Atlanta, GA
*GM Love sits in front of several dozen sports writers. He has a smile on his face as he looks over at team coach Ken Hitchcock. He takes a sip from his water bottle and speaks*
GM Love: Ok lets get this thing started. First I would like to thank the members of the press for comming out today as this is a very exciting day for our organization and the city of Atlanta. We are here to announce a trade.
*the crowd of reporters stir*
GM Love: We have aquired the rights to goalie Miika Kiprusoff from the Boston Bruins in exchange for Kari Lehtonen and a 2nd and 3rd round draft picks in 2009. The deal was several weeks in the making and even though it is hard to move a young man like Kari who is a proud product of our development system we feel that the opportunity to gain a world class goalie like Miika Kiprusoff was simply to good to pass up.
Reporter: You say it was weeks of work to get this deal done....why did it take so long?
GM Love: That's the way trading works. Rarley do you strike a deal over one conversation. People want to make sure they are getting the most for their assets. Also both us and the Bruins were watching how their team's were progressing, making sure that they were making the right move for our teams. We have been falling down the standings latley and we needed to make an improvement. After two and a half seasons as our starter Kari simply was not playing to the level that we hold for our club. Miika wasn't having a great season in Boston so it worked out. We feel we are much stronger for this deal.
Reporter: Miika is a UFA after next season while Lehtonen is signed long term before becoming a RFA. Don't you think this hurts your teams future?
GM Love: I have always maintined that winning championships is the most important thing in sports. If you have a chance...a window of opportunity to win you take it and go for it with everything you have. And Kipper is also only 31...he's in his prime and if you look around the league at goalies like Giguere and Nabakov and other top players, they are willing to re-sign with teams before hitting the open market if you can present them with a winning situation and a fair market value contract which granted is high for an elite player like Kipper. But we feel we will be in a position to offer both those criteria when the time comes but until then he is signed on to our team for the next season and a half which is a lot of hockey.
Reporter: When will we see Miika start?
Ken Hitchcock: Well he will arrive in Atlanta tonight and practise with the team tommorow before we play Washington. John Grahme will get the start in that one but for Thursdays game at Ottawa it's a possibility. Right now we just want Miika to get settled in and get adjusted to the squad. He has already played 40 games this year making him available for only 30 of our final 40 games so there is no rush. We have confidence in John who has played well for us when he has been called on. But we will take it day by day.