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Nice interview with The Man Himself


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Excellent read - thanks, CC.

Interesting that 2 teams wanted Huet. I wonder what the other one was. Ottawa?

That would not surprise me at all!

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A good read, a bit scary that our goal was Benoit Pouliot in 05, we probably dodged a bullet there. I know after Price, our next two choices were Staal and Bourdon (dodged another bullet). I'm a bit surprised Gainey and Timins weren't interested in Kopitar if their #1 goal was for a big forward.

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A good read, a bit scary that our goal was Benoit Pouliot in 05, we probably dodged a bullet there. I know after Price, our next two choices were Staal and Bourdon (dodged another bullet). I'm a bit surprised Gainey and Timins weren't interested in Kopitar if their #1 goal was for a big forward.

I'm not that surprised. Many teams passed on Kopitar. Some says that it had to see with the country he was playing and the development program over there in term of sport ethic.

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I'm not that surprised. Many teams passed on Kopitar. Some says that it had to see with the country he was playing and the development program over there in term of sport ethic.

That was the common knock but I don't feel like it's one Gainey and Timmins would buy. They were comfortable picking Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, Graboski and Buturlin out of Belarus. Now Belarus is a more developed hockey country than Slovenia but they're still pretty obscure.

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That was the common knock but I don't feel like it's one Gainey and Timmins would buy. They were comfortable picking Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, Graboski and Buturlin out of Belarus. Now Belarus is a more developed hockey country than Slovenia but they're still pretty obscure.

I wanted Kopitar over Brule. I wanted nothing to do with Pouliot.

I am happy with the selection they made :) although shocked at the time :o

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I wanted Kopitar over Brule. I wanted nothing to do with Pouliot.

I am happy with the selection they made :) although shocked at the time :o

Yeah, even then Pouliot was considered a very risky pick and the one guy most probable to bust.

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That was the common knock but I don't feel like it's one Gainey and Timmins would buy. They were comfortable picking Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, Graboski and Buturlin out of Belarus. Now Belarus is a more developed hockey country than Slovenia but they're still pretty obscure.

yeah, that's why i wasn't that surprised. I even remember that the commentators on RDS were talking about this guy and raised the point of the Belarus thing...

I'm very happy with Price now, but i was shocked just like Wamsley and.... pretty much every Habs fan.

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I wanted Kopitar over Brule. I wanted nothing to do with Pouliot.

I am happy with the selection they made :) although shocked at the time :o

I remember being paralyzed for a few minutes in front of the TV.

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I wanted Kopitar over Brule. I wanted nothing to do with Pouliot.

I am happy with the selection they made :) although shocked at the time :o

I was immediately happy. It was clear to me that Price was good enough to at least garnish returns. To the people who wanted Kopitar; If you were Dean Lombardi, would you trade Kopitar for Price?

I also liked the pick because you really do have to "Keep up with the Jones'". Luongo, Dipietro, Marc-André Fleury amongst others were premier high draft pick goalies. The trade returns based on his stock before he even left junior had significant stock.

Risk reward factor = take the risk :D

:hlogo:

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I remember yelling out loud..NO !! when we picked Price.

Its doesn't surprise we were interested in Pouliot, a skilled

Quebecer with size.

I didn't want Brule. Was is in love with Kopitars size, but

the unknowns scared me.

I really wanted us to move up and grab Jack Johnson.

So, maybe Roy back in the family?

Gaineys on a roll. :clap:

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The thing that strikes me about Gainey is his whole approach to management. In discussing scouting, he frames it in terms of fairness to the scouting staff itself - how they've worked all year to assemble a list, and how to start fiddling with the list, moving a prospect up or down in reaction to what other teams are doing, etc., invalidates what they've done. I wonder how many GMs would approach things that way.

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I'm not that surprised. Many teams passed on Kopitar. Some says that it had to see with the country he was playing and the development program over there in term of sport ethic.

Kopitar was actually playing in Sweden when he was drafted for Södertälje's junior team I think.

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Your right, its never wise to assume. I should have

done some research before posting.

We've all made that mistake... I used to think Claude Julien, Paul Martin (the politician), and Paul Desmarais (very wealthy and affluent businessman) were Quebeckers too... although at least they francophones ;)

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We've all made that mistake... I used to think Claude Julien, Paul Martin (the politician), and Paul Desmarais (very wealthy and affluent businessman) were Quebeckers too... although at least they francophones ;)

No shame to think Desmarais is from Quebec, he worked pretty much all his life in Montreal and has a french name...

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Gainey didn't name Poliout directly in that quote. He could've been referring to Bobby Ryan, who went 2nd overall to Anaheim. There were no guarantees that Ryan would be gone by #5. Crosby & Johnson were pretty much the only two players that were guaranteed to be gone by the Habs' pick. There was a group of 4 forwards (including Kopitar and Brule) that were considered pretty equal. It was considered a surprise that the Ducks passed on Johnson for Ryan. I don't think any scouting agency had Ryan, or any of the other 3 forwards, ranked ahead of Johnson.

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