from Randy Miller of the Courier Post,

Here are quotes from a Tuesday press conference at Wells Fargo Center in which the team introduced free-agent acquisitionsMark Streit, Ray Emery, Vincent Lecavalier. Also attending were team chairman Ed Snider, team president Peter Luukko and general manager Paul Holmgren:

Q. Paul, do you think this team, the way it’s constructed now, is ready to be a Stanley Cup contender or you think you still have more work to do as far as additions

HOLMGREN: As I said the other day on July 5^th when we were able to come to an agreement with Ray, if we didn’t do anything for the rest of the summer, I like our team, I like our chances. I think we have a good mix of, some of these guys have talked about, a good mix of young and old, some skills, some players who maybe are a little more gritty. So, I really like our team. I’ll say it again, we continue to look for any ways we can improve our team, but I think we’re a team that is certainly competitive right now. We didn’t make the playoffs last year, so we’ve got to put our best foot forward and try to get back in the playoffs and then we’ll go from there. In terms of competing for the Stanley Cup, my opinion on it, I think it’s been the same way in the salary cap era: if you get in anything can happen.

Q: To Ed Snider – talk about your range of emotions over the past year

SNIDER: Well, in any lock-out year, it’s disappointing starting a year after a lockout and having a shortened season, and obviously I don’t think I have to repeat what everybody said, you can make excuses, but the bottom line is that we didn’t make the playoffs. I think with the three guys that are sitting here at this table, I’m as excited as I’ve been in many, many years, that we kept our nucleus intact- we kept all of our young players, we kept all our draft picks. I’m really, really excited about this season coming up, and I expect big things, quite frankly.

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