Eyes at the Draft - Day 4 & 5
Saturday, 21.06.2008 / 4:48 PM
/ Features
By Jonathan Wall
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DAY FOUR A full year is coming into focus now as we board the bus and depart for the arena. The whole crew is excited as we are about to add a big part of our future. We should make a pick in just a couple of hours. Scouting for this draft officially began last July – that’s thousands of games, tens of thousands of miles, lots of hot dogs and gallons of coffee in dimly-lit rinks all over the globe. We feel like we’ve got some great information and are expecting to land some quality pieces this weekend. The entire staff met this morning at the hotel to sift through the top 10 again and run a bunch of different scenarios that we think might present themselves. The top pick is set, but from what we gather, it’s still far from settled from #2 on down. We have to be prepared for whatever happens. In the event one of our targeted player starts sliding, and we have a shot at moving up to secure him, we need to be ready to make a move. Or if there’s a player left on the board and we have a chance to move down while picking up an extra selection, we have to fully understand the risks. We've also spent some time discussing possibilities on the trade front. It’s shaping up to be an active weekend and we’re hoping we can produce with our five picks. We are ready to go DAY FIVE Once a team makes its pick and the player poses with the jersey, the draft floor process just gets wound up. After leaving the stage the player makes his way to the draft table where he meets the Vancouver Canucks scouting staff and hockey operations executives (Mike Gillis, Steve Tambellini, Lorne Henning). TSN gets them for a quick interview before NHL PR and the Canucks PR staff escort the player through the “media tour” where they answer questions from print, radio and tv reporters. It’s then off to NHL Live and then NHL.com where they’ll likely answer the same questions a third or fourth time. The NHL then asks the players to stop at three different photo booths, taking pictures for the NHL for promotional and editorial use. After a long tour, he then meets up with his family for some personal time (pictures as a memento of draft day etc…). Finally after a long tour, he and his family are escorted to the team suite where the finally celebration of draft day takes place. |
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17 - Number of countries visited by the Canucks scouting staff 150 - Average nights on the road for a Canucks scout in a year |
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