NHL ENTRY DRAFT

June 21, 2003

Jacques Martin

John Muckler

JOHN MUCKLER: You are never prepared for something like this. It's a sad day obviously. Roger was a Hall-of-Famer in more ways than one and good teammate and real good friend. It's really tough.

JOHN MUCKLER: My relationship with Roger goes back to early '70s and I had the opportunity to work with him in a hockey school environment and he became a good friend and actually lived at his place my first three years in major junior hockey and I had an opportunity to build a relationship but really it was a great opportunity for me to work with Roger the last three years in Ottawa, I think that there's no doubt that he made a big impact on our organization, on our hockey team, in how we play the game. That's always been, I think, the trademark of Roger as a human being, as a person. Roger was one that brought so much excitement to the rink everyday, so much enthusiasm, new ideas and he's an individual that I can't think of somebody that marked our game from the standpoint that had an impact, not just on coaches but on a lot of players, a lot of the players that he coached always stayed close with him. And I think, you know, going back some of his closest friends were kids that he taught in high school in Peterborough, and just there was something special about him as a person that you know, that left an impact on you.

JACQUES MARTIN: I guess my first contact with Roger would be back in Edmonton, I for -- I think it was during winning the second Stanley Cup, Roger came in to help the hockey club and we needed Mr. Video at that particular time and he did an outstanding job for us. He's always been the type of person just stands out and is a wonderful friend and had a great hockey mind and we'll miss him not only as a person, but as a great hockey mind that he had and what he did for everybody. He just seemed to make everybody a little bit brighter when he was around. I think it was wonderful for hockey, innovative, good friend and I am just happy I had the pleasure of meeting him.

JOHN MUCKLER: Well, I think it was probably very fitting from the standpoint I think that Roger was always a very private individual and probably not a lot of people knew him, especially from the media standpoint, I think Roger was perceived as an individual that was constantly at work, wasn't always the game of hockey whether it was coaching clinic, whether it was a hockey school or Christmas card, he always had a task, whether you were travelling, he always kept himself busy, but I think it was fitting, for me, he was one of the individuals that marked me and marked our game and for him to be recognized, I think was tremendous and I was very, very happy for him. Probably the only sad part about it is that we weren't able to win a Stanley Cup for him this year.