The newest francophone Cougar

Jason Demers, 2nd round draft pick by the Cougars, was finally introduced to the press by GM Robitaille last night:

"Thanks for joining us.  Tonight we would like to introduce the newest Cougar, Jason Demers.  We have been scouting him for a while, and his puck-moving capabilities and competitive nature is something we really wanted on our roster.  And we felt that we had an organizational need at defense that needed to be addressed soon considering the age of some of our current defensemen.  So for these reasons we made the trade that let us acquire the 2nd round pick that we used to draft Jason.  Some would say that we paid too much, but the Browns entered the trade talks for that pick in a position of strength, and we really thought that to be able to add Demers to our roster, a player who will most probably be a regular for our team as soon as next season, was something worth paying.  And now a few words to our French media.


C'est avec plaisir que je présente Jason Demers aux média aujourd'hui.  On pense que Jason va devenir un membre important de notre corps défensif des l'an prochain.   Je sais que j'ai eu beaucoup de pression des médias dans les derniers mois pour augmenter la présence francophone dans l'équipe.  Et certains vont arriver a la conclusion facile que de repêcher Jason est notre réponse a ces pressions.  C'est totalement faux.  Jason était, selon l'opinion de nos dépisteurs, le meilleur joueur de disponible au début de la 2ieme ronde du repêchage.  Et pour ce qui du fait francophone de l'équipe, on joue a Newmarket en banlieue de Toronto. Le nombre de fans francophone dans la région est minime comparé au nombre de fans anglophone. Le nombre de joueurs francophones sur l'équpe n'est pas un gros facteur dans nos decisions.  La meilleure équipe sur la glace est notre seule justification pour toutes nos transactions.

And to conclude, with the entry draft out of the way, the next step for the team is to a sign a couple of free-agents to complete our roster before the start of the training camp.  We are targeting a few players, made a few offers already, and hope to have some signings to announce to you in the next few days.   Thank you for coming tonight."