YEAH-BABY!!
Yeah, baby, to borrow a Peter Maher favourite was the words echoing out of the Oliers war room yesterday as CPHL Commissioner KevanGuy called the Carolina Hurricanes to the podium for the 6th overall pick in the 2005-06 Entry Draft.
Yeah, baby.
Word started leaking out Saturday night that the Hurricanes may have made a deal that would move them up in the draft for a chance to land their highly sought after franchise player. “We knew we came to an agreement to move up into Winnipeg’s 6th spot, but even then we were fearful that we didn’t get high enough” said the excited GM Hanna Sniper “those five picks seem to take a lifetime”.
13,531 fans had assembled into RBC Center to listen to the draft be broadcasted over the arena’s sound system. The Carolina Hurricanes had announced the night before that they would be opening their doors and welcoming fans to listen to the historic draft. “We were pretty much surprised when Hanna announced that they were opening the doors, we knew something big was in the works and didn’t want to miss it” said one ‘Canes fan as for some unknown reason there was a buzz of excitement rumbling throughout the arena till finally it exploded. After the Quebec Nordiques selected Defenceman Jack Johnson with the 4th overall pick Commissioner Flambers announced that a trade had been made between the Winnipeg Jets and the Carolina Hurricanes, and with that the roof was ripped off of RBC Center as fans now new the jig, their GM had indeed delivered. As KevanGuy called the Hurricanes to the podium to make their pick, GM Hanna couldn’t sprint to the mic any quicker. Upon arriving to the stage with both fist pumping with adrenalin and to Panthers GM mjk123 confusion KevanGuy stepped up to the mike again... uhm I mean Panthers have the next pick, sorry. “With the excitement we didn’t even realize that they made a mistake and skipped the 5th pick, it was a long walk back to our table, to be that close and now the Panthers may pick our guy”. As mjk123 stepped up to the microphone you could hear a pin drop in RBC Center as the sound was dead silent. Then those wonderful wards as mjk123 spoke into the mic…”Bobby Ryan”.
“I didn’t think I could get to the podium any quicker then I did the first time but I’m sure I shaved a few seconds off my time” kidded Hanna” “mjk123 hadn’t even left the stage yet and I was already brushing past him”. RBC Center had began the chant Gullaume, Gullaume, Gullaume.
“With the 6th pick of the 2005-06 Daft the Carolina Hurricanes proudly select from the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Right Winger Guillaume
Latendresse.”
Yeah, baby.
“I had a great interview with GM Hanna before the draft and I knew they were interested in me but I didn’t think there was a chance I would be able last long enough for the Hurricanes to pick me” commented
Latendresse “but when arriving to the draft this morning I had passed Hanna and he seemed to give a quick smirk as he slowly nodded to me, I knew the ‘Canes were making waves. When it was announced over the speakers that the Hurricanes has just acquired the 6th overall pick I was pretty excited, I’m on cloud nine, this is great”.
“We’ve had a pretty frustrating off-season, it seems what can go wrong just does, but this is unbelievable. It’s not often when you can walk away from the draft and believe that you just picked the best player. This team has been without an identy since we traded the Nathan “Franchise” Horton away during the season and now that we now have Guillaume in our ranks it’s just unbelievable. I can’t even remember the rest of the draft, once we picked Guillaume we just couldn’t contain our excitement. We felted bad really, because we kept out calling of names that had already been picked and I’m sure the league was getting tired of it but we had Guillaume sitting right their at our table and man we just couldn’t follow from our excitement. This is easily the best day in Carolina Hurricanes history, there’s really nothing I can say except YEAH-BABY!!
