At No. 5, Canadiens ready to roll
Jul 29, 2005 15:53:46 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2005 15:53:46 GMT -5
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Pair of “Canadiens siblings” likely to hear name called on Saturday
MONTREAL - Canadiens fans won’t soon forget the excitement and thrills provided by last week’s NHL’s draft lottery, a countdown that saw the team come oh-so-close to nabbing the first overall pick and winning the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes. If the suspense had even the casual fans on the edge of their seat, one can imagine what it was like for Canadiens Director of Player Personnel and draft guru Trevor Timmins.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it there for a second,” joked Timmins about the Canadiens’ wild lottery ride. “I watched it at home with my wife and we both couldn’t believe how everything turned out.”
Though landing Crosby would have been near-miraculous, Timmins admitted to having more modest goals both prior to the draw and throughout the nerve-wracking process itself.
“Coming in with only one ball out of 48, I was honestly hoping to just get out of the bottom 10,” said Timmins, who will be overseeing his third draft for the Canadiens this year. “But once we escaped that bottom third, I started getting a little greedy. And when we then snuck into the Top 10 and eventually the Top 5, I started to think, ‘Is this really happening?’”
In addition to being elated about securing the fifth overall pick, Timmins can now finally get down to the business of drafting players, something he and his staff have been waiting to do since the lockout forced the postponement of the league’s draft that was originally slated for late June.
“Most of my staff will be joining me in Ottawa later this week and we’ll sit down as a group one last time to finalize our list,” said Timmins. “We’ll go around the table and see if there is any one player anyone feels really strongly about, but I don’t expect any major changes. We’ve been ready for a while now and all we were waiting for was the end of the lockout. Now the real fun starts.”
Had the draft order been determined as it is traditionally, Montreal would have stepped to the podium for its first selection somewhere in the mid-teens. With the higher pick come higher expectations that Timmins not only expects, but welcomes.
“Sure, it’s a little less stressful to have a late first-round pick since if the player pans out, you get credit for stealing a player, and if he doesn’t, it’s hardly front-page news,” he noted. “But any serious scouting staff wants to be in the spotlight making this kind of a big pick. This is what it’s all about.”
Montreal’s fifth overall selection will mark the highest the Canadiens have drafted since 1984, when they also picked fifth and chose defenseman Petr Svoboda.
This year’s crop of available talent includes a couple of names that while not projected as first-rounders, will nevertheless sound familiar to Canadiens fans. Dan Ryder and Sergei Kostitsyn are the younger brothers of Michael and Andrei, respectively, and it will not be a question of if but when they hear their names called this Saturday in Ottawa.
Ryder is ranked by The Hockey News as the 53rd most-talented player available, and is ranked as the 40th North American skater by NHL Central Scouting. The 5-foot-11 centerman put up 82 points in 68 games with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, the alma mater of Canadiens GM Bob Gainey that happens to be located in his hometown, as well.
“Ryder is a good player and a big, strong kid who is actually bigger than Michael was in his draft year [back in 1998],” observed Timmins.
“As for his Peterborough connection, the Petes always have a great program, but it’s not as if Dan is from Peterborough or anything, so I doubt that will influence Bob,” he added with a laugh.
Sergei Kostitsyn, for his part, reminds Timmins of older brother and 2003 Canadiens top selection Andrei.
“I definitely see similarities between them,” said Timmins of the 5-foot-10 left winger, who was ranked 18th among European skaters by Central Scouting. “They’re both talented. Andrei is more skilled, but Sergei likes to mix it up a little more and plays a more physical game.”
In the end, all the preparation, countless cups of arena coffee, and random watched games from Saguenay to Siberia come down to this weekend for Timmins.
“I feel like we’ve been waiting forever to finally walk up to that podium,” he admitted. “For a team of scouts, this is like our Super Bowl. I can’t wait to get this thing going. Like the other 28 teams who won’t get to call Crosby’s name on Saturday, we are surely disappointed, but in our case a fifth overall pick is one heck of a consolation prize. What we make of it as a franchise is up to us on Saturday.”
Manny Almela is a writer for canadiens.com.
Pair of “Canadiens siblings” likely to hear name called on Saturday
MONTREAL - Canadiens fans won’t soon forget the excitement and thrills provided by last week’s NHL’s draft lottery, a countdown that saw the team come oh-so-close to nabbing the first overall pick and winning the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes. If the suspense had even the casual fans on the edge of their seat, one can imagine what it was like for Canadiens Director of Player Personnel and draft guru Trevor Timmins.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it there for a second,” joked Timmins about the Canadiens’ wild lottery ride. “I watched it at home with my wife and we both couldn’t believe how everything turned out.”
Though landing Crosby would have been near-miraculous, Timmins admitted to having more modest goals both prior to the draw and throughout the nerve-wracking process itself.
“Coming in with only one ball out of 48, I was honestly hoping to just get out of the bottom 10,” said Timmins, who will be overseeing his third draft for the Canadiens this year. “But once we escaped that bottom third, I started getting a little greedy. And when we then snuck into the Top 10 and eventually the Top 5, I started to think, ‘Is this really happening?’”
In addition to being elated about securing the fifth overall pick, Timmins can now finally get down to the business of drafting players, something he and his staff have been waiting to do since the lockout forced the postponement of the league’s draft that was originally slated for late June.
“Most of my staff will be joining me in Ottawa later this week and we’ll sit down as a group one last time to finalize our list,” said Timmins. “We’ll go around the table and see if there is any one player anyone feels really strongly about, but I don’t expect any major changes. We’ve been ready for a while now and all we were waiting for was the end of the lockout. Now the real fun starts.”
Had the draft order been determined as it is traditionally, Montreal would have stepped to the podium for its first selection somewhere in the mid-teens. With the higher pick come higher expectations that Timmins not only expects, but welcomes.
“Sure, it’s a little less stressful to have a late first-round pick since if the player pans out, you get credit for stealing a player, and if he doesn’t, it’s hardly front-page news,” he noted. “But any serious scouting staff wants to be in the spotlight making this kind of a big pick. This is what it’s all about.”
Montreal’s fifth overall selection will mark the highest the Canadiens have drafted since 1984, when they also picked fifth and chose defenseman Petr Svoboda.
This year’s crop of available talent includes a couple of names that while not projected as first-rounders, will nevertheless sound familiar to Canadiens fans. Dan Ryder and Sergei Kostitsyn are the younger brothers of Michael and Andrei, respectively, and it will not be a question of if but when they hear their names called this Saturday in Ottawa.
Ryder is ranked by The Hockey News as the 53rd most-talented player available, and is ranked as the 40th North American skater by NHL Central Scouting. The 5-foot-11 centerman put up 82 points in 68 games with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, the alma mater of Canadiens GM Bob Gainey that happens to be located in his hometown, as well.
“Ryder is a good player and a big, strong kid who is actually bigger than Michael was in his draft year [back in 1998],” observed Timmins.
“As for his Peterborough connection, the Petes always have a great program, but it’s not as if Dan is from Peterborough or anything, so I doubt that will influence Bob,” he added with a laugh.
Sergei Kostitsyn, for his part, reminds Timmins of older brother and 2003 Canadiens top selection Andrei.
“I definitely see similarities between them,” said Timmins of the 5-foot-10 left winger, who was ranked 18th among European skaters by Central Scouting. “They’re both talented. Andrei is more skilled, but Sergei likes to mix it up a little more and plays a more physical game.”
In the end, all the preparation, countless cups of arena coffee, and random watched games from Saguenay to Siberia come down to this weekend for Timmins.
“I feel like we’ve been waiting forever to finally walk up to that podium,” he admitted. “For a team of scouts, this is like our Super Bowl. I can’t wait to get this thing going. Like the other 28 teams who won’t get to call Crosby’s name on Saturday, we are surely disappointed, but in our case a fifth overall pick is one heck of a consolation prize. What we make of it as a franchise is up to us on Saturday.”
Manny Almela is a writer for canadiens.com.