Ковачевич поделился интересным инсайдом. Оказывается, на драфте 2011 года в 1 раунде мы должны были забирать Саада. Скауты были единодушны в своём мнении, очень удивлены и не верили своему счастью, что он был доступен столь поздно (мы выбирали 23-ми). Во многом это было связано с тем, что Саада в преддрафтовый сезон мучала травма паха, поэтому многие клубы предпочли не рисковать и сделали свой выбор в пользу кого-то другого. В итоге в самый последний момент Рэй, воспользовавшись полномочиями ГМ'а, отверг предложение своих скаутов и принял решение в пользу Джо Морроу, который ни сыграв за нас ни одной игры ушёл разменной монетой в трейде своего однофамильца из Далласа. Скауты были очень жестко разочарованы и разгневаны на Широ за такой выбор.
Рэй воспринимал драфт не как процедуру усиления команды за счёт молодых игроков и разгрузки платёжки, а как сбор активов для последующих трейдов. В каждом их которых, по собственному мнению, он обязательно мог остаться в плюсе, вне зависимости от того, с кем менялся.
Собственно, дед сейчас занимается разгребанием последствий такой управленческой философии Широ, попутно набивая шишки сам.
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• So, how did Brandon Saad, once again a sensation in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Blackhawks, get away?
Simple: Ray Shero had the only vote that mattered.
Turner's
This is the truth about the 2011 draft, as described by a man who sat at that table and remains with the organization today in pristine standing …
The Penguins’ scouts had made up their collective mind that their choice was Saad, the Gibsonia native, not at all because he was local but entirely because they were stunned he had fallen so far after being a consensus top-five pick, and there he was all the way down at their No. 23 position. They knew Saad’s plunge had much to do with a groin injury that season, but they also knew more about him than most teams, partly because of his proximity, partly because he’d just been invited to Consol Energy Center for a personal visit and tour a month earlier. They couldn’t believe their good fortune.
But Shero wanted a defenseman. And being the GM, he got a defenseman, Joe Morrow.
A complete bust.
The Penguins already had a ton of defensemen, including in Morrow’s specific mold, but that had nothing to do with this. Neither did Saad, at least not much. Plain and simple, Shero believed passionately that he was onto something — almost Moneyball-esque — in that the industry under-valued puck-moving defensemen, and his primary purpose in piling up such prospects was for the trade.
I’m not guessing at this, either. Shero told me exactly that in a one-on-one conversation that very night just off the draft floor.
Shero lived for the trade, the big trade. And no doubt that will hold true in his new post as the Devils’ GM. He’s always believed he could get the best of anyone in a dealing mode, so he preferred to use the draft not as a way to build up young talent or reduce cap pressure but to pile up more trading chips.
Later, Shero would try to justify bypassing Saad — and by that I mean to his own people, not publicly — by saying he didn’t think Saad was tough enough. This, of course, is laughable to anyone who’d seen Saad before the injury and, of course, since he’s been in the NHL.
It’s important to underscore, I think, the magnitude of this mistake.
This isn’t just another draft pick that someone missed. That happens all the time and to everyone. Heck, even the Blackhawks passed on Saad three times before finally claiming him 43rd overall. What separates this is that the Penguins’ scouts had it right, and their GM had it wrong. The guys who spent the entire year spanning the globe and studying the entire class had it right, and their GM usurped them at the table.
I’d share with you what that man at that table had to say about the reaction to Shero, but it was a series of unprintable epithets. (I hope that’s not too big a clue as to the identify of this individual, though I strongly suspect he wouldn’t care in the slightest, given his standing in the organization.)
That’s the magnitude of the mistake.
So, too, was there magnitude in the aftershock, as it takes no more than about a week’s worth of watching hockey — meaning in one’s entire life — to know that Saad would have been the ideal Penguin, and not just on Crosby’s wing. He’s everything they’ve been missing before and since that draft.
It was an immense mistake, one of the greatest in franchise history.
A mistake not about drafting but about egregious mismanagement.
