Mikhail Sergachev Reacts to Being Traded to Utah Hockey From Tampa Bay | Full Introduction Presser

Mikhail Sergachev Reacts to Being Traded to Utah Hockey From Tampa Bay | Full Introduction Presser

[Music] ph’s off [Music] yeah good afternoon everyone thank you so much for joining us at Delta Center today for today’s exciting media availability to cap off what has been a great draft free agency and development Camp week for Utah Hockey Club today we will have two separate media availabilities beginning with Utah general manager Bill Armstrong head coach Andre torini and newly acquired two-time Stanley Club Champion Mel serov after we’ll introduce our president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong and following his availability we will have a photo op and then one-on-one opportunities now we’ll open the floor for questions for Bill Baron Mel as a kind reminder please state your name and affiliation before your question morning guys Matt Koma with NH first off male welcome to Utah and just your reaction to the trade and how excited are you to be a part of this franchise uh thank you um well at first obviously it was a shock I uh didn’t expect it I wasn’t expecting to be uh traded I was actually uh carrying out trash from my apartment and got a call um and I remember the you know when I got a call from Montreal when I got traded so it was kind of the same feeling cuz I you know I know nothing about UDA and uh uh but then I talking to my agent uh talking to some players and um actually talk to Keller you know everybody said great things about uh Utah and the new franchise and talk to Bill coach so it was it was great and now I got here it’s it’s pretty amazing honestly you know the the whole setup the city and um I’m very excited honestly it’s it’s a big opportunity for me too uh to prove myself you know being uh a leader so yeah looking forward to to it morning guys um Alex talip with the hockey news here um Mel you you’ve played against Clayton for quite a few years now now you get to be teammates with him but you also get to be teammates with another guy that you know very well Ian Cole who Al also signed earlier this week um can you just talk about what it was like to play with him for for a season and like what you really learned from him as a defenseman that made you a well-rounded player um I actually played against kellerer for I don’t know 13 years maybe 14 because we uh grew up playing against each other even the little tournaments Triple A’s and stuff uh killer is tremendous player he’s reminds me a lot of of cooch obviously and he kind of looks the same and kind of skates the same same deception very good player uh KY is a warrior you know he puts his body on the line and uh blocks T tons of shots plays defense hits he uh he’s all in for a team and you could see it in the playoffs I I watched Vancouver he was great for them and uh yeah he’s just a tremendous Defender that you know all of us all of our decco can learn from him a lot Sam farns with KSL Sports um muel correct me if I’m wrong you talked about uh not expecting to be traded you had the no trade clause in your in your contract what was it that ultimately uh helped you make that decision to wave that clause and be like you know this is where I want to extend my career uh so I got traded two days before that kicked in so uh I had no choice but yeah but I think I I if knowing it now I would probably wave it uh bill Ryan Miller ksl.com could you just take us through how this deal came to be um well we had tried to rebuild our defense obviously um you know once the season had had had ended and you know when you when you look at championship teams you know you you you try to replicate a little bit of of what they’ve done on the backside and one of the things that Tampa’s actually done a great job for winning cups were they majority of their dmen weren’t drafted um headman was probably one of the guys that was but everybody else was traded for for so you know we always had reached out to every team in the National Hockey League that had a number one defenseman and just planted a seed and just said Hey listen you know if you ever you know think about it I know you wouldn’t do it right now but if you ever think about it we’ve got the assets that can get this trade done if if you want to go down that path um so we tried to do that and and and plant a lot of seeds and um you know it to when the deal kind of came around late at night um you know after the first day of the draft you know slept on it came back and I just thought to to myself like you know as an organization when do you get a chance to add a number one uh demen to to your roster at at 26 years old that’s won two championships it doesn’t come around that opportunity doesn’t come around and we jumped on it um for us and I know be and I had worked a lot trying to redo the defense and and get it to a position where you know it could almost match our forwards up front and uh and and move without pinning our elv down in free agency uh and doing long-term deals uh with you know players that sometimes are at 30 years old um this was the deal that could help our franchise take that next step and uh we were able to pull it off scott Gerard with KSL Sport Zone coach I want to get your perspective on what Mel brings and what that allows you as a x’s and O standpoint that uh advantages you had that maybe you didn’t have in the past well that’s a that’s a really good question but uh I need probably 20 minutes to insert that I think he’s a well-rounded guy he play good defense he moves the puck really well his Puck moving is really good he has a good shot he play par play play PK and he’s a proven guy he’s not a the discussion we had with Bill is H you know Bill and I we talk a lot about uh our team were in development so we had to groom player who play in certain role and see what they can do in the NHL on the PK on the shutdown role on the power play those kind of things but we we are in the situation where we we want a proven player player who done it not just okay we will try to make him them do it so Sergey is exactly that kind of a player he he’s been in championship game he’s been in pressure game he’s been on the ice when the game is plus one go lead by one or Trail by one at the end of the game and elimination game he was one of those guys who was on the ice in those big moments so that’s that’s really exciting for not just him we still have a young group of defensemen we we still a young group so he will bring experience I think the addition of Ian Cole will bring experience so we we’re making step in the right direction and I think what Sergey can bring we we we have a lot of uh your question you talk about system we have a lot of similarity with Tempa in term of system not necessarily uh exactly the same way we play but the there’s similarity so uh I like that because uh Sergey will be quicker for him to adapt and to adjust how we play so I’m really confident that will be a smooth transition male just on that note say you bring a ton of experience into a fairly young team here in Utah what skill sets what uh leadership qualities can you bring to this blue line and to the team in general what are you looking forward to to getting a message wise to these guys I mean um I’m not you know I’m from Russia obviously English is not much first language but uh I don’t really like speaking a lot in the room uh but you know I kind of follow the leaders that I had before like stemmer you know he’s a great leader hi and most of the time they just play and they go out there and show by you know by their example what they can do and that speaks for itself so uh I feel like I’m going to do the same and uh I’m just going to focus on that uh playing the right way and uh try to win as many games as possible put my body on the line I’ve always done it blocked on the shots and uh you know obviously points and goals are big part of that of success of the team but I think first of all if you play defense uh you succeed because uh obviously we have a tremendous group of forwards that were tough to play against honestly when we played in Arizona it was you know chasing those little bugs out there it was yeah it was not fun so um yeah that’s why you know if we focus on defense offense will take care of itself so that’s what I’m going to focus on you know bill um I remember in your press conference last Sunday when we were at Grand America you kind of talked about you know how building that St Louis Blues championship team required a lot of patience and it required a lot of learning through pain and I know Mel went through went through kind of this went through really the biggest one when as the president’s Trophy winners they got swept in the first round by Columbus M sorry Mel to bring that up I know it was 6 years ago but uh but but Bill you remember watch I remember you watching I remember you were the assistant GM at the time in St Louis and you watched that happen what kind of experience through that kind of learning through patience do you think male can bring to this Utah Club well it’s it’s a lot of learning through pain and having the patience to get through it and continue with your process and for our group we we went through it last year um there was a good chunk of the Season where it got painful for us with the losing streak and um I think you know the players were so resilient by the end of the year where you know news broke again and it didn’t even phase them and I think that’s what you see you have to go through it you know whether you’re you know coach and Junior he’s went through it before you know if you’re going to win a championship there’s going to be some pain it’s going to leave a scar and you’re going to come back fighting a little bit harder and you know we hope to by adding obviously Mel and stenin and Ian Cole they’re they’re they’re Stanley Cup winners they’re going to help push us through those Hard Times um along with our young group that’s been through a little bit already um that’s a good mix to go into the start of the season and we’re really looking forward to having some Stanley Cup winners on our team driving the bus and helping us get over the hump any more questions you know you talk about the steps bill in in building this team and um do you feel like you’ve mixed the right amount of veterans through trades as well as the draft you feel like you’re walking that line and that balance well in this offseason so far yeah so far so good I mean we’ve you know obviously we try to plan for the future you’re going to watch the future out there today and there’s some really talented kids coming in but we also you know with coaching and myself and the staff we we we’re pretty transparent about sitting down and explaining you know try and bring kids in when it’s the right time for them where they can help us win we’re we’re in a different phase of the organization now um we’re moving along where we want to you know get to the other side of it you know and for us with the young kids coming in which you’ll watch today if you can put them in the right process and and bring them in when they can help the team it’s it’s it’s it’s more effective for the player it’s it’s way better for the organization we’re getting to that steps and you saw that last year where Gunther went to the miners you know he went down there and played down there and all a sudden he came up he came back he was a different player so for us we’re getting to the point where we can help groom our players a little bit in the minors and then when they come to the NHL they’re not in survival mode they’re in push mode and that’s where we want to get get our team to so um I think we’ve taken the right steps in the off season you know adding Marino and sergachev and and stenin and and all these guys that are coming in now and Cole they’re they’re going to help us with that nice balance of having some some uh veteran players uh push the young guys and help guiding us oh I’m all the way back here so uh hi Andrea Urban with Fox 13 um I just wanted to ask you guys Bill and Coach um post-development Camp I mean you just mentioned your post your offseason and kind of what you guys have been doing but this was the first time you got to see your team on the ice together so what can you to Hockey Club fans expect to see today and how are you feeling after a hopefully successful development Camp I’ll go first and pass it to Bear uh we’re extremely excited to go in that ice today with those colors are you kidding me uh fans in the building in the middle of summer what’s what’s better than that um we get excited to see our young players you know there’s there’s there’s five first rounders going out there today uh that are that are are pushing uh and it’s going to be exciting to see that whole group go out there but it’s it’s exciting to see it come together and and the bonus is is having Mel here today today uh with us and to see a little bit of Utah um obviously those guys that are out there today they got a long way to go uh but it’s exciting and I think just being in this building it’s going to be a great day for us yeah I I’m with Bill I think there you see the level of talent when uh we started three years ago uh during Dev Dev camp and what we have today I think it’s h it’s refreshing we got excited all week when we saw a player at 6’1 we thought he was was the smallest guy in the group at that that size so we we have uh a lot of talent we have size uh we have uh we spread out through every position so it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to see all our player you know you talk about the first round there that’s absolutely it’s exciting you see the those high high level uh athletes but you want to see all the other guys there’s always a late bloomer there’s always a guy who uh will make his way by determination character or uh might be a late bloomer so on and so forth so it’s exciting to to follow the path of those guys um obviously a big there’s been there’s of course a big um playing style shift coming from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference and uh Pro maybe with the exception of Florida and Tampa and your team Tampa your former team Tampa in the Eastern Conference the Western Conference Prides itself on physicality like what do you think think you can bring that will be able to you know continue to pass along that let me try and let me try and actually gather my words here it’s Friday uh I guess what what can you bring to the table that will help continue to drive that physical gritty Edge for this team well uh obviously I love hitting but uh you try to be smart about that when you play like 25 27 23 minutes if you uh just go out there and you you know start hitting everything you’ll be tired by I don’t know second period probably so uh it’s got to be timed perfectly and uh it’s got to be smart cuz you I don’t want to say you got to save yourself and save your legs but you have to be smart about how you play and uh it’s got to be timed so uh but at the same time you you got to be aggressive all the time but you don’t I don’t want to sound kind of soft but you don’t always have to finish checks so uh those times are passed uh the game is changing and it’s quicker guys that make plays you know that have grit that actually play you know those times of just guys running around and killing each other I think are past now so you just now you have to use your brain more than your muscles and uh but at the same time I’m an aggressive player and if I don’t play aggressive I feel like I’m slow or I’m out of the game kind of so so I’m just going to use my legs use my speed and uh when I need to I’m going to lay you know a hit so uh but for me it’s not all about that it’s about being aggressive everywhere not just on defense but on offense too it’s so actually your defense starts on offense so that’s you know you got to be smart about uh doing that yeah Jackson Payne deser news bill with the draft in the rearview mirror now and having made a few big trades development camp and full swing how do you feel about the team’s offseason this far have you guys done what you set out to do how would you evaluate the teams offseason yes I I think it’s uh it’s been an exciting time just going preparing uh for the draft and then obviously free agency and meeting with our group and just making sure that we’re moving the right direction I think it’s been very successful because we followed the plan um we were smart in free agency um in the sense that most of our free agency work was done at the draft where we made the trades you know and and we we put in uh players that are in place that that they match our age of our team and they allow us to move forward uh so when our team is good you know they’re at a good age to help us uh get over the top and it’s not vice versa where we’re signing guys today that were extremely excited about and then when our team’s really really good you know we’re burdened with the contract and age and so we we tried to stick to that plan of making sure that we were able to um you know make our defense a lot better which I thought we did with our three additions and getting dery signed and the rest of the crew signed um you know I think we accomplished what we wanted we went into the draft and um there’s not many times that you can pull off two trades you know and and draft two first rounders in a boatload of other guys it’s pretty exciting times for organization I will say this uh the man in the farle exorb a lot of pain to get to this point um because he was down there when uh you know I I I signed him as a coach brought him into the organization and then traded all the players so um he there’s no one more happy at this press conference than than coach because he gets a chance now to to move into the future with a good competitive team that’s young but can take some steps here all right thank you guys very much you’ll now have Chris Armstrong take the podium thanks [Music] oh

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