Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bozek
To me, it seems the Conroy approach seems reasonable, and on the whole I like what he’s done so far.
But it’s all going to come down to whether the scouting staff can perform well. I would say that so far Tod Button and crew have been “middle of the pack” in terms of hits and misses. I certainly hope they have improved since the year they chose Mason Macdonald and Hunter Smith over a number of future top level NHL players.
|
I still don't have a good feel for how Conroy runs the scouting department. I seem to recall with Treliving it was reported that he made the 1st round pick decision and then let the scouts decide the rest of the picks.
Conroy seems to be really dialed in and draft oriented. He said in a recent interview that the draft is his favourite part of being in management and you can tell he gets really excited talking about it. I mean, Conroy get excited for breakfast, but even by his standards, he seems extra excited. In fact, I think he is in Finland right now scouting players and during the regular season, he was out scouting a fair bit from what I understand. I also like that he increased the scouting staff in general and added a Russian scout.
Of course he will rely a lot on input from his scouts, but I wouldn't be surprised if when it comes to making the choices, he is a lot more inclined to rely more on his own perceptions. Which I guess could be a good thing or bad thing, depending on how good his eye is.