NHL Draft: Dave Poulin Media Availability

NHL Draft: Dave Poulin Media Availability

just about 24 hours to the draft here um how are the final preparations coming it’s been really good you know this group has worked together the majority of the amateurs for a long time and you can see they’re a team and their interactions and you it’s like any team you want them challenging each other on specific things so you build scenarios up and you listen to the discussion and Stephen I had a chance to go out and see a number of the top prospects through the course of the last six weeks maybe the season but but in no way to determine the order of events or anything it’s more to ask questions and you know you’ll see a player play and say okay reminds me of this person just so you can pose the right questions at the right time during the process but the process has been great um and as it grows you know Donnie Boyd calls it a moving fluid list or a living organism and it is it keeps changing and as we continue to have meetings and and but it’s these are Minor Adjustments now the the bulk of the work is behind us so kind of building off of that the amateur Scouts have been together a while but this is as a front off as kind of your guys’ uh first kick at the can together how’s that collaboration process been and have you been leaning a lot on the amateur Scouts who have been here for a while we have and and you know we have done this in our respective past lives in different Realms and and you know everybody brings something different to the table and the way they do it and that contributes to it but you know Robbie coming in from St Louis and Ryan have having success with the Pittsburgh group so it’s it’s really about sharing information and being collaborative and it’s the best of practices there’s you’re not inventing anything but you’re using the various best practices that you know to put it in place for the auto Senators so that’s an interesting point um obviously you’ve had a robust background um playing front office and the media landscape how have you kind of brought those experiences to the table well it’s interesting on July 1st I was sitting on the other side of the table for the last 10 years and planning for a you know an eight hour day of free agency and and what it would bring and analyzing from a distance from my standpoint it’s been very objective for the last 10 years and I didn’t have an investment with NE so I would watch MAF far and watch the way things were done and even my evaluation of players was very objective I would watch a game and I hadn’t signed the player to a contract I hadn’t drafted him I was just watching them and so it’s a different perspective that I think I bring to the group it’s it’s extremely objective but now with a heavy heavy Ottawa Senators subjectivity to it what uh what do you think the fans can expect from the Auto Centers over the next couple of days as we get into the draft well we’re trying to improve this Hockey Club every move we make is is with the intent of improving it but you can’t it can’t happen immediately overnight you know I think we’re off to a very strong start with the acquiring of lenus Al Mark and and there’s a lot of excitement about that but we know we have a lot of work to do and we have some very good pieces and sometimes pieces have to be moved around and situated in a little bit different spot to be their most effective um we’re really excited you Travis is here and and our new coach and we’re very excited about what that group is going to bring it’s going to be a year that starts more settled clearly and and that part we’re looking forward to as well and the players are uh obviously on that note the allmark trade everything um how important are these days leading up to the draft not just for the draft itself but more of a a holistic view of the team well I think we have to go back to the preparation that went into the trade deadline and you know coming out of it no major moves made but a lot of conversations had with teams and as we get a feel for what they want to do and they get a feel for what we want to do it may not fit today it may fit a month from now three months from now six months from now and so maybe we’re we have an opportunity to reap some of the benefit from those earlier conversations so it’s not about coming into July 1 and preparing for it preparation’s been going since the day we all arrived and our different dates and but now the team has our team has been together for a little bit of time and getting to know each other and each other’s personalities each other’s Styles and when to interject when not to interject into a conversation when to slow conversation down when to speed it up all those things come into play safe to say as we’re getting close uh again about 24 hours to the draft is the excitement in the room building it does it does because you know when you would go through mock drafts all of a sudden the timer’s on and so you’re creating an experience so that when you get to the real time in the real place you hope you’ve been through all the different scenarios and you can’t create every one of them it’s impossible you create as many of them as you can you prepare for them so it’s reactive rather than speculative at that time

Hear from Senior Vice-President, Hockey Operations Dave Poulin as he discusses the Senators Draft preparations, what the fans should expect and more ahead of the NHL Draft.