TALES FROM THE WAR ROOM

The Stories behind the Draft

Scouting begins early for the SHL Winnipeg Aurora. As soon as preseason, the scouting team begins compiling the Draft Board, adding names and positions and tracking their development through the season.

As the season progresses, the player list is updated weekly. We see who sets the pace, who keeps up, who falls behind. Certain names draw attention, whether it be because of site presence, or recognizable recreates, or the rumor mill starting to circulate their names as highly desirable prospects.

For Winnipeg, as the season ended, they were holding a lotto pick as well as a 3rd and several later picks. The lotto landed them in 6th spot. The scouting indicated that this was going to be a very strong draft class deep into the second round. So 6th overall held a lot of value in terms of either landing a top tier prospect, or perhaps as trade bait for a team itching to get someone specific. The 3rd was going to be good as well, with enough active players to ensure we could get a positive add to the team.

However, a few days before the Draft, the Aurora made a trade that drastically altered the Draft - moving high-earning defenseman Magnus Liljestrom to Tampa Bay. In exchange, Winnipeg received the 4th Overall, 16th Overall, and 30th Overall picks.

Suddenly our strategy was altered. We didn't have to choose just 1 player. We could add up to 5 great people to the team which could go a long way to solidifying the future core of the team. The prior draft had gained us 3 solid forwards, all whom were great additions to the locker room and all whom had continued to develop. But even with that, there are a few aging and regressing players starting to age out on the roster, so we still had need to find a couple more forwards at least. But we couldn't disregard the fact that we had no defensive prospects currently with the call-up of Zayne Rotzbua - and without a first round pick next season, perhaps adding one now would be a wise move.

Now, we lost 2 other forwards in expansion, so we had a couple of holes on the roster. An opportunity arose to trade that 30th OV pick to gain 2 forwards who were decent enough and young enough to hold down the 2 available spots until our prospects were ready. Before that, we would have had to rely on either calling up someone a season early, or trying to find a free agent. The choice seemed clear - and now we were out the 30th, but had found the 2 pieces we needed to complete the roster.

Some mock drafters immediately began snooping - 'Who are you drafting? Who are you drafting? Who are you drafting?'. The answer was always the same - we don't know!

We had our targets, but it was unclear how the draft would shake out, even the day of. There was a lot of moving and shuffling and teams talking trades. We had many contingencies in place, but we couldn't guarantee anything! And in the war room, we hadn't finalized the decision - it's no lie to say there were too many choices, especially for the 6th Overall pick. Every time we would think, ok, we should go this way - we'd look again and scratch our heads and say, but what about this draftee? And we'd start all over again. Many names were considered, many were considered very very strongly, and after a last hectic day of contacting the draftees on our short list, we made the decision about an hour and a half before the draft, and everyone was confident it was the right selections to go.

DRAFT DAY

4th Overall: Gonzo Gobbledygook (@tweedledunn)

This for me was a no-brainer pick. It is not a joke to say we would have taken him 1st Overall if we had it. Even on the morning of Draft Day, we were considering trading up to 2nd OV from 4th just to secure him. We tried very hard not to leak it because it could have prompted a ruthless GM to trade up to snipe him, but he was a player and a person we knew would be a tremendous addition to the team. Tweedle's been on the site a long time, and he was the co-GM in SFP when they drafted my player Goku, so there was already a lot of familiarity. And having another person with some GM experience on the team is only a positive! So when he did get passed in the first 3 picks we pounced on him without hesitation. The presence he brings to the LR, his genuine likeability, and the super high ceiling on his player makes him a stand-out person to bring to the team!

6th Overall: Marcel Beck (@By-Tor)

The discussions got more feverish in the War Room as we tried to narrow down our selection with this pick. I think we had about 12 players we were looking at as serious potential with this pick, each of them as deserving as the other.

As a side note, I find it kind of funny that there is a category of player in the draft labeled as 'ISFL Guy'. It's not an insult, for the last few drafts, 'ISFL Guys' have been a driving force behind the need for expansion, the increased engagement on the site in terms of media and LR presence, and the sort of experienced first-gens-but-not-really-first-gens that are able to crank in the TPE and monies. But it's amusing when you ask, who's this guy? and the answer is 'ISFL guy' and you just go ahhh yes and that sort of covers it! But yes, there were a bunch of ISFL guys we knew would be great, some first gens who were very impressive, and a couple of recreates who it would be really hard to pass on not just once, but twice! But you have to make a choice, which means someone you really like, you have to pass. That is the not fun part of the draft!

So anyway, one name that kept getting brought up was Beck/By-Tor. We weren't entirely sure he was interested but by every measure he was a plus-plus-plus in all categories. He'd been putting out tons of top quality media, and with Sparky knowing him well from the STL locker room, he had the most familiarity with him. In the final hours before the Draft, Coach Sparky reached out to him one last time to see how he would feel about coming to Winnipeg, and the response was positive. So we had our guy.

By-Tor has already become a fantastic presence in the LR and we are thrilled to have him aboard! When McScruff finally collapses on the ice, Beck will be there to replace him and we have no doubt he will be an elite defender in the future.

16th Overall: Daniel Merica Jr. (@"Simply Incorrect")

Love him or hate him, Merica brings a swagger and an unwaverable confidence in himself and in his potential. I reached out to him fairly early, mostly just to say hello, as we have had lots of interactions in the past, even some clashes. But whether or not we agreed on everything, I still always liked him and respected his right to his opinions. At the time, I wasn't really thinking he'd be the best choice at 6, but I know how the SHL can be and kind of jokingly asked him if he'd be there in the 3rd round. We got to talking, and I became more and more convinced that he would actually be a great pick for us. His ambitions are to build a HoF player, which nobody else has that kind of self-confidence to be the best. He understands where we are as a team and where he fits into the big picture. He has some connections in the LR as we have now 3 former Manhattan GMs on the team. And when I think of a future line of Tweedle-Merica-Kez (since I recreated this season), it is a long-term project which will require a lot of commitment and luck to come to fruition, that has the potential to be a wrecking crew when they are all peaking.

So anyway, as soon as we acquired the 16th OV pick in that trade, he was my prime target there. We talked again and continued the dialogue right up until the Draft. There is no doubt in my mind that he was the right choice as he has already brought the hype to the LR and shown that he's all-in with us, and that's all we ask!

46th Overall: Elvis Alexander (@canuckles)

As mentioned earlier, we knew with this pick there would be an active player on the board. We have a pretty strong VAN connection in Winnipeg, and Elvis had done a commendable job with his earnings in his rookie season. He could very well have gone higher, but someone always falls, and in this case he fell right into our laps. He's been welcomed to the LR and has got a great attitude. With the right encouragement we feel he has the potential to develop into a genuine SHLer, and if he can continue to keep at it, we could find ourselves with a nice little player here!

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Overall, I am seriously stoked at the quality of players we added to an already-impressive prospect pool. Call it a rebuild, a reload, a retool, whatever you want, but however you label it, we've got some pieces in place who all form the core of the future, the dawn of a new era is on the horizon for the Aurora. The sky is the limit and the opportunities to become prime players on the team are there to be seized!

LET'S GO AURORA!!!

   

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