The New York Times - Daryll Motz - Opinion Article

It’s long been known that there are two primary factors GMs of teams look at when deciding who to pick in the draft: activity, and personality. GMs use activity as a way to see if players will become the star they want them to. Will they be able to amass a large bank? Will they complete their tasks, and grow their TPE? Activity is one of the ways that you can try to measure this dedication to the league. On the other side, GMs are looking for people that will be enjoyable to talk to in the meeting rooms, and bring a team-focused presence in the locker room. Nobody wants to be stuck with the locker room bogeyman that players are constantly dreading that they will enter the conversation and completely derail it, or worse. So GMs conduct interviews, and ask teammates of the draftee to try to decide how good of a fit they really are. These two aspects really should be the only things that matter when drafting a player, right?

In all my years as a hockey reporter, I’ve seen many ways that players contribute to teams, and lead them to victories. Some players are flashy with the puck, while others bring a solid defensive effort, becoming the wall that stops the opposition from even thinking about scoring. And at the end of the day, these are the factors that come into how hockey players should be assessed. Why are we assessing players based on their ability to make money? They’re hockey players, not financial advisors. It’s never the player who everyone wants to be friends with that wins the games, it’s the player who sacrificed social activities growing up, and instead spent that time on improving their shot or skating, leaving their social aptitude behind in favor of the game.

Let’s look at the top 10 selections in the S74 SHL entry draft:

#1 CGY - Froya Solberg © - 30-29-59
#2 MAN - Celeste Desjardins (LW) - 37-50-87
#3 SEA - Will Tomlander (LW) - 20-22-42
#4 MTL - Peanut (LD) - 2-14-16
#5 TBB - Dag-Otto Bjorntjanst © - 9-22-31
#6 MTL - Emil Karlsson © - 20-35-55
#7 SEA - Squidwardo Tentacles (LW) - 20-35-55
#8 WPG - Juan Tymer (RD) - 3-19-22
#9 MIN - Bartholomew Chungus Gingersnap III (RD) - 2-26-28
#10 NEW - Teal’c (LD) - 9-36-45

Taking a look at the forwards here, only 3 of these top 10 picks cracked the top 10 in points during S73 in the SMJHL: Froya Solberg (4), Celeste Desjardins (1), and Squidwardo Tentacles (6). These three can be seen as reasonable picks at their place, with some question marks surrounding the Calgary Dragons’ decision to pick Froya Solberg with their #1 overall pick, and let the clear rookie points leader in Celeste Desjardins fall to second. Looking at the Will Tomlander, Dag-Otto Bjorntjanst, and Emil Karlsson picks makes this reporter scratch his head when there were clear higher scoring draftees available, most notably Shadow Fenix (2), Dwayne Swanson (3), Derek Kong (5), Fred Bread (8), Fedot Fedorov (9), and Lucki Blackwood (10).

The forwards aren’t the only travesty to fall upon this year’s draft. Looking at the defenseman, and specifically their plus/minus, which everyone knows is the best way to measure a defenseman’s talent level, we see an even worse picture. Only Teal’c has a plus/minus in the top 10 of this rookie class (when looking only at defenseman, if looking at forwards as well Celeste Desjardins is included). Teal’c leads defenseman in plus/minus, and is second for all skaters, however, he fell all the way to the 10th overall pick, with 3 teams opting to pick non-top 10 plus/minus defenseman instead. What good is a defenseman if they aren’t on the ice for more goals for than goals against. Isn’t that the whole point of a hockey game? You want to score more than they do.

I attended the SHL draft in person this year, and I had the chance to talk with some fans. I asked them about this dilemma, citing what many mock drafts were proposing. The responses were mixed, some people understood what I was saying, but most of them didn’t. Some fans made some fair arguments, “You can’t always judge only based on performance in the minors, not everyone’s game transfers to the big leagues,” one said. As I interviewed more and more, however, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “maybe this problem isn’t just with the GMs, maybe it’s a problem with the league altogether!” I thought I was going crazy when one fan said “Well it is a simulation hockey league, so all the stats are simulated, and thus they don’t matter, right?”

As I watched the draft, as each pick came, I fell to my knees. I got back up in my chair in the time between picks, and excitement swam into my veins as teams traded up, recognizing that top performing players were still available. Before I knew it, I was back on my knees, almost in tears as they passed over my favorite players.

I can’t claim to know what goes on inside the head of a GM. Maybe rebuilding teams, which many of these higher picks belonged to, aren’t looking for that player that is impressing in the minors right now. Maybe they’re looking for that locker room presence that future prospects will be able to look up to, and show them the ropes. Maybe they’re looking to build the locker room, and then build the team, so to speak. Maybe they are looking for that player that will help them out in the war rooms in their off hours. Maybe they just wanted to throw off the mock drafts.

We’re left wondering what they’re thinking, with almost no way to tell. Did these players with millions of dollars in their bank accounts bribe the GMs to pick them? Did they have some sort of blackmail on them? Did GMs have some sort of connection to the players in a former life? We just don’t know, and we can only speculate. All we know is that the GMs prioritized those two factors: activity, and personality.

If it were up to me, I’d pick the factors that win hockey games. I’d pick the player who can score, not the player who also acts as a scout. I’ve never been in a professional hockey organization, but looking at other pro sports, they typically have unpaid interns to do that busy work. Let’s have unpaid interns do intern things, and hockey players do hockey things. And to all you GMs out there that have stumbled upon this humble article, you may have messed up this year, but hey, maybe next year you can pick the players that are are the top performers in the minors.

[This article is an opinion piece, and does not reflect the opinions of the New York Times as a whole.]