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PremierBromanov · 07-16-2020, 12:13 PM

This draft marks the first draft in any simulation league that I was a scout in. This was never really my intention, but lately I've been helping out the general managers in Tampa Bay. A few weeks before MCP was fired, I had started to help out where I could, and with Trella and Dwight coming in to a fresh situation, I was helping out the transition as well. Dwight has been in the boonies for a few weeks and trella is working a lot, so I've also been doing the labor intensive stuff, like setting up our sheets and reaching out to players in the draft. It's been a very fun, very stressful ride and I'd like to spin a yarn about how it went for me.

I think we got a pretty late start to the drafting process, as this weekend was very busy for the managers. Fitted and I volunteered to put in the foot work to figuring out who might want to play for Tampa and who might not. Trella and Dwight were "working the phones" and also very busy otherwise, so it was a good fit.

One of the things I never realized about the draft was just how important the responses would be, at least for us in Tampa. Our number one priority in this draft was selecting players who were excited to be part of a rebuild and who were active in discord. Since selling off all of our pieces, the discord has predictably become quiet. One of the reasons I think trella was selected for general manager is because he and Fuzz fostered a great locker room in Carolina that still draws alums into the locker room daily. It's a good crowd and they know how to draft and trade for excellent locker room players. So, we were trying to foster the same community in our locker room.

I reached out to the top 16 in terms of TPE and fitted reached out to the next 16. We had 4 1sts and 3 2nds, so we weren't planning on going much deeper than that. One of the things we asked draftees about was if there was anyone in their class they wanted to play with. This was important to us because players being friends helps our number 1 priority, and as you'll see later it helps us make decisions on who we want to draft. Our next priority was drafting Defensemen where available and Right Wingers to shore up our forwards, since we have many left wingers. As with many other teams, Defense was a top priority.

#2 overall

One of the things that became clear very quickly was how well liked AgentSmith and rum_ham were. We had 3 separate players mention both of them as players they were excited about. After some deliberation, AgentSmith was number 1 on our board, as he knew Dwight personally. Monday, it seemed like he was all ours. But, San Francisco saw the same thing in AgentSmith, and thus our decision was made for us. rum_ham isn't a consolation prize, it was truly minuscule the difference between the two, and that personal connection pushed AgentSmith over the top. We heard from many teams as well that rum_ham was highly sought after, as he was a tremendous presence in the locker-room. He's also rich as fuck, and this makes him a shoe-in for a top earning defenseman for the foreseeable future. Secondary to both of those guys being great in locker room was being high earning TPE. Thus, we picked another cornerstone of our operation.

We had offers from teams looking to move up to #2, but the price just wasn't there for us, and honestly we were very high on rum_ham as well. We believed he was the one they were after. It seemed clear after monday morning that AgentSmith and rum_ham were locked in at one and two.

We had also heard through connections that Ryu Jones was going third overall. This was a bummer for us as we had great talks with him and he wanted to play with AgentSmith or rum_ham. we had hoped to maybe scoop him up in the 12, 14, or 16/17 spot. He was a left wing, which we don't need, but this was of little concern for us. Tornonto had pick 3 and pick 18 and they correctly surmised that Ryu wasn't going to last that long.

#12 overall

Next on our list was another Defenseman, and all of us being from Carolina, we were really hoping Overdoo or Mazatt were available to us at 12. They, too, indicated they were psyched to play for us and liked the idea of being part of a rebuild. Active in discord, likes management in tampa bay, and top earning defemsemen. A no-brainer.

On tuesday, it became clear that Mazatt and overdoo were going 4th or 10th, and neither would be available. We certainly didn't think Ace would let them slip through his fingers at 11, as he has a big presence in the locker room in carolina. So our dream of nabbing one of them was shot down pretty quickly. Although, most of our intel told us Mazatt was going 4th, but the spectres were determined to ruin my mock.

So who to pick at 12? Initially, we looked in the first round for who might drop. We had good talks with HanTheMan_, he had nice things to say about trella and I and was down for a rebuild. We learned soon that texas or minnesota was grabbing him at 7. So we marked him down as a potential yes for us and planned around it. He's also a right winger, so perfect for us.

A couple of people seemed less enthused or did not respond to our questions. Tylar, mee, and sulovilen. They are top earners, but again our priority was good discord presence and good sports. Plus, who wants to ruin a player's day by drafting them to a team they don't want to play for? This, however, seemed to be the consensus on each of them, as they fell fairly far, as other teams reached back in the rankings to pull up 20th ranked earners and above. I say this not to disparage these players, but merely to mark a lesson I learned in drafting: Your attitude matters around the league. There aren't really any teams willing to risk one of their precious few picks on someone who doesn't respond or who responds poorly to questioning. However, this can also mean that these players responded well to a single team and thus tanked their draft value on purpose. Happens all the time. We would be the beneficiary of this later on. It's a win-win-win really. Other teams win because they don't get a player who isn't happy there, the player wins because they get drafted to a team they want to be on, and its a win for the team that drafts them.

But enough of that, on to number 12. Intel told us a number of players were not available to us. Theo Kondos, Teddy Park, Devin basher, Connor Hutton, Axel Foley, Alexander Oscarsson (We were high on Zema as well, Chris Goodname. We had them high on our list, but planned around it. We really wanted a defenseman, but who?

Fitted came back with a short ranking after talking to some of the 17-32s. Number one on his list was Igor Victory (Wearingabear). Ohtaay had mentioned in our talks he was a good dude, so I concurred with this being a solid pick. Dwight and Trella both said they were hoping to grab him as well. Should we lock him in at 12? we had so many picks, but it really boiled down to how pick 11 went. Well, intel told us Ace really wanted Igor Victory at 11. A tough blow for us. Victory was, for a time, a cornerstone for some of our later picks. TURG TURG had done well in talks and indicated he wanted to play with Victory. Perfect, let's lock that in at 12 and grab TURG where we can.

However, we also learned that Ace really wanted Ryan Reily and he was also on our list. To be honest with you, we might have nabbed him at 12 if Victory was not available. Ace reached out in a bid to trade for our 12th. The price we had thought was NEW's S56 1st. Three lottery picks sounded good to us. But, alas, Ace is too smart for that, he quickly corrected us that it would be Hamilton's instead. We thought about it and the idea of trading a 12th for a 12+ didn't sit well enough for us. But, we weren't sure who we really wanted at 12, besides Victory. Eventually we said, "Lets see how 11 plays out and we can talk at the draft". Ace reached out at 11 and said he was going to grab Victory. Sad for us, but there wasn't a deal we felt was worth it. No win-win there, so Ace went ahead with his pick. Of Fluw! Fluw was fairly high on our list too, so not a bad pickup for him. Indeed, Ace let us know we called his bluff. But more importantly, there was Igor Victory. All was going according to plan, but Ace picking Fluw threw off our intel (I'm sure most of your mocks agree, lol).

#14 overall

We sort of knew Ace wanted Ryan Reiley. However, we also wanted Ryan. Talked went well and he was high on our list. But we weren't comfortable at this point in the draft letting MCP hang for Ace. I wouldn't consider it a rude move to grab MCP, we don't have any claim to him and hes a great defenseman. Also, Ace told us he wanted Ryan Reiley, so it felt maybe like a dick move to snipe him. Plus, we wanted MCP and others more. So we grabbed MCP at 14. This seemed to fit most mocks too, so we wanted to make everyone happy. Our only decision regarding MCP was whether or not we wanted him at 14 or 16. So, an easy pick for us.

#16 and #17 overall

So now the first back to back pick. With Ryan Reiley gone at 15, as we suspected, we had a lot of choices. High on our list was Adrik Baranov, TURG TURG, and Pavel Kharlamov. We had thought Pavel would go in the first, and talks revealed that he was down for Tampa, but also that he wasn't super active in discord. He said he read everything, but didn't respond much. This was a tough decision for us. We weighed the ranking of Pavel and the fact that he was a right wing against Adrik, who was a left wing, lower earner, but active on discord and ranked high for us, and TURG who's name is TURG and also a left wing, but who wants to play with Victory, which we now have. Ultimately, it was a close 1, 2, 3 ranking for us, and Pavel was the odd man out. Sad for us, but you only get so many picks. Adrik also, according to sources, was telling people we were taking him at 23, and seemed sure of that. So why not? Lets grab another top earning defenseman, who we enjoyed talking to and is active on discord. So we pulled the trigger on Adrik and TURG and thought Pavel was surely gone.

#23 and #24 overall

Since we couldn't have Pavel, we thought maybe we'd shore up our goaltending. We have one goalie, but it doesn't hurt to have another, especially when you just picked up 4 defensemen and a winger, and have more picks next season in a deep draft. We felt that Nicolae Antonescu and Pater Ramsey were the top goalies in this draft, and without a 3rd we either pick one in the second or we don't pick one at all. Peter Ramsey told us he wanted to play backup for a good team. Fair enough, that's not us. So he was out. Indeed, he went to edmonton, which is good for him. So Nicolae was on our board.

Second to that was Jesse Seppanen. Jesse reached out to us before we reached out to him. He said he really wanted to play for us, but was rather behind on TPE. He had hoped that he wasn't off our radar due to the low TPE (he was, to be honest). But crutch is a veteran in this league and Trella vouched for him as a lock in for 24. We felt no one was going to snipe him, so he was for sure our 24. We felt he could recover ~50 TPE in the long run, and it wouldn't make a huge difference. This was our sleeper pick and we did end up drafting him at 24.

However, 23 rolled around and here sat Kharlamov, undrafted. Shock and awe rippled (pun) through the voice chat. "What, he's still here? No way? Do we grab him?". Our goalie pick was already gone, so who else? We quickly went through our sheets. Rippleluck was still very high, despite not being super active in discord. We felt that reading everything is good enough for us. As long as he's there in spirit, we can involve him in team shenanigans. Plus, right wing, high earner. How is this guy not gone yet? Easy selection. we went with Kharlamov.

#49 overall

It was at this point I stepped out to chat with a friend on the phone. We had no 3rd round pick, and I had no idea who we were picking at 4th. I ended up being away for the rest of the draft, so I don't have any insights on Pamplemousse. But he seems like a great guy and I'm glad we have him.

Thus ended one of the most stressful weeks for me in 2020. Yes, beyond pandemic stuff, starting a new job, and other deadlines, this was the most anxious I've been in a long time. My first draft in which we selected 7 guys in the first two rounds. You thought you were scrambling for two picks, but man, there is a lot to consider in 7 guys. All in all, we got everyone we wanted going into the draft. We couldn't have planned it better. Time will tell how well this draft really went, but I think in season 58, we're gonna see a Tampa Team that is reaching for playoff spots, and a year after that we hope even better. The S60's are going to be a wild ride.

2700 words. Ready for grading.

Kalakar · 07-16-2020, 12:16 PM

Good luck with the rebuild Barracuda

RippleLuck · 07-16-2020, 12:23 PM

Great article and a cool look at some behind the scenes of the draft!

PremierBromanov · 07-16-2020, 01:06 PM

07-16-2020, 12:16 PMKalakar Wrote: Good luck with the rebuild

thanks bb

trella · 07-16-2020, 01:27 PM

Great stuff fidds, was definitely a fun and stressful night

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

Wearingabear · 07-16-2020, 01:36 PM

Great article and awesome insight into the draft!
Barracuda

*rum_ham* · 07-16-2020, 01:39 PM

yeet

Grapehead · 07-16-2020, 01:59 PM

I don't think it's a dick move at all to grab a player you want right before another team planning to take him. Most GMs will end up on both sides of a draft snipe during their tenure. I definitely find it funnier when it happens to another GM and not me though haha!

***bluesfan55*** · 07-16-2020, 02:55 PM

07-16-2020, 01:59 PMGrapehead Wrote: I don't think it's a dick move at all to grab a player you want right before another team planning to take him. Most GMs will end up on both sides of a draft snipe during their tenure. I definitely find it funnier when it happens to another GM and not me though haha!

the most iconic of which being the mats marner pick last year and Chicago's subsequent spite trade

ty to @High Stick King @EvilAllBran and @Ragnar for the sigs

Grapehead · 07-16-2020, 03:12 PM

07-16-2020, 02:55 PMbluesfan55 Wrote:
07-16-2020, 01:59 PMGrapehead Wrote: I don't think it's a dick move at all to grab a player you want right before another team planning to take him. Most GMs will end up on both sides of a draft snipe during their tenure. I definitely find it funnier when it happens to another GM and not me though haha!

the most iconic of which being the mats marner pick last year and Chicago's subsequent spite trade

most iconic was definitely @Toivo drafting @Samee

crutch · 07-16-2020, 03:22 PM

monkaS who knew how far i woulda fell if i didn't talk to you guys

PremierBromanov · 07-16-2020, 03:50 PM

07-16-2020, 03:22 PMcrutch Wrote: monkaS who knew how far i woulda fell if i didn't talk to you guys

I'm betting someone woulda scooped you up in the 3rd Smile

sash · 07-16-2020, 04:26 PM

07-16-2020, 03:12 PMGrapehead Wrote:
07-16-2020, 02:55 PMbluesfan55 Wrote: the most iconic of which being the mats marner pick last year and Chicago's subsequent spite trade

most iconic was definitely @Toivo drafting @Samee

w-
why did you
i hate you

PremierBromanov · 07-17-2020, 06:43 PM

A correction: sulovilen did not refuse to respond, it was actually a snafu on my part that forgot to reach out in the first place. I feel bad, since we had so many unknowns at that point in the draft and had lamented the fact that he had not responded, since he was a good earner

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