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Originally Posted by The Original FFIV
Guess we will agree to disagree. If the best player available is Russian and has no intention of signing in North America, do you still pick him? If a player says under no circumstance will I sign with a Canadian team, do you still pick him?
Good thing is that conroy wants players who want to be here. Enough of cajoling players who don’t want to be here or pursuing players with Calgary on their ntc.
Hope the scouting team is asking that question. Again, can’t paint players of various nationalities with the same brush, but can’t end up being the Montreal expos of the NHL and develop stats for other teams. Need to develop players to build a winner here.
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I think it depends on the circumstances. If it's a 1st round pick and there are other players on board that are close in quality, then I would avoid drafting the player that has no intention of playing for your team. If they are the BPA, and it isn't even close, then I draft them and work try to work it out or flip the asset later if you think the value of the return will still be more than the value of the other players left on the board.
If it is a mid or late round pick, I take the player no matter what. Those picks aren't incredibly valuable and it is worth the risk.
I suspect the Honzek pick in the last draft falls into the first category. Just intuitively and reading between the lines of some of the things Conroy said at the time, I feel that Conroy looked at all the players on the board at that time that were close in value, and then considered which one would be happiest to be a Calgary Flame. A kid from Slovakia already playing in Western Canada is likely more up to playing in Calgary than some players with different backgrounds.