Pierre Dorion Talks Trade Deadline, Curtis Lazar, Contract Extensions

Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion spent some time with TSN 1200’s In the Box today to discuss an array of different topics. Here’s the best of their chat.

On the possibility of trading with Colorado:

“Yeah, I’ve talked to Joe, as I’ve talked to a lot of my other counterparts that maybe some names aren’t out there. I think it’s the right thing to do to kick tires, find out what’s available, what’s not available from their team. I don’t think the reports are always accurate, sometimes it’s better to hear from the horse’s mouth, and Joe and I talked and at this point in time I can’t see us going in that direction. It wouldn’t make sense. We want to do something to try and improve the team, and making deals is very difficult to do. I think since after July 1, we’re second after Florida as far as number of deals. But I can’t see us mortgaging everything in the future and some stuff in the present to get one or two or whatever players are out there. I think we have to be realistic. We want to improve, but to give up three, four or five assets would be something that would be very difficult to do.”

On Colin White:

“He’s been good. He’s been very, very good. He’s someone that we’re very excited about; someone that we know is going to be a part of this organization for a long time. Someone that we know that has a good chance to, whether he plays for us next year in October or whether it’s in December, we know he’s someone that’s going to be a long term NHL player. And when you have players of that calibre that have the skill, the drive, the character, the speed, that are pretty special, you know that they’re only going to make you better and help you win down the road.”

On Curtis Lazar:

“I think with Curtis it’s just sometimes when you’re playing golf and you’ve missed every four-footer for the last seven holes and then you put one and then make every one after, I think once he gets his first one, the weight will be lifted off his shoulders. Curtis cares a lot. I think he’s someone that is putting a bit too much pressure on himself. But I still have a lot of faith in what Curtis can do. Maybe Curtis won’t be a first liner player like we thought he might’ve been when we drafted him, but I still think at the end of the day that Curtis was a big part of us when we made that playoff when he played on a line with Pageau and Condra, and I still think he can definitely help us when he’ll be in the lineup.”

On internal contract extension talks:

“We had a big one in Zack Smith and for us, we felt that this was someone we needed to sign. We felt we got a good contract done; Zack was happy, we were happy to have him with us for the next four years. It’s been widely talked about that we have sat down and talked with Mike Condon’s agent. We’ve had discussions with Tommy Pyatt’s agent. Pageau we’ve talked to. A lot of the times with those guys (Pageau), I like to see where they finish at the end of the year, where they’ve put us as far as playoff push and where their current contribution has come from. So with those guys, we’ve always had pretty much the team philosophy of wait ‘til the end of the year, see where we’re at so we can compare apples to apples; this is what he did the whole year compared to this i what he did for 60 games.”

On if he’s looking at any players in the NCAA:

“We’re after one forward and one defenseman. We just want the best guys. It’s an okay year and when I was in Boston I got a chance to see a few of them. After the trade deadline I’m probably going to go see a few more just to make sure. But right now maybe one forward and one defenseman that we’re higher on than the rest of them. It’s tough. A lot of these kids are American kids and they don’t want to come to Canada. Some want to come for the opportunity, some want to play in Canadian markets. So it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. We’re on a few guys, we’ll see how it goes, and the end of the day, if we get two points against Buffalo I’ll be happy.”

On Wingels and Condon trades:

“It’s funny, I got asked a question the other day: how many calls does it take to make a trade? For example, with Tommy Wingels it felt like it took 100 calls to make the trade. And on Mike Condon, Jimmy’s (Rutherford) probably one of the guys I’ve talked to the least at that point in time. I think Jimmy and I had two conversations, I saw him at the Board of Governors and I congratulated him on the Cup, he congratulated me on the job, it was the last GM I had talked to at that point in time. And I remember because I said “oh I’ve talked to everyone except Jim Rutherford” and I’d sent him a note. And then it took two calls and the deal was done. I phoned, he phoned back. The day before I asked, I said “Jim, can I just hold off?” With everything going on I want to talk to Craig that we were going to bring someone else in and maybe it’s my sensitive side but I felt it was the right thing to do. Talked to Craig, phoned Jim back the next day, got the deal done.”