NHL ENTRY DRAFT

June 23, 2001

Mike Milbury

MIKE MILBURY: No. We gave up one player off of our roster that was playing for our team last year to get a premium center that we've been searching for for a long time. You know, we've had the unfortunate pleasure of drafting very low for the last few years, and I think as an organization we needed somebody with the credentials, somebody with the star power that we can rally around and this guy certainly has that great offensive ability. You never want to give up a pick that's that high, but you have to give to get, and I think we did the best we could under the circumstances and appreciate Marshall's professionalism through it. We had good conversations, straightforward throughout, and we're happy to have a first-line center.

MIKE MILBURY: No. I don't think so. You know, I haven't spoken to Alexei yet, and I think that he's probably learned some valuable lessons during that timeframe. And I'm looking forward to sitting down with him and getting a contract on it as quickly as possible. I really lied to you. I'm not looking forward to it at all. I really lied to you.

MIKE MILBURY: Most importantly he brings offense and he's going to make people that are around him better players. We have young players like Isbister and Pyatt and Parrish and Kvasha and the opportunity to play with a quality center iceman a guy that's established himself among the elite scorers in the League. He clearly will make our powerplayers much better. He fills an awful lot of gaps for us and again we took only one player off our roster to acquire this stat.

MIKE MILBURY: You know, I think everybody deserves a chance to make some mistakes. God knows I feel that way about my own situation. You know, I think most people tell us that he's a nice guy. He's a straightforward kid. Yes, there are some things he may have done that were perceived in different ways, but hey, this is a fresh start for him and fresh start for the Islanders.

MIKE MILBURY: We talked to Marshall about it and I don't blame him for not being anxious to allow us that opportunity. He didn't allow us that opportunity, but it didn't get in our way. We were hoping that we could come to a deal and he still has arbitration rights. And we're hoping that if we can't come to a deal then at the appropriate time we exercise those rights to avoid any long-term squabble. That's one thing that I'm sure he doesn't want to get into again.

MIKE MILBURY: We looked in a lot of different directions, but coming in to the situation we had, we had eyes on him and one or two other guys. We narrowed our focus and the deal that we were able to draft with Ottawa was one that we could live with and one that they could live with, so when it came to that, we decided to push forward.