Quote:
Originally Posted by Phanuthier
I think it had mostly to due with the fact that most of his scouts were local because of a limited budget (i.e. it was well known he did a lot of his own scouting)... as he started to expand the scouting department, you start to see later drafts he picks guys outside the WHL.
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There was also the fact that the Flames were operating on a budget of half nothing when Button joined them. Not only did they skimp on scouting, they also skimped on player salaries. I remember people in the organization telling the media that they wanted to target WHL players in the draft because they would be more likely to sign here for a price the Flames could afford.
Basically, they restricted their draft pool mostly to players who might give the team a hometown discount. This was a bush-league plan, and worked out about as well as you'd expect.