Wild sticking to list, best player strategy in NHL Draft
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Months of evaluation and preparation have led to this week for Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher, assistant general manager Brent Flahr and the rest of the team's scouts and personnel staff.
The discussions have taken place and Fletcher and Flahr will arrive in Florida for the NHL Draft, set with their first-round list. Now, Minnesota is left to wait and watch as the rest of the NHL pares down the Wild's list.
When Minnesota is on the clock, it will stick to its list.
"For the first round, we work really hard on our top 30," Fletcher said. "We work hard to put them in order and we simply will cross off 19 names and the next name will be the player we pick."
Fletcher and Flahr trust the organization's evaluations and will go with the proverbial "best player available," checking off their list with the idea of adding the most skill possible, regardless of position. The chief decision-makers want to stand by the work put in during the evaluation period.
"The idea behind that is you don't want a lot of debate at the table," Fletcher said. "You don't want the emotion to get into it. We've had lots of time the last month to debate the players and look at the players, and interview the players at the combine. So the list will be the list for the first 30. And once we get into the later rounds, if you've drafted a lot of defensemen or a lot of forwards we have the ability to shift our list around a little bit and take the player that maybe makes the most sense at that point in time."
In a draft that is strong at the top with Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel as the expected top-two selections, the Wild also believe there's a lot depth as they look to replenish a pool of prospects which has been raided by NHL promotions.
"We sure hope so because we're picking 20th," joked Fletcher about the draft being deeper than two players. "This is a draft that has quality at the top but we think it's a deep draft quantity-wise, as well. We're really happy with picking 20 this year. Some years picking 20 you're not sure who's going to get to you. But there's a group of at least 20 players that we really like, so that bodes well for our club. It's a good year. I think even at 50 we'll be surprised with the type of player that falls to us."
Once possessing a highly regarded group of prospects, Minnesota has seen many of those players make their way to the NHL, including Mikael Granlund, Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba, the team's first-round selections from 2010-12.
Including Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker and Erik Haula, the Wild have nine players on their NHL roster 24 years old or younger. The group includes a mix of defensemen and forwards, another reason Fletcher and Flahr can zero in on skill and potential instead of positions. Whomever Minnesota selects will likely need time to develop, as well.
Alex Tuch, last year's first-round pick at No. 18 overall, spent the past season at Boston College where he had 14 goals and 14 assists in 37 games.
"When you look at the players we're drafting now there's not too many Brodins (who) come in and play at 19 years old," Flahr said. "Our needs right now are probably different than what they are three years from now. That's why teams take the best player available. You can't have too many defensemen if a defenseman happens to be the player."
After Minnesota used its first pick on defensemen in three straight drafts with Brodin, Dumba and Gustav Olofsson, it selected Tuch in a similar draft order position to this year. Fletcher and Flahr aren't approaching the draft with the idea of using their first pick on a particular position.
For the first time in three years, in a deep draft, the Wild own both of their first- and second-round picks.
"The first round is the best opportunity in the NHL to add skill," Fletcher said. "Once the skill players get to unrestricted free agency, they cost an awful lot of money. So the ability to draft skill players makes the most sense, then you can usually surround them with complementary pieces through other avenues like free agency or the trade route. Whether it's a skilled defenseman, skilled centerman, skilled winger, even a skilled goalie, we're going to try to take the highest potential we can find early."
Dating back to Darcy Kuemper in 2009, Minnesota has drafted a goaltender in five of the past six years. But the Wild, like the rest of the NHL, has typically waited on goaltenders because of the expected development time.
Fletcher and Flahr said a couple of goaltenders are worthy of first-round status this year.
"It's something you'd consider," Flahr said. "Obviously it's got to be a special talent . . . One thing with goaltending, you have to have expectations of waiting and developing properly. So it takes three, four, five years before a goaltender has a chance to come in and potentially have an impact. You have to have patience and that's why you see some teams stay away from drafting goalies early in the draft. We're drafting young kids where being mentally strong is such an important part of the goaltending position. Sometimes you don't know that for a couple years down the road."
Whichever route Minnesota takes -- Fletcher said a trade up is unlikely and a trade down would only be with the idea of having several players the team still likes on the board -- talent isn't expected to be an issue even after McDavid and Eichel.
"I think if you talk to a lot of teams, I think the top 11 or 12 players in the draft will be probably similar on each team's list but probably a little different order," Flahr said. "After that, there's another grouping of players that are strong first-round prospects. There's a number of defensemen, number of wingers, number of centermen and a couple of goalies all in the mix and it's a matter of what teams do in front of us and we'll take the best player we can."
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