Full Q&A with Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis

So we wanted to use as many tools as we can to try to give us advantage, and bringing in some of these coaches from winning programs. Bringing in these analytics, bringing in high IQ, good people it’s all a part of trying to change a losing culture to a winning culture.

I don’t want to use the Caps so much, because we haven’t won a Cup yet. But we had to do the same thing with the Caps. We expect to win, we expect a sellout every game, we expect free agents to want to come here, we expect great players to want to stay here. That’s what we’re trying to do with the Wizards.

Q. Let’s get to some rapid-fire stuff. Semin. Keep or discard?

A. I think the market is speaking. What he’s being valued at . . . we know, we’ve had him. I don’t think Alex Semin. . . . You know, we just signed Mike Green to an extension what I think is a fair and reasonable number, as does he. I wish we had been able to do that with Alex, but he wanted to test free agency and the market will decide what he’s worth.

Q. But he’s pretty much gone, right?

A. He’s a free agent. He can go where he wants.

Q. While talking about bad contracts in sports recently, I heard this: ‘Watch out for Alex Ovechkin. His contract is going to be Gilbert on Ice.’ He has had a couple tough years given what you’re paying him. Where are you on that?

A. He was the fifth-leading goal scorer in the NHL in a bad year.

Q. But he had to come on strong at the end to do that.

A. He was [still] fifth. And he’s our all-time point leader in the playoffs. I think what happens with great, great players the expectation is like, ‘Well, you hit 65 home runs and now you’re hitting only 40, what’s wrong with you?’ Alex is our captain. And I bet he’s going to have a bounce-back year given the system we play. Alex does better when he has more ice time, as all players do, in a more offensively inclined system.

That’s one of the extra benefits of hiring someone like Adam Oates. He was a magician. He worked like a coach on the ice. He was the one who said, ‘How about Peter Bondra at the point.’ No one had thought of that before.

Q. Back to Ovie . . .

A. He looks great. All of the pictures I’ve seen of him, he’s not storming around. He’s with his girlfriend carrying her tennis bag.

Last year wasn’t bad. It was just bad by superhuman standards.

Q. Are we going to have an NHL season? What has to happen?

A. I can’t comment in any way.”

Q. I don’t want to cost you money but . . . [Leonsis was fined by David Stern for essentially saying the NBA needed a hockey deal during the NBA lockout last September.]

A. I can’t comment in any way.”

Q. Did you see the 60 Minutes piece on Steve Jobs that recently ran as a repeat? He spoke often of ‘magical thinking.’ He was such a visionary, but sometimes his magical thinking was abstract and irrational given all the concepts of what was possible. Do you identify with that?

A. I knew Steve Jobs and worked closely for a long time with Steve Jobs. When it’s unsuccessful, it’s called the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field. When it’s successful, it’s called magical and you get biographies written about you. What Steve’s genius was is in seeing differently than the masses.