Burke at the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

[MrMastodonFarm]

We do have a DND list, Do Not Draft. Some teams will evaluate a guy and say ‘He has NHL skills, but he’s a head case, so put him in the second round.’ To me, he’s still a head case in the second round, so we just take him off the list.”

Good. Love hearing stuff like this.

[Itse]

Seems very similar to what Feaster we've heard of Feasters drafting. Seems to have worked so far.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

There should be a little more weight placed on skill than he's suggesting. You don't always get superstars from picking the "good guys" of the bunch.

But I'm glad that he isn't stating that physical maturity and size comes before all these things. That would be worse.

Agreed. Plus, remember, these are 18 year old kid they are drafting. Your mental maturity and character can change a lot between the age of 17-18 and 25-26.

How many people screwed around all through high school, rarely studied, and partied all the time... then when they go to University/College they really buckled down and applied themselves.

Nope, for me, skill should be at the top of the list and empathy a little further down. Besides, there have been some great players who were real a-holes. Don't care, as long as they contribute.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Rerun

How many people screwed around all through high school, rarely studied, and partied all the time... then when they go to University/College they really buckled down and applied themselves.

Not many at all IMO. If you like to screw around and party then university is an even better place to do that. If you haven't developed a strong work ethic by 17 you are unlikely to ever develop one IMO.

They are right to put character high. Determination is at least as important as skill.

[northcrunk]

Likely if you spent all high school partying instead of getting decent grades then chances are your not going to College/Uni.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Itse

Seems very similar to what Feaster we've heard of Feasters drafting. Seems to have worked so far.

Agreed. Doesn't seem like Burke has tweaked too much. Probably a slightly bigger emphasis on size given the makeup of our team and I'm fully on board with that.

[Tinordi]

I find the empathy comment reassuring. It indicates that they're being guided by a framework by which to evaluate player psychology. I'm certain that there is research that looks into psychological traits of elite athletes, I'm sure that people have started to give prospects scientific evaluations that even measure their empathy levels or whatever. The fact that Burke has a list of criteria of what he's looking for signals to me that the Flames are actually being scientific about this. That's a very good thing.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Likely if you spent all high school partying instead of getting decent grades then chances are your not going to College/Uni.

Well things might be different now but when I graduated from High School you could get into University if you had a 65% overall average. You could do a lot of fooling around in HS and still make it into university. However once there, people found there was a big difference between the two institutions and they changed their attitude.... they either did that or didn't make it past the first year.

[Tinordi]

Kyle Beach - million dollar talent - dollar bin brain. Chicago got him as a "steal" a couple years ago at pick number 12 when at the beginning of the year he was projected to go top 3. Everyone was saying how good a pick it was for Chicago to get a player with that much talent that far down.

Yeah he busted because he's a total head case and was a wasted pick for Chicago. A player's psychological profile is just as if not more important that any physical or skill related short coming.

[handgroen]

well that says to me that ritchie is on the DND list

[Arsenal14]

I'd suggest Anthony DeAngelo is likely on the DND list.

[Tinordi]

I should say as an addendum to the Kyle Beach story who was taken after the "steal" that was Beach?

Karlsson, Eberle, Carlson, Myers, Ennis all guys that didn't have as impressive tools or big questions about their game. Karlsson's size for example. Eberle's skating. Etc.

But the biggest question the player's psychology ruined Beach.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by handgroen

well that says to me that ritchie is on the DND list

How the heck did you reach that conclusion? Haven't seen any character questions on Ritchie. I've seen a few scouts saying he's got some baby fat and somehow that has snowballed on this board to him having character problems? Ridiculous

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Arsenal14

I'd suggest Anthony DeAngelo is likely on the DND list.

That is a much better guess than Ritchie. Deangelo sounds like the type we'd steer clear of.

[CaptainCrunch]

I would think that the Flames players handled the Matt Stajan situation with a lot of Empathy and came out as a stronger team because of it.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Likely if you spent all high school partying instead of getting decent grades then chances are your not going to College/Uni.

God I hope that was on purpose...

[CaptainCrunch]

Hmmm wonder if Shinkaruk was put on that list after his interview with the Flames?

[TheDebaser]

It explains how Klimchuk could be in the top 13 of 2013's draft list. Other players got DND'd.

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Agreed. Plus, remember, these are 18 year old kid they are drafting. Your mental maturity and character can change a lot between the age of 17-18 and 25-26.

How many people screwed around all through high school, rarely studied, and partied all the time... then when they go to University/College they really buckled down and applied themselves.
...

For every one person that screwed around and then pulled up their socks, there is another who made it on pure smarts (skill) without having to work and continued to not work in Uni, and never had success because despite all their talent (smarts) they did not apply themselves in the right way.