John Hoven haastatellut pääskoutti Mark Yannettia tulevan varaustilaisuuden ja menneiden varausten tiimoilta.
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Ensimmäisen puolituntisen voi skipata vapaasti, sillä se on pääosin tyhjänpäiväistä löpinää. Sen jälkeen tulee paljon asiaakin. Jollei viitsi kuunnella, niin nimimerkki King's Pawn teki hfBoardille yhteenvetoa haastattelusta:
Yannetti interview during the "second period" (24 minute mark). Some key discussion points (I'm updating along the way):
- happy this is the supposed last in-person draft. He hates the in person, as they have to be more careful not to be overheard
SIZE
- Size matters when everything else is equal. But there's heavy size and "soft size"
- Kings could use a Derian Hatcher type (in response to Hoven discussing toughness)
- "I don't think anyone would consider this year a success". BLuc probably won't like that. Though he still feels they did some things that were really good or special, but hope they learned lessons along the way.
- The previous regime tried to get players to get the puck up the ice as fast as possible, but capable of recovering the puck when possession lost. Felt it was more than "just a heavy team"
ROSTER CONSTRUCTION
- Hoven calls out how Yannetti alludes issues with roster construction and how it's missing in the current team and how the players don't complement each other.
- Praise for Lee. He was big and more of a skill guy but he has put in the work and put things together. Helenius a good complement to him (more physical and better puck skills).
- Seemed disappointed there wasn't more talk of Lee or that he didn't get a callup, but understands injury played a part.
COMBINE
- Kings interviewed 55 kids at combine. Was told they do interviews different from other teams (for better or worse).
- They spoke to both Brandsegg-Nygard and Solberg (Norwegian players). Thinks both will be gone in the first.
- Asked about draft eligible prospect EJ Emery: Humble, docile, sincere, driven, focused, team-player, athletic. Intelligent transition player. Creates up-ice flow and is a facikitator. They talked to him multiple times in the year. He knows exactly what role he'd play in the NHL. Top-tier defensive elements in Yannetti's memory. Emery still wants to develop more skills to complement his defensive strengths. Maximum potential: elite-skating shut down defender. Team question is "what if the offense never comes? How do you value that?" His wheelhouse for pick range is going 18-30. 65-70% chance he's there at 21.
SCOUTING + PANDEMIC EFFECTS
- "Video doesn't add value" but he also said "cool. We don't have to use analytics anymore." Clearly being sarcastic. Feels a team doesn't "need" to rely on video to be successful, but a team benefits using all tools and resources available to them.
- "I think we were wrong and the NHL mostly got it wrong for how the pandemic affected the players." It affected age groups more than we thought. Elite players will always be elite. But he's still seeing it.
- Hates giving other teams credit (hates admitting other scouting teams do better than him), but admits Dallas did a better job with Wyatt Johnson, they knew him better than any team. Wants to learn more from it. Hopes the inside info Andy Johnson had with Ryan Conmy will have similar benefits.
- Concedes the possibility about Byfield and Kaliyev being better off playing in the O during the pandemic and Clarke playing in the AHL the previous season. Ultimately "We'll never know", but he seemed less insistent that they made the right decisions. Does add the caveat that "the more elite you are, the less impactful those decisions are."
DRAFT CLASS EVALUATION
- "Do you still subscribe to the philosophy that if you come away with 2 NHL players (200 games) per draft, it's a successful draft class?" "NO." After more explanation, thinks you should get 7-8 for every 3 drafts. 2 "gets the job done" but teams should go for more. Lombardi was going for 2, but he was more strict.
- Yannetti said "2019 wasn't a rebuild" after Hoven called it that. Hoven responded with "look at players traded out, picks acquired, etc, then made reference to the players picked. Yannetti said "yes, it was fruitful. Let's talk about that draft class." Seemingly being happier with 2019 vs 2018. My own editorial here - I wish Yannetti talked more about 2019 if it wasn't a rebuild, but I'm assuming it would have been a "retool" or something else.
- Re 2021, still happy with the draft. Clarke doing things at the AHL that hadn't been done before (leading in scoring as a rookie defenseman). Pinelli takes a while to figure things out at different levels. Think he's on the right path. Thinks Helenius is a successful pick but he's coming along. He wanted Kirsanov to come over sooner. Won't be participating in dev camp as he hoped - torn ligament.
- Re: 2019. Turcotte's gonna make it (the NHL). Bjornfot, Kaliyev, Spence made it. Fagemo and Lee - maybe 100 games. The other guys probably won't.
- 2020: Byfield, Faber, Laferriere obviously make it. Chromiak and Jämsen still alive. Grans on the "wrong side" of being alive
- 2021: Clarke's gonna make it. Pinelli and Helenius are good feelings. Hope to entice Kirsanov over.
- 2022: Hoven "talk me off the ledge. Jack Hughes. I'm not sold. Is it too early to worry?" MY "it's never too early. Hughes' biggest problem is he's the same weight from his draft year." Calls out how Nic Dowd took 7 years to look like he belonged. Hopes Hughes can eventually follow that path. But he still gets outmuscled on every puck. He's still smart, but the concerns are there. This camp is very important. MY agrees with Hoven that Connors is further along.
- Connors and Wright are going to be NHLers. Said they could have come in after this season, but MY praised them both for going back to school. Connors and Wright outperforming their draft position. Hughes underperforming draft position.
POST-MORTEM
- Hoven "what went wrong with Bjornfot?" MY: "We failed him a lot. He was good enough to play for us. We didn't protect him as we should have with younger defenseman." Adds some parts of his game didn't develop. He would make plays too early and his sense of timing was off. From Bjornfot's side, he could have closed quicker or been more aggressive. He had a lot of elements of a younger Vlasic.
- All but guaranteed Kaliyev's out. Hoven said the pick didn't work out - MY said "Well we can't say that yet" but then didn't push back after Hoven said "well he can still have a good career on another team."
