05-21-2020, 07:15 AM
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#1
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Fearmongerer
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
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Q&A with Tod Button
Athletic article from Cruickshank
This draft is apparently a deep one, especially up front.
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It’s deep with forwards, for sure, but that’s just the top part of the draft. It evens out as it goes to 50, 60, 70 players … defence will get their say. The forwards are so good — it’s that way, more than a lack of (quality) defencemen.
Whether it’s deep or not, you still have to find players.
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You guys are getting a lot of praise for your work deep in the draft, in the later rounds, from reporters, from fans, from general manager Brad Treliving. For those sixth- and seventh-rounders, is there a different approach?
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Our ownership gives us a lot of resources to do the job as best we can. We have a lot of area scouts. We’ve got a full-time guy in every area. We’ve got a full-time Quebec guy. We’ve got three guys out west. We’ve got three guys in Ontario. We’ve got three guys in the U.S. The more viewings you can get on a player the better, right? Those guys are very responsible for those deep-in-the-draft picks because they know them better than anybody. That goes back to having the resources to have these guys in all the areas.
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It’s hard not to notice that you guys have drafted 14 consecutive non-defencemen.
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Is that what the number’s at now? (Laughs)
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Treliving says it’s just a byproduct of going with the best player available, so it’s not like you guys are actively avoiding defencemen or anything.
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That’s how it fell, absolutely. Organizationally, you want to take the best player available. You’re cognizant of your prospect pipeline and where you might be weak depth-wise, position-wise, whatever.
Then you sign (college free-agent) Connor Mackey or a European free agent (Johannes Kinnvall of Sweden) and (Carl-Johan) Lerby last year. And we just signed some kids (Greg Moro, Koletrane Wilson, Noah King) to AHL contracts. You’re doing it because you know there’s a gap there.
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And other stuff about the draft.
https://theathletic.com/1814964/2020...rce=dailyemail
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