Staff: You were running away with the President's Trophy in the first half of the season, but over the past few weeks, you've been passed by both the Islanders and Blues, with the Lightning making a late push as well. Does this worry you?
LaVar: No. Not at all.
The fact that we were able to maintain that position for not one month, not two months, not three months, not four months, but four and a HALF months... that alone speaks to the dominance of our team over the rest of the league.
Not only that, but we then ended up acquiring the best player in the world, Sidney Crosby, at the recent trade deadline... that's like something you'd see in a video game! It's the HFVHL equivalent of Kevin Durant joining the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, the only difference being we don't see any [Cleveland] Cavaliers in sight.
At the end of the day, we aren't very concerned with the President's Trophy... it would be a nice treat, but there's a bigger, better trophy that we are after.
Staff: Doesn't it concern you that you've gone all in on this season, trading your picks and prospects, just to have other teams pass you in the standings? Or are you still confident in your team's chances come playoff time?
LaVar: You know, I hear that a lot. That we've essentially "mortgaged" our future and that we have no picks for the next 2 years.
My response to that is... who cares about picks when you have the opportunity to be the HFVHL's first ever dynasty?
In addition to that, I've heard on multiple occasions that our team is "old" and that we have a "window" that will be closing soon. Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Morgan Rielly, John Klingberg, Connor Hellebuyck... those are all guys that are 26 or younger, and are signed until 2021 -- exception being Connor, but we'll take care of that soon enough. In addition, Jamie Benn, Sidney Crosby, and Roman Josi are all on the better side of 30.
We're here to stay, and moving down the standings one or two spots doesn't really concern me.
I'm going to go back to the NBA's Warriors' comparison: They are currently 2nd in the Western Conference, but is there really any doubt that they're taking it all this year? Or next?
Staff: Hah, fair enough. But don't you worry at all that if this core group can't get it done, that you don't have much of a pipeline of youth to replace them?
LaVar: Not necessarily.
For one, we will get it done. Multiple times, likely.
Second, we have a pretty solid group of prospects. By no means is it the best, but far from the worst. Tanner Laczynski, Jake Evans, Carl Grundstrom, and Joseph Woll to name a few are some guys making great strides.
And if it ever came down to it, I'm confident that as a result of our teams pro scouting abilities, we'd be able to make a rather drastic change quite swiftly.
I honestly don't see any circumstances in which we aren't contending for the next 5, possibly 10 years, minimum.
Staff: Ondrej Palat is coming back from injury soon and you'll have to do some maneuvering with the cap to stay under. How do you plan on making room for him?
LaVar: With Scottie Upshall just recently being placed on the IR, we need to free up roughly an additional $400,000 in order to activate Ondrej.
In all likelihood, we will place a player on waivers.
Staff: How do you feel your trade deadline went? Did you acquire all of the players you wanted to? Any regrets?
LaVar: Our deadline went pretty much as perfect as we could have planned. However, there was one other "blockbuster" that we were working on that we were unable to finalize. Nonetheless, we feel we made the best moves possible to put our team in position to succeed.
Leading up to the deadline we acquired Benn, who we feel will be a key contributor on our run towards the HFVHL Cup for the next couple of seasons.
About a week or so before the deadline, we finalized a deal to bring Crosby to Boston, and we believe he could potentially win his 3rd consecutive Conn Smythe this year.
In addition to Benn and Crosby, we also acquired Tom Wilson (and later extended) and Louis Domingue, who will be important depth players for our team for the foreseeable future, seeing as both are relatively young.
Staff: How do you manage to find time to run the Bruins when you're also the CEO of your own company?
LaVar: Big Ballers know no limits.
Truth be told though, anyone could do it.... they just wouldn't be successful like me. The term I use to describe those people (like Dabeast, for example) is Small Baller. They should probably just stay in their lane.
And speaking of my company, we got some merchandise dropping soon.... here's a sneak peek: