OGBobbyFarnham posted this in another thread. Thought it was total awesomness, and belonged here as an all-too-rare example of excellence in Pittsburgh media.
ETA: Here's the full sit down in 2 parts:
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video...heford-part-1/
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video...heford-part-2/
Full cliffs:
-Schultz will be a priority. In the prime of his career.
-doesn't feel pressure to make a move at this point
-team hasn't got to the level it's capable of but lot of good individual efforts this year
-as a team it all hasn't come together yet like last year
-need to get healthy and elevate our game. ratchet it up a couple levels
-as long as we do that, haven't seen any team we aren't capable of beating
-but with all that said, i'll be in the mix with other GM's with whats going on and maybe theres something out there that does make sense that we can add depth at a certain position
When asked when/if he gets calls on MAF, will he listen?
(JR) I'll listen and if anything comes along, i'll bring it to the goalie and talk about it but i have the utmost respect for MAF and i know it's been a difficult situation for him. He's used to playing the majority of the games. He's still a really good goalie. He will be for a number of years but we do have the expansion coming up. We have the Cap to look at next year and of course we're trying to win a SC so it's a little bit of a difficult situation but in an ideal world having both of those goalies going into the PO's will be good for us but we don't always work in an ideal world so we'll see what plays out here in the next few weeks.
When asked if he's forced to do something now or can he wait?
(JR) We can wait til it's time to put our expansion draft list in. I'm not concerned about getting backed into a corner in any way as far as our protected list goes with our goalies. I've had enough communication with Marc's agent and with him to know that we'll be able to make the right decisions for the team at that time.
When asked if it's been a distraction?
(JR) No, theres not gonna be a distraction. We have too strong a group in that room and too strong of personalities and charachter in Fleury and Murray and you're not gonna find a better professional athlete than MAF.
Pompeani said he gets calls about what to add and he'd guess JR would like to add a vet puck moving D-man to the group cuz the PO's are relenting with shot blocking, etc. and you need bodies back there.
(JR) We need as many good players as we can get when we start into the PO's and when you look at the Penguins compared to other teams, we didn't get as long a break as others last year (cuz of the Cup run). We played a compact schedule. We got guys that played in the WCup. We got Sid that also went to the All-Star game. These guys have played alot of hockey and they're gonna get tired at times. They're gonna get broken down. They're more apt to get injured. So the more good players you can have going into the PO's, that makes sense.
But theres a price to be paid for adding depth guys and we've gone a long time here trading away picks for depth. Right now we're sitting with 8 draft picks going into this years draft and there comes a point in time where you have to do everything you can to win a Championship but you also have to fill up the cupboard and it gets bare when you move em so i'd really like to keep our draft picks or as many as we can to start gettin' more prospects in the pipeline.
Bob asks him if he feels good about the forward depth with the youngsters on the roster + Jake + Sunny + Sprong.
(JR) We have enough depth at forward. The crop that came up last year played very well. Now we have Guentzel this year. He's showed he's ready to play and make a difference. We got Sunny who's been hurt but he's healthy now and he could come in and play immediately. We got Sprong in JR. He'll be available to us so if the right forward came along in a depth position, we'd consider that but also on Defense, adding as many D-Men as we can would be a good thing.
Bob asks about the playoff format/seeding now and how important it is to win the Metro division?
(JR) In most years, winning our division would be important to us. Don't see it as something we should pressure our players to try and win our division because they've been through so much. Played alot of hockey. We want to be fresh going into the PO's. I'm not concerned about the Pens being able to win games on the road. We can win in any building we play in as long as we're playing 100% so i don't think this is the year our coach should be squeezing our play sayin' we have to win 1st place because we don't have to win 1st to win a SC.
Bob asks about toughness. To what degree do you have to add toughness?
(JR) I don't think you have to improve toughness. We have team toughness. We have guys who can play in those though games. We don't have a physical team that can take it to the other team in a physical way but we can recieve it and continue to play. If theres a physical/tough guy out there that can fit into our lineup and actually play, then, i'll go get that guy. But those guys are hard to find. I like the way our team plays. I like our team speed. I like how we stick together. We didn't have team toughness last year and we won the SC so i don't see why we have to change.