2024 draft: Behind the Scenes

[Willie Dog]

[Willie Dog]

Are you watching?

[Willie Dog]

They wanted Hage at 21... amazing

[Cranky]

Great video.

There was a Plan B for 21. He said that "our guy is available", giant hint that if he wasn't then that pick would go elsewhere.

The question...WHO? McG? Askarov? Who? It could be anyone if the pick was part of a package.

Advance torture techniques on Hughes....

[Willie Dog]

It's cool that Hage is Fluently bilingual... his parents knew where they wanted him to play... if his brother is any good and we land him it would be neat to have 2 sets of bros on the team

[Willie Dog]

The question they posed to Hage was very interesting

[frozone]

Feels like Christmas every time they drop one of these draft videos.

Man, how did Bobrov do so poorly while in the New York Rangers organization? He seems to run a pretty good draft for the Habs… that’s all that matters really.

Also, I’m loving Demidov’s confidence. Give him the puck when we’re down by 1 with the goalie pulled.

[folatre]

My son and I watched this after dinner. It is excellent. And it is amazing the quantum leap forward the organization has made in terms of management but also in terms of public relations.

I liked all the newly minted Habs draft picks that were featured in this production. But man Demidov just possesses the swagger that feels, not smug or obnoxious, but rather normal and reassuring for this very rare class of talent.

[NWTHabsFan]

Another great draft video…likeliest the best yet. A few really cool take-aways.

The scouts were pretty well table-thumping unanimous in their choice of Demidov at five (if he was available).

Hughes had an offer of an unprotected 2025 first rounder and a second round pick for the 5th pick if the draft did not go their way (Demidov was gone). Speculation is the team was CHI.

They were pretty clear they wanted Hage at 21, but did not have the greatest hopes he would still be available.

Hughes had an offer for a trade for that 21 pick if their guy did not fall to them. He did. Speculation is this was WPG offering McGroarty.

Koivu and Sawyer were high on their list for the 57-78 cluster. They traded 57 to move up to 21 and they still got both at 70 and 78. They had them both higher ranked than where they picked them.

They had Khanin profiled as a fourth round talent. They got him in the seventh.

Billy Ryan was pretty high on Merrill, who is super raw and needs to improve his skating a bunch. He was the scout that table thumped for Fowler last year.

All the kids in the interviews are so well spoken and Demidov just has an aura. The quote that we will see for ages was when Gorton asked him if he knew of Slafkovsky? His answer was “Yes, we played against each other at the Hlinka-Gretzky. He lost.”

That tournament (2021) was my first real viewing of the highly touted Slovaks, including Nemec, Slaf, Dvorsky and Mešár. Michkov was the star of the Russian team and tourney top scorer, and Demidov was a double underage kid who held his own. A great final between those two teams as Canada did not send a team over to CZE for lingering pandemic reasons. As a result TSN did not cover it, and I had to watch CZE and SLO hockey feeds in their languages to see these draft eligible kids. Slaf had a very good tournament. The Habs ended up drafting three kids who were in that gold medal game.

[seventeen]

I heard elsewhere that chicago had made that offer. What it really says is that the Hawks considered Demidov better than anyone in the 2025 draft and I agree. Adding the second round pick didn’t move the needle. Seeing the very early work by Demidov vs KHL competition in (albeit) exhibition games, it’s clear the guy is immensely promising.

[Polarice]

Watched the video early this morning with my morning coffee...I love these videos and can't wait for the new Crave series to start in September.

I found it really interesting that Hage was their target from day one. If he didn't have the tragedy that he had I'm sure he would have went top 10.

Ben Merrill is intriguing. From what is written he is one scary MFer to play against. Now he's training with Boyle to get even tougher. Can't wait to see him live.

[habsorbed]

I too loved watching this last night. It'a a beauty! Fascinating to watch the process and the enthusiasm and respect they all had for same. I kept thinking to myself "these guys get paid for this", and how cool it would be to be around the table. It sure makes them all look like they are geniuses in their player selection.

Now, having said all that, we have to remember the video is heavily edited, and is a bit of propaganda on how wonderful huGo's team is. It comes off that they had these picks all perfectly called/played. I'm sure they had many more scenarios at the ready depending on how the draft unfolded. For example, had Demi been picked in the top 4, I'm sure the video would have beeen tailored to show how whoever Habs picked 5th was the guy they all thought highly of and were keen to get at #5. Speaking of which, I wonder who that player would have been - Iginila? The upside to all that is that it is clear HuGo and the team ensure all possiblilites, 'what ifs', are covered. Would be most interesting to have a video of MB and his draft meetings

The other 'complaint' i have of the video is that i would have liked to see some of the criticism the scouts had about prospects. The video did not need to identify who they were talking about, but just to hear something like, he's "lazy" or "not a team player" would have been interesting.

i probably will watch it again tonight!

[Cranky]

Aug 23, 2024 12:06:00 GMT -5 habsorbed said:

I too loved watching this last night. It'a a beauty! Fascinating to watch the process and the enthusiasm and respect they all had for same. I kept thinking to myself "these guys get paid for this", and how cool it would be to be around the table. It sure makes them all look like they are geniuses in their player selection.

Now, having said all that, we have to remember the video is heavily edited, and is a bit of propaganda on how wonderful huGo's team is. It comes off that they had these picks all perfectly called/played. I'm sure they had many more scenarios at the ready depending on how the draft unfolded. For example, had Demi been picked in the top 4, I'm sure the video would have beeen tailored to show how whoever Habs picked 5th was the guy they all thought highly of and were keen to get at #5. Speaking of which, I wonder who that player would have been - Iginila? The upside to all that is that it is clear HuGo and the team ensure all possiblilites, 'what ifs', are covered. Would be most interesting to have a video of MB and his draft meetings

The other 'complaint' i have of the video is that i would have liked to see some of the criticism the scouts had about prospects. The video did not need to identify who they were talking about, but just to hear something like, he's "lazy" or "not a team player" would have been interesting.

i probably will watch it again tonight!

He who makes the video makes the rules!!!

I was house hunting and these days it's normal to make glamour vidoes about properties. A house caught me eye so i watched the video about 4 times before going to see the property.

The bricks were spalding, cracks in the concrete, the dog used door jams as breakfast, mold and mildew in the bathrooms...on and on. NONE of it was on the video.

Those Hab meetings must of gone on for a few days and huge number of hours. Yet the impression the video gives is that our genius scouts sat around and made pitch perfect songs for the perfect prospects they were about to choose.

We'll never see those spalding bricks....

(BTW...I told the salesman to loose my number for wasting our time)