[Hanna Sniper]

2012

ROLEPLAYING

Overview:
The 2012 Draft was one, in the days leading up to, a draft that I was wishing I could opted out off. What was available was just simply not what I was interested in. Much like everyone else in the hockey world, we as GM’s, are enticed by the fantasy of landing that franchise player that will put your team over the top for many years. To simply put it, I don’t see any player close to that in this draft. So why stay in, why not dump my picks and see what I can recoup in assets? Simple… the draft is too much fun to not take part in it. It’s a time that we as Gm’s in this league get the chance to put our neck out and make prediction before the NHL brass shows their hands. Who as fans can resist that.

I think the “New NHL” has come and gone, the game has changed once again… well maybe changed is the wrong word, maybe it’s better to say the illusion of the new NHL is over. I really wanted my selections to reflect that, skill has many tangibles…. In the draft this year I chose to target those tangibles. Less emphasis on how impressive you can be in a skills competition and more what they player brings to his team. I was looking for players that the coach would lean on in a close games. The type of player that would find a way to rise to the NHL ranks because he was able to find himself on the ice more often when that game mattered.


2 - Mikhail Grigorenko
Position: Center Shoots: Left
Height: 6' 3" Weight: 200
Born: May 16, 1994
Born in: Khabarovsk, RUS

Grigorenko has always been the main target of the Hurricanes ever since it was apparent that the No.2 overall selections would belong to the ‘Canes. Too much of his hope is surround by his possibility of being a flight risk. It breaks down to me rather simple… if he can play then he will play, if he can’t cut it then he wont. So the question came down to me as if I think he can play… and for that I have no doubt. The only player I thought has as much interest to me was Teuvo Teravainen. In the future when we look back at the success or failure of the 2012 Draft I honestly feel the opinion will solely rest on the success of Grigorenko.


9 - Griffin Reinhart
Position: Defenseman Shoots: Left
Height: 6' 4" Weight: 207
Born: January 24, 1994
Born in: North Vancouver, BC, CAN

I never expected to draft Reinhart in the draft but I simply didn’t expect him to fall so low. So pretty much like Goffie with drafting Ryan Murray, I had to step outside of my order and pick a player that I thought had a easy route to the NHL. A no brainer at 9th quite honestly. Reinhart will grow in the shadow of Karl Alzner for the ‘Canes and really help as I continue to rebuild the current core.


11 - Brendan Gaunce
Position: Center Shoots: Left
Height: 6' 2" Weight: 215
Born: March 25, 1994 Hometown: Markham, ON

Brendan Gaunce was a player that I knew would be a Hurricanes by the end of the draft, it was just a matter of how early was I going to waste a pick on him. I see Brendan as a deadly 3rd line center, the type of player that a team could build a winning team around…. Not a franchise player but rather a winning player. I like him a lot, I just wish I would have picked him in the 27th spot but I was too afaid to move down from the 11th. The Defencemen weren’t flying off the shelf like I would have hoped and thus I pressured myself out of fear of loosing him


27- Colton Sissons
Position: Center Shoots: Right
Height: 6' 1" Weight: 189
Born: November 5, 1993
Born in: North Vancouver, BC, CAN

Much in the same light, I was attracted to the possibility of landing that 3rd line checking role again but this time with Colton Sissons he has everything you would want in a player, leadership, hardworking, tenacity… well ok maybe a scoring touch would have been nice.