Nick Pryor - Director of Amateur Scouting - June 29th, 2023

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello, but for sure, Yeah, all right, I'm ready decide of
the non North American bend to theway the draft work out for you guys,

(00:28):
is that do you think that mightbe a possibility coming in that just
coincidence? Yeah, probably a littlebit of both and things. You know,
there was obviously a lot of playersthat we were interested from Europe,
and then um, sometimes it's justthe way that the list shakes out that
that's how it went. I don'tknow if that was the plan per se
going into it to go to Europethat much, but we really like all

(00:50):
the players that we were able toget in Europe, and um, just
the way the list shakes out.Sometimes a parting secretary your draft player from
the Rush show just given most thingsgo longer that country right now fronts anymore,
they're all yeah, obviously, likeyou know, it's not a easy
thing that these kids are going throughwith with everything that's going on there.

(01:11):
Um, you know, there mightbe some challenges in terms of getting these
kids over, but I think we'veseen lately that the kids are interested in
coming over in North America and playingin North America with with other teams.
Prospects that have been signing um So, I just think sometimes you look at
it as um as a value,an opportunity to get a kid later in

(01:33):
the draft that might go earlier hadwe seen him live, seen him in
tournaments all year. So I thinkobviously we understand the difficult situation that they're
going through, but we were reallyexcited to give a kill where we got
it ran. Yeah, for sure, Brandon, we see him as a

(01:53):
really smart, intelligent twounter food center, really good rush, really good,
really hes on his shot. Thisyear he focused more on his two hundred
four game. Like I said,he had the dropping goals from his sixteen
year years sixteen year old year hewas seventeen year old year out. His
assists went up, um So,I think he's added more auction at playmaking

(02:15):
into his game and like I said, just really put a lot of time
and effort into playing on both sidesof the park. So we see him
as a as a really good twohundred foot player that is going to be
a guy that can play in allsituations. Power by penilely killed obviously five
hund five minutes as well a mealpain in the Emmy from Finland, good

(02:36):
size range, moves well, it'sreally good with the puck, smart gets
you out of your end, cleantransition game is very good and the size
to go with that. We werereally excited where we got him. Um
sorry, I'm just refreshing myself onmccale. Like we talked about McHale,

(02:57):
we view as A as a reallysmart two hundred center as well, makes
a lot of plays pass first mindset, but he's he's really diligent with him
without the puck, and I thinkhe's one of those guys that makes those
around him better and it makes hiswingmers better. I's a really smart player
with him without it. Cooper Foster, he played an auto with us year,

(03:20):
kind of a guy that was maybelower in the lineup for the Otto
of sixty sevens. But we feelas he, you know, turns into
his eighteen year old year and it'san eighteen year old year and there's more
opportunity presented to him. Same thing. We really liked his sense on both
sides of the puck minutes and thenwe feel that there's skill and offensive production
that are untapped at this time andhas more opportunity comes his way that he'll

(03:44):
be able to take advantage of himand then Amelia our Mentee's under sized winger,
offensive minded and really shoot the puckand really good in the offensive zone.
I think for him it's going tobe about rounding out the other part.
It's in his game. But wefelt that the point where we got
him that it was good to takea chance on a guy that had offensive

(04:08):
instincts, an offensive part of thegame that we were really attracted to.
And then Kellie Kang is UH bigdefenseman, extremely hard to play against.
UM skating is going to need toimprove. UM he can move the puck
and he's hard to play against.So he's one of those guys that makes
it hard on the other team.Uh So obviously summarizing all those players,

(04:30):
a lot of different types of players, but I think we were really excited
looking at our draft class now thatUM we're happy with with all the picks
that we were able to make.I think UM awesome kids like Dan McClean
and the West spent a lot oftime with him throughout the year. UM

(04:54):
and Dan obviously the player we wereexcited about, but his character from day
one up this draft or something thatDan had always talked about, the very
driven kid off the ice, veryrespectable kid, and then when you kind
of pair that with his on icegame, it was, you know,
someone that who was really really attractedto. Funny story actually about Braden is

(05:18):
the NHL combine. We took BrandonOue to dinner. The night before we
took Brandon Oue to dinner, Bradongot food poison had the NHL combine.
We told Braydon and Braden's agent thenext morning, the night of our dinner,
Brandon doesn't have to come to dinner. We totally understand if he's not
feeling all right, you know,we're not expecting him to come out to

(05:39):
dinner. We can reschedule for adifferent time. But Braydon was insistent that
he come to dinner, spend timewith us, let us get to know
him. I think it would havebeen easy for him to to say no,
you know, let's do it adifferent time. And again we didn't
expect him to meet with us thatnight. But kind of tell the type

(06:00):
of kiddy is and how driven anduh we speaks volumes book the kid's character.
For sure. When you look atthe last three drafts, totality and
kind of what you've been able toadd those drafts. I guess, just
how do you kind of feel bigpicture about the word you've been able to
do the draft arms on the lastthree draft Yeah, well, this is

(06:24):
only my second draft. Um,but I think you know, obviously I
can speak on the last three drafts. I know some of those players,
but um, you know, wehaven't had a lot of picks, So
I think, you know, Iunderstand, and yeah, and I know
all the amateur scouts understand. They'reyou know, if the team feels like
that the windows still open and wewant to you know, make a run

(06:46):
with our poor guys still at thelevel that they're playing at in Pittsburgh.
We certainly understand that. So weyou know, haven't had a lot of
picks. But I think that we'reextremely happy with the players that we've been
able to select with the limited picksthat we've had. With Kyle coming in,
what was it value, were thesort of instructions, How involved was

(07:08):
he and did anything at all changeabout what you look for for a hangling
lodge? Um No, I don'tthink so. I think you know,
he came in laid in the processor you know, there wasn't a ton
of time before the draft UM,I'm sure there's going to be some things
to be discussed after the draft interms of how we want to approach going

(07:30):
in the next year with the draft. But Kyle was Kyle was really good
to us in the short amount oftime that we've been able to spend with
him and encouraging us. One thingis you know, taking swings, taking
you know, hitting, trying tohit a home run. U. Kyle's
you know, he's the first oneto tell us, guys, I understand
and girls how difficult the draft is. And so he knows how difficult this

(07:56):
process is. But when he encouragesyou to take some swings and to take
some chances on some players that havea high offensive ceiling, UM, you
know, that's good advice for usbecause it kind of helps us make decisions
on our list in terms of gettingthis guy ahead of that guy or that
guy ahead of that guy. UM. So just little things like that have
been really helpful for us, andI'm just really excited to continue to learn

(08:20):
from Kyle, and I speak forthe whole group were pain. Is there
anything unique about how Finnish players developthere the other York communions layer with America,
not really. I just think thatthat's kind of how it shook out.
I think if you look at alot of the Finnish players playing in
the NHL right now, they're they'reall really competitive players. Um, not

(08:46):
all of them, but I thinkthat's a common trait that finished players have
as are extremely competitive and really goodpeople, humble people, down to earth
people. But I don't think thatwe went into it saying we had to
take three Finnish players. It's justkind of way that it should out.
How many of the prospects from thisclass, ye, I expect we'll see,

(09:11):
Sorry McHale, I don't believe we'llbe coming to development camp. Great
and will be coming, and milwill be coming, Cooper Foster will be
coming, um and milliar Venti andKelly Kanghis. When I walked over here,
that was still up for discussion ifwe were going to be able to
get them over for development camp ornot. We heard a lot about how
long, a lot about how deepthis draft was. Now that it's done,

(09:35):
how how did you see that evidenceof that? Can you? Well,
we just heard it was a verydeep draft. People wanted to hold
onto their picks, even like thefirst round, but even into like the
second and third and fourth round,Like did did you when you were done
with your evaluation, like, didit was it as deep as you sort

(09:56):
of expected in terms of talelent?Yeah, I think it was. I
think that's fair to say. Ithink there was you know, obviously we
didn't we didn't have a second roundpick, but there was a few players
that were still available in the secondround that we had this first round picks,
And another team might say differently,but I do think that we felt
that there was still a lot ofgood players on the board in the second
round, in the third round thatwe were really high on, And so

(10:20):
I do think that that's fair tosay. It is a it is a
deeper drafter. Thanks thanks, thankyou, thank you.