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George McPhee on Re-signing William Karlsson |
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Sheng Peng
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George McPhee spoke about the William Karlsson settlement today. Instead of going to arbitration, Karlsson settled on a one-year, $5.25 million contract.
Thanks to the Golden Knights communications staff for furnishing these quotes.
Thoughts on how the team roster looks at this point compared to the end of last year…
George McPhee: We’re pretty much in the same place. We think we have excellent goaltending, our defense is very sound, very good, the forward group is very good. If there’s an opportunity to upgrade at the forward position in the next year, we will. We like where we are and we will see what we look like at the end of training camp and see how far some players have come along.
Thoughts on the entire division getting better and how the Golden Knights fit into that…
GM: It’ll be a new season that we’re all excited for—lots of opportunities for some folks to perform better and to continue improving. It’s another season and we’re excited about it. We have a good team and we’re looking forward to seeing how some of the younger guys will be this year and how much better they can be. We have several players that took big steps last year that can take more steps this year. In terms of predicting what will happen and how we are in the division, we didn’t make predictions in the past. It’s all about ‘let’s just try to win.’ We’ll play the game and see what develops.
Thoughts on getting the deal done with Karlsson ahead of the hearing…
GM: In the arbitration process, it helps to get the deal done. The parties get sharper and more focused as the hearing nears. We’re happy with this deal and we believe that William is as well. He seems to be happy with it. It was a good compromise. This gives us another season to see how he performs and then put a value on it. Whatever a player’s value is in the market, we’ll pay it if it’s the right thing to do. There are cases like this one where sometimes both sides need a little more time to evaluate what that value is.
Thoughts on the deal being good for both sides…
GM: The player’s now under contract and the arbitration process helped that. He’s being paid very well, similar to his linemates. We talked about being happy that we have the deal done and both sides are looking forward to getting going next year and at some point next year getting a deal done.
Thoughts on the unique situation of signing a high-scoring RFA…
GM: It was unique. There aren’t many players that have years like this. You want to be a little bit careful at this point and, to William’s credit, he believes that this is who he is and he can continue to perform this way and we hope that he can. We hope that we have a consistent 40-goal scorer. We like him very much as a player. The way it worked out today, we talked right before the hearing and reached an accommodation on what it should look like this upcoming season. Then, we can evaluate and try to do that longer term deal that William would like and that we would like.
Thoughts on expectations for Karlsson heading into 2018-19…
GM: We expect him to come in and be a good player for us because he’s a good player. We’re looking forward to watching him perform and watching that line perform. They were very, very good last year—one of the best in the league. We believe that they can be good together for a long, long time. I certainly don’t try to project numbers for a player in terms of what they’re going to score. Looking forward to good performances on a consistent basis and William was very consistent last year.
Thoughts on having the Karlsson-Marchessault-Smith line getting paid only 15.25 mil collectively next season…
GM: It's consistent with our model. We like to have a lot of good players. You wonder if the better way to go is to have a bunch of very good players or just two or three superstars and then a significant drop off. These players are worth the money they’re earning and it’s consistent with that model and we like to stick with that model. We’ll see over time whether it’s sustainable or not but it worked very well for us last year and we’ll try to do it again this year.
Thoughts on turning attention to signing Shea Theodore…
GM: We'll continue to discuss there and see if something can be done that makes sense for both parties. We’re still five weeks away from camp and two months away from the season but it’d be nice if we can reach an agreement there and know what to expect going forward.
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