Dorion provides pre-draft updates
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During the call, Dorion touched on a number of items pertaining to the draft including his set-up, having 13 draft picks and much more.
On having 13 draft picks at his disposal
We're going to look at every possible scenario. There's a lot of chatter going on right now amongst GM's and teams are building competitive teams for next year, as we are trying to do. We will look at possible trades and picks but it has to make sense for us. It has to make sense for what we're trying to do as far as our rebuild, our plan, and not try to jump steps that will make us a better team in the long-run.
On drafting for need or the best player available with the fifth overall pick.
We're going to draft the best player that's going to help us win as we move forward through this plan. We have a lot of needs. We've finished 30th, 31st and 30th place over the last three years so we have a lot of needs. We have a lot of prospects coming at multiple positions but we're going to draft who we feel will help us win in the near future and in the long-term.
On if teams are talking and engaged around the draft
We got calls as soon as GMs left the bubble. The next day, certain teams that had lost, you could tell they weren't very happy about losing. There's been lots of chatter and obviously we haven't done anything so far so there's nothing right now that has been worth it but as we move along we want to look at our options. We want to make sure we follow our plan and that we don't take any shortcuts, that we don't jump steps that we shouldn't be jumping to make sure we have long-term success here and that's the first and foremost. At the same time, we have to make sure that when we bring our younger players into the line-up they are well surrounded, whether that's via trades or free-agency. We will make sure to do that once the season starts.
On the team's draft set-up
Unfortunately, this will be the first time that I can remember in more than 25 years in the NHL that all our scouts won't be there and that's very unfortunate. All of our scouts have put in countless hours. We're as well prepared for any draft I have ever been a part of. Kudos goes to our scouting staff, led by Trent Mann. We have a lot of picks but we are as well prepared as we can be. Unfortunately, our European scouts won't be part of it, our US based-scouts, and it pains me to say this to not have a guy like Bob Janecyk here in Ottawa hurts me because he's such a big part of a scouting staff. At the same time, it's only going to be the Canadian based scouts here. What's good is that Trent lives in the Maritimes so he's going to be the one running the draft and I know we are going to make a lot of good picks because of the work the scouting staff have put in. We had extra months to prepare for this draft and what's impressed me so much are the extra hours our amateur scouts have put in to prepare for this. Because I had a bit more time early on I was fortunate enough to be a part of a lot of these discussions and these guys are very thorough.
On the draft prospects currently playing in Europe
We'd be foolish not to have our scouts attend those games. Both Mikko Ruutu and Anders Ostberg have been attending games involving these players. They are very well aware of them. Sometimes it's just to solidify the points of where you have them on your list and nothing's changed for us with their viewings but at the same time, we wouldn't be doing our job and gathering as much information as possible because players do change over the course of a summer and for us it's bonus coverage and we're fortunate to have viewings on these players.
On the difficulty of finalizing the draft board based on the pandemic.
Our draft board is pretty much finalized. We're going to have meetings with our scouts through Zoom on the weekend leading up to the draft. All 31 teams face the same challenges. For us this year, we were fortunate enough, instead of having 15 minutes with players at the combine, we were able to have with some players multiple hours with them through zoom. We aren't allowed to meet players in person which is something I know a lot of GM's picking at the top of the draft would have wished for but we have to respect the process. I think the biggest hurdle for all 31 teams is there hasn't been the physical combine where you get to test the player's physical strength but all 31 teams face that challenge. I think it penalizes us a bit more because we have 13 picks and nine picks in the first three rounds but it's the way the world is right now and we're going to understand and respect it but we're going to do the best job with all the information we were able to get.
