A guide to understanding front office-speak

The expansion draft is over and done with, and if you've been living under a rock for the past 5 days, here's a link to all our new players. Not surprisingly, following the draft, Adrian Hanauer and Chris Henderson took the opportunity to talk up each of their choices. But what did they really mean? Here's a rough translation.

Quote: "Without getting in to too much detail, Nate (Jaqua) definitely, from the Northwest, liked the idea of coming to the Northwest. Nothing was certain until it was certain in terms of the expansion draft."
Translation: Yeah, there was a pre-arranged deal for Jaqua to come to Seattle.

Quote: "We felt this group would blend well with the players already under contract, and those players we have in our crosshairs for the future, and guys who we’re pulling the wagons on as we speak."
Translation: We wanted to draft a supporting cast for Ljungberg and Sigi Schmidt.

Quote: "Whether all ten of them will be there or not, I guess that’s certainly a question. We will have more players vying for a roster spot than roster spots available. So I hope they’re all there, but at the same time, we are going to try to bring in as much quality to fight for roster spots as possible."
Translation: I am not going to tell you guys anything about how this team is going to be constructed. You can torture me like Westley in The Princess Bride, but I still won't tell whether or not we trade Sturgis.

Quote: (On Peter Vagenas) "He’s been a winner at every level. To have Pete come up to Seattle, I think his veteran leadership is going to be very important for us."
Translation: Sigi wanted him. Get off my back, okay?

Quote: "When you compare Gaven and Evans, first, they’re both very good players. We’ll start with Evans. He’s an exciting central player. I think he was a very big part of Columbus’ championship run. He can score. He’s a competitor. He has a great desire to improve as a player. He’s not afraid to shoot from distance, and that was an important piece for us as well."
Translation: We took Evans over Gaven because getting a young quality starter for 33k a year is totally ballin'.