Ice Hockey: Doug's Diary - 'My philosophy is to sign the best player available'

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 08:37

Edinburgh Capitals ice hockey chief DOUG CHRISTIANSEN on making one of his toughest decisions

I'VE been in Edinburgh three years now and I've just had one of my worst days here once the decision was made to move Chris Allen on. It was really hard.

Everybody who has met Chris knows he is a is a really nice guy and a great hockey player but, unfortunately, he was our highest-paid player.

Because of our injuries we needed to bring in two bodies. Sometimes that means that the highest-paid player has to go and that's what happened to Chris.

I have to tell you I woke up and there was a knot in my stomach. I remember asking Scott Neil (Capitals' owner) before Chris came in for practice: "Are we really doing this?"

He said yes and so we brought Chris in and he took it like an absolute professional. It pained me and it pained him as it was the first time that he had ever been released.

He is a guy I courted hard for three years and have to move him on when I knew he had made a home here, he liked the people and liked the city, was really tough.

He went in and said goodbye to the other guys on the team and I then went in and explained to the players what the situation was. Because of injuries I was looking for players anyway and I already had five or six players I had identified. After practice I went home and called Dan Welch's agent and told him the amount of money I had available.

Because of the sponsorship we received from the supporters' club we were able to make the move immediately.

The agent called Dan, we negotiated a bit over two hours but Dan, because of the sponsorship we have with Heriot-Watt University, signed provisionally. Dan will finish his under-graduate work when here.

I played with Dan previously. I know what he can do. My philosophy is to sign the best player available and then you worry about where they fit, how the dynamic on the team is going to work.

Dan was signed about 9.00pm. Simultaneously, I was speaking to Marc Lefebvre. Marc had messaged Jeff Hutchins on Tuesday saying he was interested in coming. They had played together before at Coventry. I told Marc that the salary situation was not great. He understood but he wanted to come in and would take a reduced salary to help the team.

Once I knew I had Dan it was a no-brainer, under Jeff's recommendation, that we sign Marc.

I spoke to our supporters' club about finance and I then spent the next 90 minutes until about 11.30pm finalising the flights. Marc, meanwhile, was packing to come here. That was some day ...phew!