How Giroux Became a Flyer: A 2006 Draft Retrospective

Any scout worth his salt -- and who is being honest -- will tell you that there's no science to hitting a home run in the NHL Entry Draft. Beyond the rare prodigy along the lines of a Mario Lemieux, Mats Sundin, Eric Lindros, Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid, choosing a future superstar in the Draft involves no small amount of good fortune as well as a keen eye for talent.

When the Philadelphia Flyers selected Claude Giroux with the 22nd overall pick of the 2006 Draft, the organization was confident that they'd chosen a high-skill prospect. However, there were concerns about the player's severe lack of size at the time and no one had an immediate sense that the player would someday go on to become a seven-time NHL All-Star and the second leading scorer in franchise history.
It took some time to recognize that Giroux was not only a gifted playmaker. He was also someone with an extremely high competitive drive, a strong belief in himself, a high pain threshold and impeccable work habits: the intangibles that go into a player maximizing his potential.
Modest Beginnings
Hailing from the French-speaking northern Ontario enclave of Hearst, Claude Giroux was never selected in the CHL Priority Draft. He was offered a tryout by the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques.
"A guy named Charlie Henry came to see Claude's family. They live in Ontario but they are a French family. Charlie used to be with the fire department in Ottawa but he was also a hockey man. Claude was a free agent. Nobody drafted him. So Gatineau invited Claude to camp in to try out. That's what happens sometimes. He became a hell of a junior. It's funny how it goes," recalled longtime Flyers Quebec-based scout, Simon Nolet, to the late Jay Greenberg in the book Flyers at 50.
During the 2005-06 season for Gatineau, an 18-year-old Giroux compiled 103 points in 69 games. As the season progressed, Giroux's name increasingly was mentioned in NHL amateur scouting circles as a candidate for first-round or second-round selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.
Nolet was enthusiastic about what he saw in his viewing of Giroux. So were other Flyers scouts.
"Simon really liked him, yes. [Ontario-based scout] Dennis Patterson did, too, and he was the head guy then. Actually, I saw Claude with Dennis. They were in the playoffs and Dennis said to me, 'You've got to come see this guy.' He was obviously very competitive and very skilled. He was very small but he had excellent hockey sense, and that's why he just almost always came up with pucks," recalled Flyers Hall of Famer Paul Holmgren, who was the organization's assistant general manager at the time, to Greenberg.
A Diamond in the Rough
The 2006 NHL Entry Draft class was considered an average to slightly below-average crop of prospects. Players such as forwards Jonathan Toews, Nickas Bäckström, Jordan Staal, Phil Kessel, Derick Brassard and Kyle Okposo as well as defenseman Erik Johnson were considered surefire top-10 picks, although the order in which they'd be selected was up for debate.
Johnson was selected first overall by the St. Louis Blues, followed by Staal to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toews to the Chicago Blackhawks, Bäckström to the Washington Capitals, Kessel to the Boston Bruins, Brassard to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Okposo to the Boston Bruins.
Beyond that group, there was little to no consensus about how the rest of the first round would play out. Within the Flyers' internal rankings of the time, Toews was ranked first overall. Giroux was ranked within the top 12 to 15 (note: back in 1998, the Flyers had Simon Gagne -- whom they selected 22nd overall -- ranked just outside the top five).
"We liked a lot of guys, sure. But make a list and we go by the list. If we looked at that list now, there are probably guys we had ahead of Claude where you look at that list now and you would say, 'What were you guys thinking?'" Nolet recalled with a chuckle to Greenberg.

"That's how it is when you draft. Every year. Every team. Then these guys change after the draft. They grow. They add muscle. They develop. Sometimes they don't become players. We got lucky with Simon and Claude and some other guys late in the first round, like Justin Williams and Mike Richards."
Added Holmgren, "I think a lot of people have a misconception about the Draft. Just because you take one player, it doesn't necessarily mean you didn't like someone else, too. That's how guys fall at the Draft sometimes when it's not really for a particular reason. It just takes one guy to be a spot higher on your [ranking] list to take someone else. I would think other teams liked Claude, too. I don't know for certain and it's a moot point, but maybe six or seven teams had just or two guys ranked a little bit higher than Claude."
Before long, Giroux's name was atop the Flyers' list of top prospects still available on the Draft board. A frequent misconception -- which still gets repeated sometimes to this day -- is that the Flyers zeroed in on defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti, a New Jersey native, but were beaten to the punch by the New York Rangers with the 21st overall pick.
In Flyers at 50, Holmgren firmly denied the Sanguinetti story.
"We liked Sanguinetti, but not in that range of the Draft," Holmgren said. "If Claude had been off the board before we picked, Bobby would not have been our pick. I believe the next guy on our list was Patrik Berglund."
Berglund, a big-framed center, was taken by St. Louis with the 25th overall pick. He went on to have a solid, if unspectacular, 700-plus game NHL career as a two-way forward for the Blues and Buffalo Sabres.
Prior to the Flyers' selection of Giroux, the organization's contingent briefly considered the possibility of trading down, picking up an extra pick, and still hopefully being able to select Giroux. However, Philly already held three picks in the second round (39th, 42nd and 55th overall) and simply decided to stay the course.
"[A legendary Flyers scout, the late] Gerry Melnyk used to say, 'At the end of the day,' there's no substitute for talent. We had concerns about Claude. He was listed at 5-foot-10 at the time but he was smaller, and he only weighed about 155 pounds in his Draft year. He was quick and his hockey sense and compete level were off the charts, but he didn't have elite speed. But in terms of talent and moxie, we felt comfortable in taking him," Patterson recalled to Greenberg.
In a humorous moment, Flyers general manager Bob Clarke momentarily forgot Giroux's name as the Hockey Hall of Famer stood at the podium to announce Giroux as the 22nd overall pick.
"I remember walking up to the stage. I said to Clarkie, probably four times,
'From Gatineau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Claude Giroux…. Gatineau, Quebec League, Giroux… Gatineau, Quebec League, Giroux.' You know, just like that. And also, it's right up there on the screen once you're up there. There's a screen at the podium and it's got your pick highlighted. If you forget, just look down. So I have no idea how Clarkie forgot! He remembered the Gatineau part and then he looks at
me and says, 'What's his name again?'" Holmgren recalled with a chuckle.
It would not take long thereafter for everyone to remember Claude Giroux's name.
"What Are Your Plans for Me This Year?"
Following the 2006 Draft, Giroux racked up 112 points for Gatineau during the 2006-07 season. In the meantime, he added some weight and grew about an inch taller. In 2006-07, Giroux played for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships, posted 112 points in 63 regular season games with the Olympiques and then had a playoff run for the ages with 51 points in just 19 games.
"One year after we drafted Claude, he played in that junior summer Summit Series against the Russian junior kids before training camp. He played, I think, four games in Russia, going east to west. Then there were four games
across Canada. So eight games in all and then he took a red eye to Philly. We gave him a day off," Holmgren recalled.
"The next day we did our mile run. Well, after two laps, he had lapped guys. I remember it was a hot day. I was sitting in the infield, in the shade, with my sunglasses on. Just watched the guys. After the run, Claude grabs a chair, pulls it over and sits right next to me. He said, 'So what are your plans for me this year?" So that was Claude even then. Very self-confident, almost bordering on cocky, and it's carried him ever since," Holmgren said to Greenberg in 2016.
During the Flyers' training camp in 2008, most observers penciled Giroux in for an opening-night NHL roster spot. Shortly before camp started, Giroux had to undergo dental surgery to have his wisdom teeth removed. Coincidentally or not, the player was not at his best in camp.
"Claude did OK in that camp, but just OK," recalled John Stevens, the Flyers head coach at the time, in 2015. "It was just a bump in the road but he had to earn his spot. He did it the right way."
Giroux was assigned to the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms before the start of the 2008-09 regular season. He was understandably disappointed and it took a few weeks to hit his stride. By November 2008, Giroux was dominating in the AHL and went on to post 34 points (17g, 17a) through his first 33 games.
On January 19, 2009, the Flyers recalled Giroux to the NHL. He posted 27 points in 42 games and added five points in six games against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal.
The rest is history. He's been a fixture in the Flyers' lineup ever since.
"That half-year with the Phantoms under John Paddock was a big thing for Claude," Holmgren recalled. "He was devastated when we sent him down but he had the right approach when he was in the AHL. By the time we called him up, he was ready and driven to make an impact."