Crawford speaks

Here's the transcript of the Crawford interview on 570-AM (Lombardi is below, if you missed it a couple hours earlier). Not a whole lot new, since ``The Saw'' -- it always cracked me up when Jim Rome called him ``Evil Uncle Saw'' -- spent much of his time talking about goaltending. That's a subject that's been beaten more than Dan Cloutier.

Marc did have a nice answer about Jack Johnson and had some interesting stuff at the end about the young guys. The audio cut off, so if there was more, I apologize but I wasn't able to hear it.

Take note that Crawford already has Parse in a Manchester uniform. I thought that was funny, since the Kings have been so careful to say that they can't sign him until July 1. Read between the lines there. Deal = done.

Here's what Marc had to say:

On his offseason so far: ``We’ve been working extremely hard at trying to develop the players we’ve got and trying to assess the players that are available in the upcoming draft and also to assess the players that might be possibilities for us in upcoming free agency.''

On the challenges of playing kids: ``It is hard. It is also somewhat rewarding too, because we’re starting to see now some of the benefits of playing people like Frolov and Cammalleri and we’re excited about the future with players like Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. On defense, we did have some pain in this past year, giving up some quality NHL players for some future NHL players like Jack Johnson. We know that Jack Johnson is going to be a big part of the Kings for a long time to come, so you can see the reward starting to come to fruition now.''

On the future of Jack Johnson: ``He’s got a lot of passion for the game. To play at the level that Rob Blake has played at for a lot of years, well, time will tell, but we think he’s got that capability and he certainly has the passion for the sport. I believe he plays a lot like Chris Chelios. Chris Chelios was a college player, played at Wisconsin, was weaned in the U.S. developmental program and basically has played forever. If we can have Jack Johnson keep developing, hopefully he will be a King forever as well.''

On the goaltending situation: ``You’re always better off if you get the save at the key moment. We have to be honest and say that our goaltending wasn’t where it needed to be last year. We do have some prospects and some great prospects in our organization. (Jonathan) Bernier is going to be a terrific goaltender some day. How long that’s going to take, I hope it’s not going to take very long. Jeff Zatkoff, who’s playing at Miami of Ohio, is a great prospect. Quick, who’s coming to us and probably going to play for our minor-league team this year, he’s a very good prospect. But all those guys, we’ve got to buy some time until they become those premiers NHLers. In the meantime we’re going to be looking at people like Jason LaBarbera, who had a great year in the American League this year. We’re going to be looking at Erik Ersberg, who we brought over from Sweden and who had a great season in the Swedish league and played on their national team in the World Championships. And on top of that, we’re also going to have a healthier Dan Cloutier, and we’re not going to make the mistakes we made last year, where we handed people a position. We’re going to have a battle for that position. We think that’s going to be a positive for the Kings and most of all for our fans. We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure we have the best people, whatever their credentials, in the right positions.''

On Dan Cloutier: ``It was a very trying year for him. On top of the injury that he came back from, the knee injury, last year he had a labrum problem and that really affected a lot of the movement that you need to have in a position where you’re going down on your knees and you’re in the butterfly position. It puts a lot of strain on the body and if your body can’t do it, it’s going to put you in a tough spot. Dan is healthy and he’s looking forward to the challenge. And again, we’re going to do him the best service of all, which is, `Hey, there’s no pressure on you, you’ve got to earn anything to get into the National Hockey League lineup this year, and you’re going to have as much of a challenge as say an Erik Ersberg or a Jason LaBarbera.’ They’re all guys who are going to compete for the position.''

On the future of Mathieu Garon: ``Mathieu is still our property. Does he feel it’s better to stay as a King and keep working his way up the goaltending food chain in our organization or is he better served to go off as a free agent? That will be a decision that Mathieu Garon will have to make for himself. We like Mathieu. We realize that we have to get better at the goaltending position. So he’s a possibility but he’s got options as well.''

On working with young players to get them NHL-ready: ``Manchester is going to serve us extremely well. Last year players like John Zeiler, who we saw for the last 20 games of the season, showed that they were ready to play. We’re hoping that players like Matt Moulson and Trevor Lewis, those kinds of players who played and had a cup of coffee at the American League level, are going to push for jobs. We’ve got some high-end offensive talented players who are going to be starting in Manchester next year. Scott Parse, who was at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and was a top scorer in college hockey, will be scheduled to start there. Teddy Purcell is a guy we signed out of the University of Maine and he’s got big-time offensive skill, along with a guy like Patrick O’Sullivan, who played part time for us. These are all big-time American League scorers and we’re hoping that we make the transition on up. We add to that character people like Brady Murray and John Zeiler and Tukonen. Those types of players are always looking to develop and get a step better.''