Bill Armstrong Previews 2025 NHL Draft Class, Discusses Outlook for Utah Mammoth at #4 Overall

[Music] thank you for joining today’s media availability with Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong to preview the NHL draft if you have a question for Bill please raise your hand and wait to be called on let’s start with Katherine from utahammoth.com hey Bill draft only a few days away and I was wondering could you touch on the process that starts even before the combine but maybe this past month what does your team and the organization focus on from meetings combine taking players out to dinner all the way until draft night
yeah well I’ve always said it’s it’s a process like you got to follow the process we’ve been at it for a few years and it’s it’s really getting the best list from your area scouts and your head scouts and you know exploring who you’re going to get um at the range you’re at um when you do that you know you get into that range and you you know you do it you exhaust the process as I call it of going through every single player uh meeting them at the combine going through their testing going through their video um reading all the research that your staff has done on them and and then sometimes you know taking them to dinner uh sometimes uh uh you know going to meet their families going to their houses or going to dinner with their families we we we love to get to know them as much as we can dana Green with ABC thanks for doing this um do you almost feel like you’re playing with house money just because you moved up from 14 to four and um I mean you want to make the best possible pick if you do make the pick but is that kind of the feeling that there is just this level of fortune going into this draft
uh you know I I don’t really view it that way i’ve kind of forgotten how we won the lottery um and so it’s really about it’s really about picking at four um and you know it’s like someone would say to you “Oh you got all these you know picks and second rounders.” And I say to people when we have those picks pretend it’s like the only pick you have um don’t don’t get in the thought process of of going “Oh you know we we got so many we can give it away.” No no it’s picks are hard to come by and you’ve got to really focus in on what you have and and and really get into the uh the range of players that are there and and value one pick at a time so um you know I’m over the giddiness I think of winning the four and now we’re at four let’s go to work bill Frasier Salt Lake Tribune
hey Bill um at this point how open do you remain or not remain about moving the fourth pick and have you fielded any offer leading up to the draft
well yes and and listen at this process every GM especially the guys that are in the top 10 are all jocking around and seeing can they move up can they move down what’s the best option for their club we we talk on with GMs daily about that and everybody’s got the price it’s not it’s very rare that it’s done that you know you could move from four to to two or two to one you know it’s very it’s very rare that that happens um because everybody values the player that they have with that pick and it’s very rare that it does change hands but do you have to explore it yes that’s part of my job every morning I wake up and and go to work and see if we can better the pick or if we can come up with different options uh to maximize where we are stephven Wino Associated Press
hey Bill seems like the top three picks are sort of consensus one through three do you feel like you guys are are sort of the inflection point of this first round where you could go a lot of different directions at four
um Stephen who are the top three who do you got
uh Misa Schaefer and Fondell
oh wow okay so you got it done it’s already in the bank all right okay uh I you know it’s it’s interesting because there’s so many you know things that can move right so I think when you just say the order the thing that that that makes me flare up is I once met a GM and he had he got this player at four and he said to me “I had no idea we’re we’re getting the player at four.” I’m like “I don’t care who’s on that board we don’t take anything for granted from one all the way to three you know and and who we’re going to get it for we we we dig deep we go we go hard and and you know we don’t want any surprises on draft day so our process you know we don’t you know we’re not we go through everything so um you know what was the second part of your question because I had a hard time getting over the three okay i’m buy the three
no just do you feel like it is wide open in terms of the the amount of quality players available for you at four in terms of the the choices you have
yeah I I think there’s a good talent range at that area where we’re picking um now it’s just working out the order and finalizing that with the scouts and you know the one thing that we do is we look at the player you know the good the bad and the ugly you know we go through everything we don’t hide anything we’re in those conversations you know about the player we never want to draft the player then you show up at camp like “Ah nobody said his skating wasn’t that good.” Or “Hey he had trouble putting on weight.” We go through it all so it’s really it’s really a good thing i think we have an experienced scouting staff that you know I I was always in the in the kind of the thought processes you know like you never hide anything uh you bring everything to light so we’re in that process exploring what’s going to come to us at four and and I like what’s there it’s it’s it’s a great opportunity for the club to move ahead jay Stevens KSL Sports uh Bill it must be nice to have the fourth pick and not have to have the kind of season that typically gets you the fourth pick but and I know you’re you’re always saying best player available rather than position but with the fourth overall pick
do you start looking position specific
no we take the best overall player that’s you know listen I know a lot of guys you know they they’re like “Oh we got to go to the the podium and and draft the same guy that we drafted the year before.” for and I’m like if that’s the best player you should take them because you have the ability in the NHL to trade players right so you know if you got a Conor McDavid and Sydney Crosby I’m sure you can trade one of them right for some pretty good players so that’s been the the theory and the thought process we’ve always had is draft the best player available rogan Houston Desireette News
hey Bill i’m curious as a former scout yourself um what your what your kind of theory is in terms of making the pick yourself or um you know letting your head scout make the pick or or what kind of what’s your what’s your theory for drafting that first round
well you know it’s it’s a little bit different because we’re we’re away from the um you know where the the actual players are in this particular draft um so you know somebody from our club will make that that pick uh not our our two head scouts but I I’ve always believed in a regular draft if you put the miles in um you deserve to make the pick so that’s that’s the way and uh I was kind of brought up in that system so I’m I’m a firm believer uh that hey listen if you’re doing if you’re doing all the time on the on the road you you deserve to get up there and and make that pick so I’ve always been a big believer of uh letting the head scout or the assistant head scout uh do it right
back to Bell hey Bill um at the combine Caleb Doier revealed that he had wrist injuries playing fit for most of the season said he was going to get an MRI not sure about surgery have you guys gotten any updates on that and how does that kind of influence the way you look at him on the board
um well it’s always important to make sure that you go through thorough uh evaluation when a player’s hurt to make sure you know what you’re getting um it’s it’s it’s a due diligent process i leave that up to the medical staff uh but we will just to kind of put in a wide you know lens for you is we’re not we’re not taking anybody in the draft that we haven’t gone through their medical 150% and if they’ve had something you know in there that we weren’t happy about we follow it up with another medical usually in Utah uh or or in their in their hometown uh through the MRIs and and doctors that we know uh but we try to be as thorough as we can because you certainly don’t want any surprises when they show up and they’re hey you know I got a shoulder surgery I need like you you just don’t want that it’s not a good it’s not something that you want and you know we’ve had surgeries where we’ve drafted Maverick Lamar but we knew what was going on and we were our doctors were good with it so I think you have to go through the process but with uh Mr denoier we’ll we’ll certainly I believe we’ve done our process and um we’ll we’ll let you know how that one works out dana Green hey Bill um when you’re evaluating pick versus trade um how much does it come into play that you have so many young prospects and guys that you know were injured last year like TJ didn’t get to play a lot um does that come into play that you want to give those guys a chance and maybe you’d be more inclined to make a a trade instead make the pick obviously if the value is there and then I also have a question about free agency with it right around the corner how much uh due diligence have you made have you been given the go ahead uh fill some of that uh that salary cap space
yeah well the first part about it is like you know we’re we’re a team that has a lot of options because of you know our particular we’ve got some prospects in the house we’ve got some picks and we’ve got some following picks the some extra picks the following year so there’s a lot of options for us and we’re going to explore every option to make sure our team’s a better team uh when we when we start to play in in in the fall um you know I think as far as the the you know what you know the free agents and that uh we’ve always kind of firmly believe that if the right free agents there we’ll we’ll we’ll sign them money money money is not an issue um we’re also at a point with the club though that you know it’s not our final piece we’re adding we’re we’re still building and one of the things you have to remember is that you know you’ve got Gunther who plays major minutes for us he’s a young he’s a young player logan Koulie is a young player you know and Josh Don’s a young player and you know now we’re going to put you know Sim Michev and Boot they’re going to come in they’re young players too most times you don’t win any you know a championship until your guys are 27 28 29 and you look at the McDavids and the Dry Cidles and the Kachchucks and all the guys that are having massive success um at the NHL level the Barkoffs they’re not 21 years old so we have to be we have to live in the reality of of we’ve got good players we’ve got to add players around but we don’t necessarily need to sell the farm for a 31y old to 35y old for $40 million to come in and and and kind of clog our team up and and then we can’t make the uh the signing when we need it you know when it’s the last piece we need in 5 years to add so we we do have to be smart about it i’ve always said this you know you know you see those teams last year that they won the summer they crushed it they didn’t win the winner you know so there’s a little patience with our club because we are young we are maturing right in front of your own eyes you know we’re we’re going from you know we’re going into high school next year how does that sound we’re going from the eighth grade to the ninth grade and and here we go you know you know so you just want to be smart about it and you know we do get excited about hey we could add this guy and that guy but not if it’s going to hurt us 5 years from now and you guys are coming to saying hey does that $9 million to signing that guy does that hurt us now yeah it does it’s $9 million we could have added in the final piece so we go compete for a Stanley Cup so there’s a little patience in the process that you have to have um you know and sometimes during that patience you don’t win the summer but but you take a step in the for uh you know in the fall and and that’s what counts stephen why not
just following up on that on that Bill matthew Dar was saying earlier that as GMs with the cap going up this much you guys have to be disciplined how tough is that balance to strike in terms of knowing there’s money to spend knowing there’s a bunch of free agents out there but not also wanting to spend crazy
um well we’re all super competitive our coaching staff is super competitive and and so is our owner you’re not going to be at this level uh unless you’re super competitive but you have to click into reality and we can’t make Logan and Dylan Gunther and Josh Don and the rest of the the young players any older than they are right now so there’s a reality of that and that’s what keeps you disciplined you’ve got to move forward with the group and the group will tell you when they’re ready you know we we had it in St louis where we completed some trades at the end you know the Rhino Riley’s of the world and and the Shens and and put some you know some guys in place and then we went and signed Bozac you know because we needed that piece to to finish it off so we just got to be smart disciplined it’s part of the game um you get excited about dreaming about those free agents to add in you know that but at the same time you know we’ve always had success and been able to take a step forward by doing the smart thing the right thing and and improving our team but not at the cost of of the future stopping this team from winning when we’re supposed to final few questions cole Bagley KSL Sports hey Bill just curious you when you guys are going through this process you know how how big does the players personality go into whether or not you’re going to select them and how they could fit into the culture you’re trying to build
uh that’s a huge that’s a great question um you know when we we draft players we do a lot of work on them um we go back sometimes talk to their you know peewee coaches and their teachers you know um and and get to know them inside and out you know if you if you have a player sometimes that ends up being your captain it’s not it’s it’s it’s not accident that that happens you know you can see in an early age the leadership and the qualities that these particular young men have even when they’re you know 15 16 17 and so you know you can really learn a lot about them and kind of predict the future uh by getting in there and really diving deep and and doing personality tests too helps you out a lot and the psych doctors and their coaches really can kind of guide you but most times when you’re successful and you’re and you’re drafting someone that overachieves or becomes your captain or leads you to a championship um you know it has to do with their personality so you have to do a lot of work in that david Graph with Fox you mentioned all the young guys that you guys have right now what what gives you so much confidence with you and your group when you’re making these selections
um well I think the confidence confidence I always say comes from a source you know and and our source is the fact that we’ve we’ve been able to draft the Coolies and the Dones and the Gunthers you know of the world and they’ve been great pieces for us you know and now you’re you’re going to see the Boots and the Sims come in so uh confidence comes from our scouting staff and the work that they’ve done in the past and you can see what a difference that’s made into our in into our organization and you know even the fact that last year we we had had to trade you know Geeky and Moser those guys were all drafts from our staff so you can see at an early you know an early time with this this organization that the quality scouting that you know Ryan and Daryl and their staff has provided if you go to hockey DB and you look at the Gunther draft you know there’s four or five kids that are already playing in the National Hockey League out of that draft and that’s not by accident that’s by the work that they do and how they run their staff so um it’s important that you know we continue that path we’re not getting out of this unless we draft well um and we’ve got to take those next step the the hard part is you see the TE’s again Liz and you see the boots and the simvs and it’s it’s just waiting for them to come in and then once they come in it’s waiting for them to to be good enough to have impact on your club um but time goes by and and and when you invest in that and you get the right coaching around them and the right development it goes really quick and good players will peak their their head up early and uh and they’ll show you glimpses of how good they are and and then you can hang your hat on that a a little bit later on so I’m really excited about the staff that that we have in place here and what they’ve done so far and we got a long way to go last two questions uh we’ll start with Broen Houston i’m just wondering about Connor Ingram if you have any updates on his status um and if it’s if the answer is no if there’s you know a plan to to find a contingency there
yeah I I I haven’t checked today on him but but from from the point right now it’s is all speculation of of what where he’s at and I don’t really want to comment uh he’s he’s a great kid i know he’s in the program um and I know that he’s you know has uh you know we wish him the best and and hopefully he can get on the other side of this and uh and we’ll continue to look for updates last question Bill Frasier
yeah Bill in terms of internal decisions that could influence choices around the draft and free agency how do you see things standing with Jack McBain and his RFA status uh we’ve had great talks with with Jack and his his agency and along with Jack and he’s you know he’s he’s been very professional on his side and I think they’re very happy uh with how the talks have gone and we just you know make some further progress as we go along uh he’s got a great agent he works with Newport Sports and Pat Morris and um they do a great job so it’s it’s not an easy fight uh but you know it’s it’s it’s it’s good i think we’re both on the same page hopefully you know at some point in time during the summer we we uh we move a little closer to getting the deal done all right thank you Bill and thank you everybody for your time
thank you guys [Music]

Watch as Bill Armstrong Previews 2025 NHL Draft Class, Discusses Outlook for Utah Mammoth at #4 Overall

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