Twin City Times
August 4, 2004
Blueline Help on the Way.
Farhall finally got his man.
Wild GM Grant Farhall had made it known that a priority of his was to acquire a veteran blueliner to take some of the load off Sergei Zubov. But in a league where good defensemen are at a premium that proved to be more difficult than Farhall anticipated.
Finally, late Tuesday night Farhall got his man, acquiring veteran Stephan Quintal along with winger Martin Lapointe in a deal that sees Sami Kapanen head to Dallas.
Farhall had this to say regarding this latest move:
“This trade should shock no one. It fits in with the strategy we’ve been using for most of the off-season to rebuild this organization’s depth by trading one player for two, or two for three. This trade is inline with that thinking. We realize that we gave up the best player in the deal, however we received two quality players in return. Stephane immediately becomes our #3 blueliner, while Marty will split time with Mike Knuble on our second and third lines. We are very happy with this deal.”.
Farhall also commented on the possibilities of trading #1 centre Alexei Yashin who demanded a trade nearly 1 month ago.
“We’ve had good discussions with a number of teams but the bottom line is that it’s a deal that has to work for us. Right now that right deal has not come along. Frankly if it doesn’t we are fine, we expect Alexei to report to camp and be ready to play.”
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