Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Dollar Bill Wirtz died after multiple decades of sticking his nose into hockey operations, branding and marketing. He oversaw the longest cup drought in Blackhawk history and the third longest in NHL History at the time of his death.
He was eventually so disliked for his reputation as a cheap and micromanaging owner that his moment of silence was BOO'd at the United Centre following his death.
9 Months later, they Hawks handed out the richest contract in franchise history to Brian Campbell, spent through the nose for Huet, expanded their hockey operations department bringing in hockey guys like Scotty Bowman and Joel Quennville.
The hawks weren't rebuilding for 14 years, they were being squeezed and milked for all they were worth by a hawks owner who thought he knew more than his employees, including in the arena of hockey ops. Winning was a secondary concern to things like profits and Wirtz's personal relationship with some players and other employees in his franchise, employees like Dale Tallon.
They started rebuilding in 2004 when they made Dale Tallon assistant GM after being director of player personnel for several years where he oversaw the draft. He was made GM roughly a week before the 2005 NHL entry draft after a year of learning on the job as assistant.
From the 2004 draft when they initiated a new rebuilding strategy and the end of the 2007 draft, the hawks had made 44 draft selections, 4 of which were top 10 picks, hitting home runs with 2 of them and 'striking out' with the other two.
To contextualize this for Flames fans, Calgary has selected 24 times in their last 4 drafts, never selecting in the top 10, and having only 2 rounds with more than one selection, never drafting more than twice in those two rounds.
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Just to expand a bit on the hawks drafting:
The Hawks made Tallon GM in the early part of the 2003-2004 season with a plan to go into the lockout well positioned financially and with an abundance of draft picks in case the playing field changed.
That season the Hawks moved veterans Steve Sullivan and Alexei Jhamnov for three 2nd round picks total (2 2004 picks, 1 2005). The Hawks moved Jon Klemm and a fourth for Robidas and a 2nd.
That draft they ended up picking once in the 1st, four times in the 2nd, once in the 3rd, twice in both the 4th and 5th round, once in the 6th, 3 times in the 7th, twice in the 8th and once in the 9th. Seventeen picks yielding 5 roster players.
The next draft, they picked 12 times in 7 rounds with little to show for it except for one of their three 4th round picks turning into a valuable piece of their current roster, Niklas Hjalmarsson.
That's the difference between a team finding players later in the draft and a team not. Blind luck or improving your odds by using multiple picks. David Moss, for example, was the second of two 7th round picks, Stoll the second of two 2nd rounders, Travis Moen the second of two 5th rounders, Steve Begin the second of two 2nd rounders.