[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

I recall the 2011 draft was all about "working the list". Button asked Feaster if there were 2 players he could keep as wild cards and draft them when he saw fit and those were Gaudreau and Kucherov. Unfortunately Kucherov went 2 picks after we took Wortherspoon. If we would have taken him instead of Tyler we would have a pretty elite top line with Johnny-Monahan-Kucherov

Yup, it's in the article I mentioned in the OP:

To keep their degree of admiration hidden, they didn’t approach the player — not even once — leading up to the 2011 National Hockey League draft. And they took secrecy one step further by not talking to the boy’s junior coach, either.

Why? Because they knew that Peter Chiarelli, general manager of the Boston Bruins, had an ownership stake in the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints and, should they pick the brain of skipper Jim Montgomery, word of their interest could trickle back to Beantown.

But the Calgary Flames, with stealth, did their homework on Johnny Gaudreau.

Repeated viewings, of course. Also casual discussions with opposing coaches. These chats, by design, were kept lighthearted.

“Like, ’Hey, what about that Gaudreau kid?’ But not showing we were interested,” says Tod Button, the Flames’ director of amateur scouting. “More like: ‘That kid’s so small, how come you guys can’t stop him?’ ”

Their fascination with Gaudreau, as far as they knew, was never exposed.

But Button had a plan.

Presiding over that draft had been Jay Feaster, whose work-the-list mantra had been well-established. But Button convinced him to leave Gaudreau and Russian winger Nikita Kucherov as wild cards. In other words, don’t include them in the team’s in-house rankings of prospects.

“I said to Jay, ‘I’d like the latitude of not putting them on the list. Then when it’s time to make the call, let me make the call,’ ” recalls Button.

The Flames merrily made their second-round shouts — Markus Granlund, 45th; Tyler Wotherspoon, 57th — then groaned when the Tampa Bay Lightning nabbed Kucherov at No. 58.

“I turned to Jay and said, ‘We’ve got to take Johnny with the next pick,’ ” recalls Button. “Jay said, ‘Go ahead. Take him.’ ”

Unfortunately for the Calgarians, Darryl Sutter had already peddled their third-round choice to the Edmonton Oilers in the Steve Staios deal.

So Button perspired his way into the fourth round and got his man, 104th overall.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...624/story.html