Gwozdecky Interviewed Before Donovan Signing

(above) Coach Gwozdecky was interviewed by New York Islanders blogger Chris Botta just 20 minutes for the Matt Donovan signing was announced by the Islanders
"I've never had a player come back to college for an extra season and regret it.  I've had plenty of players from all over the country tell me they left early and regretted it later."
- Denver head coach George Gwozdecky

8 comments:

Aluuum said...

Thisis a great interview. Gwoz. gives some good insight into the pros and cons of players leaving early. It's mostly about all players not just Dono. Also, for double bonus points, the interviewer brings up the famous ice walk at North Dakota.

du78 said...

The interviewer is Chris Botta who was the long time Islanders VP of media relations. He no longer works for the Islanders and runs a blog called NYI Point Blank. One of the sponsors of his blog is SNY which is owned by the NY Mets and broadcasts almost all of their games. He appears as a hockey analyst on some networks in the NY area including the NHL Network.

Anonymous said...

Chris and Gwoz did a great job with the interview, and really considered the pros and cons from both sides.

This is an excellent primer to understand some of the issues around players leaving early.

Jordan said...

Highly encourage everyone to listen to it. Great insight.

pesimisticfan said...

F**k the Icelanders and their fanbase. Donovan and Rhett will never see the playoffs as long as they wear that ridiculous orange and blue. Lets Go Rangers!

Twister said...

Very interesting interview, especially now that we know Donovan's decision. I really like Gwoz's insight and perspective.

Twister said...

Speaking of Botta, this is an interesting article on him:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6289411

Sounds as though Botta and the Islanders are not on the best of terms.

du78 said...

Botta and GM Garth Snow and owner Charles Wang are not seeing eye to eye as he has criticized the Isles organization in his blog. His criticisms are no more than what most people think about the way the organization is run. Snow and Wang do not reveal a lot about what they are thinking and the fans get left in the dark a lot. As Botta is a former Isles insider and Snow and Wang do not take criticism well, they pulled his press credential earlier this season. He is no longer welcome in the press box or at practice. The profesional hockey writer's association is not happy with what teh Isles did as they pulled his credentials with no explnation. As a protest teh local NY and NJ writers are refusing to fill out their NHL awards ballots. This whole situation is another head scratcher for someone who is willing to promote the Islanders.