NHL Draft: Steve Staios Speaks on Round One

NHL Draft: Steve Staios Speaks on Round One

getting that that pick at seven and the way that it all played out having so many defensemen available and obviously go with car room there yeah I mean uh we we like the upside on Carter I mean he’s uh he’s a raw talent still and I think there’s a great deal of uh potential with them and uh we like what we saw um you know our Scouts do a great job you know and uh work very hard to identify this talent and you know we’re very very happy to have him we uh we talked about uh very ious scenarios that might play out in those first six picks was one of the scenarios that you saw unfolding five forwards going and like um not necessarily no I mean there’s it was it was unique and then after that I think even from our list you know there’s a big gap in uh for the longest time on the picks that we had rated and they went a little bit later in that first round so um yeah we feel good about going into tomorrow still some good talent out there at uh and we’re looking for forward to our pick tomorrow as well Carter said that he had a good conversation with you guys here in Vegas and maybe that was a bit of an inkling from him that maybe okay maybe I’m really on these guys radar I don’t know how much you can share about that but what was that conversation like meeting with him this week here in Vegas well we had a chance to meet him you know at the combine as well and you could see he was a little bit more comfortable uh you know the combine’s a bit of a stressful time for those players but uh yeah we just we feel very comfortable about the player and uh we just think there’s a very high ceiling and I think you know it’s it’s a draft so you’re you’re trying to project out as much as you can but uh we feel that with the right time and effort and uh development that Carter can really really get to a high ceiling were there any talks at any point about hey you’re sitting there at 7 it’s played out in a unique way what have we traded back or you know did were those conversations taking place there was a couple of conversations but uh you know just didn’t happen uh we know that uh Carter the hockey player is a great hockey player but what about Carter the person the character did that factor into this decision a lot yeah certainly I mean he’s not uh you know he’s a he’s a a little bit of a shy kid at first but you can tell that he’s he’s got some confidence to him and uh um you know I just think that he’s he’s willing to put in the effort to be able to match the potential that he has so uh we love the character of the kid and again very excited about him uh earlier this week you mentioned that uh a lot of teams nobody really knew how the first round was going to unfold and uh with that how important was it to kind of have your list that you stuck to your guns and then going into tomorrow as well you kind of reassess yeah I mean the uniqueness as was just stated was that there’s there’s a lot of defenseman you know at the top of this draft right shot defenseman in particular we don’t draft strictly on position but certainly um you know I think this was a great opportunity for our organization to uh um you know to build in that area and uh uh not only we we feel like Carter’s got the offense already with to his game and as he matures and rounds out and um feel like we got a good one at I believe your year end uh press conference you mentioned that you were thinking about announcing this draft pick in French I think you did a pretty good job how do you feel about that ah it’s a work in progress Surly made a commitment to it for sure um it’s going to take some time did you have a chance to go see Carter play yourself uh at any point in the season and and that was back half of the Season type thing for uh it was yes back so what did you like with your own eyes what did you see out of him well I saw I saw a player who commanded the ice you know I think uh you know and my experience in junior hockey is uh you know you have there there are some parts of of his game that you you felt that he did a little bit better but then you you look at how he dominated play when he was on the ice and um you know just has a presence about him as well so uh we like the fact that we can build off of that potential like and he seems to like a physical is is there a nasty element to his game or yeah I mean we yeah you see it at times he’s he’s he’s a quiet kid but uh there’s an understated competitive competitiveness to him and I think as he matures that’ll start to grow even more um I I’ll just ask you about any trade chatter I this is this is a week where a weekend where a lot of these trades can sometimes happen how active were you on that front today uh not so much today I think you know we’re focused in on the draft you know there’s a there’s a couple things that we’re baned about and uh sometimes those conversations continue you know so uh uh we look forward to full of trust in The Scouting staff and the hard work that they’ve put in put the list together um and I’ll do what I can on the outside to to to to see if there’s some opportunities and then uh keep this thing moving

Hear from GM and President of Hockey Operations Steve Staios addresses the media after the Ottawa Senators selected Carter Yakemchuk in the first round of the NHL Draft in Las Vegas.