we had a chance or not, I don’t know. But we took our shots. I found out late on the 3rd that we were out on Ryan and then early morning on the 4th found out that we were out on Zach, so we quickly moved forward onto our next phase.
Q: Can you talk about what happened with Jaromir Jagr?
“I spoke with Petr Svoboda all through the process. I don’t know if he got antsy or what. I got a call late on the 3rd that he was getting excited and wanted to make a move, and I wasn’t prepared to do anything at that time. We still had offers out on the table that I wanted to wait on, and I wasn’t prepared to move on Jaromir at the time. I said the other, day, Jaromir was really good for us. I’m happy for him and we wish him well in Dallas. I think it’s a great addition for Dallas. It just got to the point where I needed to move, and he wasn’t ready to wait.”
Q: If you had to look at what you’ve lost versus what you’ve acquired, how do you compare things?
“I don’t know how to quantify that. We still have the nucleus of our young team that we had at the end of last year. I think we’re going to be better with all those guys having one year under their belts… Jakub and Wayne Simmonds and Couturier and Matt Read, and the other young guys that gave us things like Wellwood and Rinaldo. We’ve added Luke Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann we get to see and get full season out of. You could argue that we lost a lot of good players and we did. But the maturation process of our group and adding a solid guy like Ruslan to our forward mix and a steady guy like Bruno on our back end… I think we’re still a good team that has a lot of potential.”
Q: On contract talks with Jakub Voracek
“That’s a process right now that we’re going through. Jakub will be signed at some point… I don’t want to put a timeline on it. But he’ll be signed at some point.”
Flyers defenseman Bruno Gervais
Q: On his relationship with Max Talbot
“We grew up together. I’ve know max pretty much forever. We played together when we were 10 years old back home, so I’ve known him my whole life. We had a similar path. We turned pro at the same time, we played against each other in junior, and kept in touch the whole time. We used to be roommates this summer when we came back and trained together a lot, so just kind of grew up with him and followed the same path my whole life.”
Q: When is the wedding, and is he the best man?
“He’s one of the best men. I have my brother as the best man and three other guys I grew up with my whole life, and he’s one of them, so he’s really involved in the wedding. And the wedding is July 14. I still have time, nine days left, but it’s coming pretty fast.”
Q: Did Max influence your signing with the Flyers?
“Well, yeah, for sue, but the main thing was for me that I want to win and I want to be part of a team heading that way. Last year, I was really happy going to Tampa Bay. I did enjoy my year. It wasn’t the year that we expected as a team. To make a little change right now, I’m really excited about that, and turning to a team with the quality of an organization like the Flyers, and such a great sports town – I’ve been there a few times already, and love the town and love the way the organization is heading. I just want to help the team any way I can to go further in the playoffs and having a chance to win.
Q: Could you describe how last season went for you?
“I was healthy the whole season. I knew the situation going in. The last year I had in New York was a tough one with injuries and was a really hard year for me. [inaudible]… There was a ranking of all the D-men, there was a lot of traffic there. I knew I was going to going to fight to get my chance. Early on through the year there was a lot of bodies there, so I had to kind of wait for my time, but the second I got back in the lineup, things went really well. They were really happy with me on and off the ice, I felt really good, and I got back to the hockey I know I can play. From a confidence point of view, it really helped me that year and helped me get back on track.
Flyers Left Wing Ruslan Fedotenko
Q: On returning to the Flyers
“I’m really excited. I started my career there and I have great memories there. I’m excited to have a good team and a great organization.”
Q: Do you look back on the day you were traded from here and think I never would have won the Cup in Tampa, wouldn’t have scored that big goal, wouldn’t have won the Cup in Pittsburgh?
“You always sometimes look back and see what journey you took, but I never looked at it that way, what if I never leave, or other things. What if we’d won the Cup in Philly. I never do that, and I believe whatever cards you’re dealt at that time… I had a first time in Philly, I had great fans there, and I was excited. I was excited and most of all I was really appreciative of the Flyers organization giving me a chance to be in the NHL at that point. So I never look back and think such-and-such traded me, they didn’t want me… it’s part of the business, and I just go with that. Like you said, in the years I always thought it would be nice to one day come back and play there again, and it happened this time.
Q: It took you a while to stick with the Flyers at that point… do you look back on that at all and at least understand that kind of gave you a career boost?
“My first year I was with the Phantoms and the one time I went down to the East Coast [league]… my second year I started with the Phantoms, I believe six or eight games, and I got called up once and I’ve stuck since then. [The first year] was a learning experience coming from juniors. I had a good training camp, but it was not the start I would have liked in the AHL with the Phantoms. At that point, I had a talk with Bill Barber and he said you just need to get your scoring touch back, so we’ll send you down, you get your scoring back for a couple games, and we’ll call you back. I believe at that point that’s what happened. When I came back, I believe I finished really strong the rest of the season with the Phantoms. It was all good there. The second year, when I made it to the NHL, I was very, very happy. To not be drafted and my second year being in the NHL, I think I was pretty lucky.”
Q: What do you think you’ve brought to the teams you’ve played for since then?
“I think maybe I bring a little bit different things to the teams now than when I started my career. Now I obviously have more experience… I’ve been through winning and not winning, I guess... you know what, I feel like I can still have that physical play. At the time that’s kind of how they called Flyer hockey. Bill Barber was training me to play that way, play physical, gritty, kind of playoff hockey. I believe I thrive in that and I’m pretty excited about that.”
Q: You played with Talbot and Malkin and Dupuis the year you won the Cup in Pittsburgh, and now you have a chance to play with Claude Giroux. Can you talk a little bit about what it takes to play with these kind of players?
“I’ve been very lucky throughout my whole career. I’ve been playing with great, great players starting in Philadelphia and all along the way. I did play with Max there and Malkin and that’s when we won the Cup, and we had pretty good chemistry there. I feel like I can adjust to a lot of different players. I feel like maybe I come with a little bit of versatility. I feel like I can play more finesse game or I can play really defensive. I feel like I can adapt to many styles and like I said, I’m looking forward to whoever the coaches decide to put me in with, I’m excited to take on the challenge.”
Q: If you had your choice, would you like to play alongside Giroux or maybe alongside Max Talbot?
“That would be great. Like I said, I leave that up to the coaches to do the coaching job. For me as a player, I just do m y job when I need to get on the ice. Whatever lines I am put on, I will be doing my best.”
Q: On the results of the trade where he left Philadelphia – that he has had a long career
“I never really look back at that. I always feel at that point in time, I was maybe surprised, but Philly at that point maybe valued Pitkanen much greater, and his potential, the believe, it was… I wouldn’t say they were gambling, but they believed the reward would be much greater. I don’t want to get into all those details, but the GMs and the organization want to run the team a certain way and they’re looking for certain pieces and certain players to fit needs at that specific time. I believe if they see different teams willing to a top pick for me and they thought that was a good deal, then that’s when they pull the trigger. I can speak for myself, I’m ecstatic to play in the NHL and have this career, and like I said, be on the winning teams, but I’m not really bragging or thinking I’m so glad Pitkanen didn’t make it because it made me look better. I’m not that way.”
Q: Did you have a lot of offers, and why did you pick the Flyers?
“I don’t want to go into much detail… I had quite a few [offers], but I felt like I wanted to go to a team where I believe we have a chance to win the Cup. My goal last year was to stay with the Rangers because I believed we had a really good chance to win the Cup, and like I said, that didn’t work out last year. I still want to pick a team [that is] a really good contender for winning and I want to be a part of it.”
Q: What makes you think the Flyers are a better position to win the Cup than the last couple of years?
“I don’t know if Philly would say they’re better than last year, but I believe it’s a pretty young team. Every time and with every year with every experience a team matures and has a good chance. Who knew LA would win the Cup? Obviously when you get to the playoffs, anything can happen. But I feel like you have better chances, I believe in my mind you have better chances of making the playoffs and then having a good run for this team than some teams, I don’t want to name names, but teams that haven’t made the playoffs in the last couple years. So that’s why.”
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