Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavy Jack
Had Feaster just backed off and let his scouts and their head director do their job it could have been - Tom -> Horak + Kucherov + Granlund
|
That's not really accurate.
Feaster did give Button full autonomy with that draft and it was Button who thought that Kucherov would still be available when the Flames next pick came up (or he thought that Wotherspoon was the better prospect).
The story has been often repeated that Feaster told Button that the scouts needed to get their final list in place prior to the draft and they would simply be picking the highest-ranked undrafted player when their picks came up.
Button asked Feaster for two wildcards that he wanted to leave off the list because they didn't fit the conventional mold and he wanted to have the option of picking one or both of the players when the time was right. Those two players were Kucherov and Gaudreau.
Tampa picked Kucherov sooner than Button expected (which is odd because most of the draft rankings had him in the top 60 and he went 58th), so Button made sure to grab Gaudreau when the next chance came.