Doug Wilson Ready Quotations

He has been successful with his experiences at several levels of play, including playing for the Czech National Team and representing the Czech Republic in the World Junior and World Championship tournaments. We feel he is ready to make the transition to professional hockey in North America.

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.

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.

We had three or four guys who simply weren't ready to play. That shouldn't happen. As a professional athlete you should take pride in every performance. It shouldn't take a period and then getting ripped between the first and second periods to kind of wake up.