Draft comments

Very interesting draft day for this team. Only one minor trade of picks and some interesting draft choices. Some things I've picked up since the draft from KLowe and KP:

• KLowe said that they were taking a forward and defenceman with the first two picks, thus picking Plante at 15. Going away from a previously stated policy of BPA. Wanted Alzner or Gagner at 6.
  
• He went on to say that Plante was their second highest rated defenceman (Alzner obviously first).
• Hates CSB (who rated Plante late second round) because they do not do interviews with players or check for things outside of what they see on the ice. Redline and ISS do to a smaller degree and Redline had him rated 15.
• He tried trading for the #2 and had a 3 way deal agreed upon (believed to be with LA or Wash and Philly obviously) but one of the teams backed out as he was walking up to the trade booth.
• A lot of teams were concerned about Espo, has talent but don't know if he can play in traffic

So needless to say and interesting draft. A very comprehensive review of the draft can be found at HF or easily by clicking here. I know a lot of people are upset because so and so didn't get picked, but that seems more to be because they had more media coverage and not necessarily because they were better for this team.

Some other topics have come up about free agents. Lowe said that they were be making big offers to a certain small group of top free agents (rumoured to be in the 8 mil/year range) and then if that doesn't work have a 'B' group that they fall back to and so on.

Interesting days lie ahead.