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Coyotes thrilled with Draft day activity |
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I was on the Coyotes team bus heading to the draft from our hotel in beautiful downtown Ottawa and chief amateur scout Keith Gretzky slid in beside me while I was going through some notes.
Keith has gained an outstanding reputation as one of the hardest working amateur scouts in the business. This is an area that the Coyotes needed to and have greatly improved on in recent years.
He looked at my list, several players circled with notes around them, and pointed to 3 forwards that were going to be there at the # 8 slot in the opening round.
He knew the top 5 were a lock, and that Filitov was a wild card. He could slide into the top 5.
The scouting staff liked Colin Wilson as well, as he impressed with his confidence, strength and maturity, not to mention the fact his father is a well respected former NHLer.
But the one player he saw more than any other was the Kitchener Rangers Mikkael Boedker, who hails from Denmark.
Keith has the ability to keep things even keeled, as to not get too excited about just one player. you just never know who ends up picking what player in what slot. Make no mistake, Boedker thrilled him and they know he has as much upside as any forward that was available.
He had GM Don Maloney watch Boedker play in Don's old Major Jr. A stomping grounds in Kitchener and the 1st period of the 1st game he saw with Keith didnt go that well. Boedker was a non factor.
The game picked up and so did Boedker. He drove hard to the net, took hits to make plays and at that began a consistent flow of attending games for Maloney and his staff.
Boedker is a left shot that plays the RW, but as he told me, he will and can adjust to any position. He is a gifted skated that can make a play and is a very strong 205 lbs right now. He is ready for NHL action, and has the maturity to handle the grind.
Gretzky then turned the page of my scouting notes to a player that was ranked by McKeens as the 100th best prospect. The name Viktor Tikhonov was circled. I really didn't think he meant for the 1st round, I figured it was for the later rounds, that he just really liked the young man that grew up in Southern California and speaks as fluently in English as you can imagine. He was raised in the USA and recently got his Russian passport. There were many teams that liked him and tyhe Coyotes were afraid that a team like LA would take him with an early 2nd round pick. Could they wait for their 2nd pick, #38?
Keith wanted him and got him as Don Maloney swapped a few 2nd round picks to get the late 1st as he sent his 35th ( compensatory pick for Blake Wheeler not signing) and 39th to get Anaheim's 28th overall pick. Maloney backed up his scouts by getting the deal done. This is where there has to be trust, and clearly Keith Gretzky has Maloney's.
Gretzky said to me after the 1st round that he "wasn't going to bed tonight without knowing he had Tikhonov." Done deal.
Before the draft, Maloney was pondering the Jokinen deal from the Panthers as he and Panthers GM, Jacques Martin discussed Jokinen.
This is a hard hockey deal as Ballard and Boynton are very well liked and respected hockey players and people. Ballard has incredible upside and will do whatever it takes to win his shift, the game, his match-up. Wayne Gretzky and Ulf Samuelsson used he and Derek Morris in a defensive match up role against the other teams best players. Ballard has been a great pro in Phoenix and it always tough seeing great guys go elsewhere. Florida got 2 solid defenseman while the Coyotes improved greatly, getting the strong, durable Jokinen to solidify the center ice position and give ample protection to young centers, Kyle Turris, Kevin Porter and Martin Hanzel.
I will have more from Ottawa and the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.
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