Setting the table for draft day
Craig Conroy returns a year wiser in ways of hockey ops
There’s a lot more to it than just sitting there. It’s not like a hockey pool.
CRAIG CONROY ON MANNING A TABLE AT THE NHL DRAFT
Not since Neve Campbell picked up the receiver in Scream 2 — “Hello, Sidney” — had a ringing phone created this much bone-chilling horror.
Craig Conroy, still shaken, recounts the events of one year ago.
At his first National Hockey League draft, perched at the Calgary Flames’ table in St. Paul, Minn., Conroy finds himself — suddenly, shockingly — abandoned.
Flames GM Jay Feaster has scurried away to fine-tune the details of Robyn Regehr’s trade to the Buffalo Sabres. And Tod Button, director of scouting, is not nearby. And? “The phone’s ringing, the phone’s ringing,” recalls Conroy, a hockey-ops newbie. “And I’m like, ‘Where’s Jay? Get Jay back here!’ I mean, there was a lot of stuff going on. Jay left and that gave me a heart attack.” Saving the day is Button. “Tod grabs the phone — another team wanted to trade picks, this year for next year.”
Told that he’d passed up a golden opportunity — he could have taken the call himself and orchestrated a dilly of a blockbuster — Conroy shakes his head.
“I think I better just sit there and shut up.”
That was then. We’ll see about now. At this weekend’s crapshoot in Pittsburgh, Conroy, special assistant to Feaster, possesses a better idea of what to expect.
Since he did not attend his own draft — 1990, when he was taken in the sixth round by the Montreal Canadiens — all he knew about the process was what he’d gleaned from television coverage.
Meaning reality, the pressure cooker at event level of the Xcel Energy Center, had been jarring for the freshly retired Conroy.
Everything, yes, is organized to the extreme. But, necessarily, there are margins for ad libbing. Being able to react quickly is a must. No daydreaming allowed. “Last year, there were some different trade options,” says Conroy, “so Jay says, ‘If Buffalo doesn’t go (for Regehr), we’ve got a few other things maybe. We’ve got to look at some other options.’ So I would go down and talk to (Flames pro scouts) Steve Leach and Michel Goulet and come back to Jay.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on. You don’t know at any point (what could happen). You’re meeting the guys. For me, personally, it’s whatever Jay needs.”
At the draft, there are many possibilities.
Selecting prospects. Swapping veterans. And, as it turns out, signing staff.
Because one chore for Conroy had been delivering a contract to John Weisbrod, who, while awaiting word from his new employers, had been sitting with his former employers, the Boston Bruins.
Conroy chose to not accept his mission.
“I didn’t even know what John Weisbrod looked like,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Where is he? At the Boston table? I’m not going over there. I feel like a dork.’ ” He laughs. “So (Flames director of hockey administration Mike Burke) went over.”
For everyone, that first taste of the draft-floor frenzy is a rush. Feaster’s came in 2002. Mid-season, he’d taken over from Rick Dudley as Tampa Bay Lightning general manager. June’s drama in Toronto was all he’d imagined.
“Definitely, it’s intense,” says Feaster, “from the standpoint that you’re thinking about a lot of different things. And one of the things — I guess it’s the attorney in me — is making sure the computer system (is working), and, if we’re making a pick, let’s make sure that guy’s in the system. You obsess a little bit, you stress a little bit.”
Easing the panic, somewhat, is ensuring that your team is as prepared as pos- sible — by knowing exactly, with no deviation, your ranking of prospects. That way, a general manager can better accommodate on-the-fly offers that buzz past.
“You are on the phone,” says Feaster. “If somebody calls and says, ‘Do you want to trade down? We’ll give you our pick at whatever. Here’s what we’re offering,’ I’m not going to say yes or no to that. I’m going to get off the phone and say, ‘OK, boys, what do you think?’ It’ll be put out there and we’ll get everybody’s opinion.
“As long as you’ve done your work and you know what your needs are . . . and there’s nothing that you haven’t thought about or contemplated or considered.
“It’s important to stay as under control as you can.” But crises do crop up. Suppose you have your heart set on Player X. He’s available, but there’s still one team to pick ahead of you. What then?
“You start talking, ‘Geez, do you think we need to step up?’ ” says Feaster. “So sometimes it gets a little hectic there.”
Vouching for the unsettling nature of the business of hockey, of course, is Conroy.
“Definitely interesting,” Conroy says of the 2011 draft. “There were a bunch of scenarios — ‘Should we do this? Should we trade down? Can we trade up? Can you trade your two (second-round picks) to move up in the second round?’ There’s a lot more to it than just sitting there. It’s not like a hockey pool.”