Red Wings executive Kris Draper appeared on WDFN’s Matt Sheppard’s “Shep, Shower and Shave” show on Thursday morning, discussing the upcoming NHL draft from the Wings’ perspective. Draper speaks with Sheppard for 19 minutes:
Kris Draper appears on ‘Shep, Shower and Shave’
Published by
Really hoping Draper isn’t the next GM. He’s already brainwashed. We can cross Dubas off the list. Everyone talks about Fenton. I like Larionov…his IQ is more than Kenny and Drapes combined. But a guy that very few ever mention and flies under the radar is Bill Zito. Smart guy. Former agent who understands the difference between a team-friendly contract and a boat anchor contract (ie Kenny special). Has done a pretty good job managing the cap in Columbus. He obviously would have had some input on the excellent trades they have made (Ryan Johansen for Seth Jones, Saad for Panarin) as well as solid drafting (Dubois when everyone said Puljujarvi had to go #3). Kenny said he wants more voices in the front office. Well then poach this guy with big bucks and a promise to take over in 2 years…
Here’s your “hockey” talk you so desperately need for a fulfilling day……
The caution on Zito is he’s taken a Calder Cup winning team and dropped them all the way to the basement in just two years. He also is partly responsible for hiring Jeff Blashill as the USA coach. Also, being a former player agent doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good negotiator as a GM. It could just as easily be said that he will sign more player friendly contracts because of his history. There are very few examples of agents turned GMs to confidently say how they will use their experiences as agent (but I know, we live in a world where mere opinions on matters).
“He obviously would have had some input on the excellent trades they have made…”
While the way you say that sounds very good, he surely had some input, but it’s very likely he did not make the trade nor negotiate the final trade packages on any of your examples. That would be like giving Martin credit on the Tatar trade, which I doubt you will do.
If Zito is as influential with Kekalainen as you claim he is then Zito shares responsiblity for Dubinsky’s contract which is arguably much worse then Abbey’s.
As for the Puljujarvi example, I’ll just point out Columbus missed out on Tkachuk and DeBrincat by taking Dubois. But hey, it’s only the 2016 draft, it still has a year to prove that it can close the gap on the 2015 draft. 😉
Where to start…
Zito was named GM of the Columbus AHL affiliate in June 2015. A year later they won the AHL championship under Zito. Yeah what a loser huh?
The following year their AHL team missed the playoffs by one point. Was it because Zito was a clown? Or because Columbus promoted Werenski, Bjorkstrand, Anderson, and Sedlak to the NHL, leaving their AHL team a little depleted. Of note, Columbus skyrocketed from bottom 5 in the NHL to 108 points and a playoff spot. Pretty sure the organization was more interested in seeing these young guys get promoted to the NHL and help the parent team stage a remarkable turnaround, as opposed to worrying about the AHL team missing the playoffs by one point. Fancy that…an organization that puts kids in big roles in the AHL, and after they succeed, they create room on the NHL roster for them to succeed.
As for DeBrincat over Dubois? Yeah, that was something that NOBODY was even contemplating at the draft. And even though DeBrincat had better stats than Dubois this year….there isn’t a single GM that would trade Dubois right now for DeBrincat. That’s so laughable. The truth is, almost every expert had Puljujarvi as a guaranteed top 3 pick. Columbus was heavily criticized for taking Dubois over him. So far it looks pretty smart.
But yeah, Dubinsky was a mistake. I guess cross Zito off the list then. You win. He sucks.
missed all of my points. no worries. back to hockey talk….err…hockey arguing.