Reapers Surprising Many at the Draft

Going into the Dispersal draft, the Reapers were the team that looked in complete rebuild. With no number one netminder locked into contract, only one dman of note contracted, and only three forwards capable of being regulars contracted, the team looked like it was set to explore youth only in the dispersal draft. Indeed, GM Gandour admits after sitting down with his committee that was the plan.

"Darren Madill and I had some closed door sessions discussing strategies," GM Gandour admitted, "and while we laughingly said even in rebuild Lecavalier would have to be our first overall choice, we knew he would not make it. So we went on creating our list as if we had every pick in the draft. Who would we take first overall, second overall, third overall, etc. The result was a master list, and a strategy. Looking at our position, we realized that the three or four top end superstars we targetted would not slip to 12th, and by that point we had much deeper lists of younger players with ratings. Our strategy was laid out for us from our homework. We were going to focus on a rebuild with pieces already RHL ready."

"We had eyed Joffrey Lupul as a player that might be available that we would take at 12th," Darren Madill added, "it was our plan anyway. Names like Hudler, Lupul, Hartnell, Malone, Ranger, Krejci, Frolik, Kostitsyn, Komisarek and Varlamov were the guys we targetted, hoping to land two of them in the first two rounds. We knew by round 3 that these players would be gone, and we were correct. Krejci was the top name on our list in round 3, the only one left from the above, but he went before our 12th overall selection."

"Something interesting happened though," GM Gandour admitted. "We were contacted with the possibility of moving up to first, taking the first overall pick in the dispersal draft. We were so stunned we had no plan for this. In no scenario we had ran had we ever thought we could piece together an offer fitting of Lecavalier. We had laughed off the likelihood of he being our first round pick, but then it was suddenly a possibility. I called Darren right away."

"Steve was on the phone to me at my office pesturing me for a good half hour while I was trying to work!" Darren laughingly admitted. "I was so torn by the talks. Yes, we both had agreed that Lecavalier hands down was the best player in this draft, and no matter what we had in mind... if we picked first he would have been our pick. Some teams would say 'we are rebuilding so even first overall we would take a vanek' or such, but we knew even if we had committed to taking only 1st year players, if we had the first pick we would not have passed on Lecavalier. The debate for me was never whether we should get Lecavalier, rather it was would getting Lecavalier for this package be a good deal?"

"Darren brought up a great point," Steve continued. "He said that yes, if we picked first overall we would take Vincent Lecavalier. But we weren't picking first overall. In that scenario we get the best player. In this scenario, we would sacrifice more then just a vanek or lupul selecting lecavalier. We would lose picks and a prospect. The goal as Darren said of a Dispersal draft is to improve your team at no cost, this is the one chance to do so without any compensation, monetary or trade. If we did this, we waste our first round pick by acquiring an asset, rather then just adding one for nothing. However I looked at it and said, every team will improve in the dispersal draft. The key is not to improve, but to improve more significantly then the other teams will do. If that costs us some future assets, but we walk away with a player no one else got, then lets do it."

"It was a long back and fourth talk, but eventually we agreed the price was just a tad too high." Steve continued. "So we contacted the Browns and told them we could not pay that price. Luckily however we were able to continue the line of conversation open, and compromise. It was a very small compromise, but we both felt it was just enough to justify accepting the deal."

The compromise, as with the return, remains unknown at this time. However the fact is the Reapers added Vincent Lecavalier in Round one. However then they made an about face in round 2.

"We never strayed from our plan," GM Gandour said, "which was to follow our master list. The strategy we anticipated unfolding was a rebuild, as we saw a lot more young names that intersted us then veteran names. Lecavalier was not a vere from the plan, it was right in line with our plan, just never expected to be in play. In Round 2 we knew there was no vet we wanted as much as we wanted Jiri Hudler. Hudler is the typical type of skilled forward we want to build this team around. He will work well with Hudler developping together as both will be Reapers for a while."

"Hudler had a great playoff last year," Darren added, "and we identified him as a major player in this draft who had still some upside. Landing him in round 2 was very good for our club."

By round three as stated above the top name on the list was David Krejci. With him out of play before the team picked, the Reapers master list still had a superstar on it!

"When we made the list," GM Gandour continued, "we had a couple superstars at the top, and then a long list of good young guys, then a few more superstars not as valueable as the young guys but more valueable then taking a project wild card prospect... or a steady but unspecatacular prospect... and it so happened that one of them was still there at a time where our top young player on the list was a Paille or Chipchura, a player projected to be a third liner with potential as a second liner if he remains on a weak club and all goes extraordinarily well. Teemu Selanne however we knew what we were getting."

"The list had dwindled down for the top end youth in round 2," Darren admitted, "and coming into round 3 it was third liners, fourth dmen and these guys didn't have huge untapped potential."

With Teemu Selanne, the team lept to sign him to a contract. Selanne who made 3.3 last year was only asking for a 100,000 raise this year despite his nice improvement for the upcoming year. In adding Selanne, the team still has over 6 mil to spend to reach the leagues min spending policy.

With three rounds down, the Reapers now have their top two lines set entering next year.

Radim Vrbata - Vincent Lecavalier - Shane Doan
Jiri Hudler - Martin Straka - Teemu Selanne

The team has its eye heading into rounds 4, 5, 6 and 7 on filling in depth spots on its roster. However the team did say they have their eye on someone special with the upcoming pick.

"There is one guy left we REALLY want to land," Darren admitted, "and if we get him we would feel extremely lucky. We had him going in the second round on our list. He would be a great fit for our club."

"I would love to land this one guy," Steve admitted, "the top name on our list has been on our list since the beginning, and was a 2nd rounder for our list. If we land him we feel we add another key piece to our team."

With 4 picks to come, there are a few superstar names still out there, but the salaries likely will prevent them from going until the last picks if at all.

Peter Forsberg, Mike Peca, Jaromir Jagr and Todd Bertuzzi could all slip right out of the draft due to outrageous salary demands. Still any team landing them could certainly make use of them immediately.

Reporting for your Reapers,

Sal Trachan