[Dion]

Feaster on the drafting of Gaudreau.....

The most excruciating call, it would seem, came in the fourth round when the team started giving some real thought to drafting Gaudreau with the 104th overall pick. The pressure was really on because the Flames did not hold a fifth-round pick, making it a now-or-never situation.

“The guy who was very much in (Gaudreau’s) corner and felt we just had to take him was (director of amateur scouting) Tod Button,” Feaster said. “Tod felt very, very strongly about it. He kept saying, ‘I know he’s not very big, but I’m telling you this kid can play and he’s the most exciting player we’ve seen.’

“I said, ‘If you feel that strongly about him as a player, let’s do it right now.’”

Sealing the deal for Feaster was the fact that, in 2004, he’d witnessed an undersized player named Martin St. Louis play a huge role in leading the Lightning to a championship.

“I didn’t need to be convinced about a small guy, because we had won a Stanley Cup in Tampa,” he said. “Nobody had a bigger heart.”

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/t...hnny-gaudreau/