LIVE: GM Kevyn Adams & AGM Jerry Forton | 2024 NHL Draft

LIVE: GM Kevyn Adams & AGM Jerry Forton | 2024 NHL Draft

hello everyone good yeah that’s certainly something we’ve talked a lot about this offseason uh identifying players that uh check some boxes in terms of physicality um hard to play against I mean he’s a big 6 fo three LED their team in hits um penalty killer as well character guy but um when he hits he hits hard and we’ve been uh we’ve been looking at ways to just you know obviously physicality is one part but just be harder to play against um and he’s certainly someone that brings that every night and um that was a big need that we came to this off season and looking for and we were excited get him well I can tell you that um Seth aord as this discussion was going on over the last um few days said that uh you know in the American Hockey League he had teams were scared to play against him you know he he was clearly someone when he stepped on the ice um had a lot of respect and a lot of room and and I think just the way he performed last year and was able to bring that element into the National Hockey I me leading a team and hits you know um says something just about the consistency of it especially when you got Tom Wilson on the team and you know I just think it’s it’s an area that he understands his role and plays it well why do you think well I think you know anytime you’re you’re acquiring a player um that is well liked on the other team there’s going to be a price to pay um for us you know it goes it comes down to um when we made the the trade back with 11 to pick up the extra asset which was um you know 42 now we had 42 and 43 in my mind we were going to you know shop it as hard as we could to find you know what we were looking for in some way and that that’s what we were able to do so um you know you certainly make one trade with another trade in mind potentially um but in saying all that if a trade doesn’t go through you know you have a pretty good asset but um it was it was an area of need and and that was the price that we were definitely worth paying is Z still considering yeah we’re I mean we’re down to the the last uh hours here so he’s someone that uh I’ll be you know connecting with here in the next 24 hours and you know you get to this close understand where he is in his career but we’ve we’ve kept the communication open and we’ll see where it goes yeah I think so you know especially when you’re looking at the bottom six of your forward group for me personally I like that there’s elements that they bring and then if you have someone that can be more than just a five on five guy I think it really helps you know so now you have the physicality of someone that’s going to get in and have a presence but also if you can have a penalty killer um be part of that I just think it adds um so yeah that’s part of that’s part of why we’re willing to give up a good asset to get him just thinks and we like his AG and we like the ability for him to um hopefully be with us for a while this isn’t a player that could just be you know in and out of Buffalo if if it’s a if it’s good fit both ways he we can have him for a while and I just think the character part matters too which um certainly the due diligence checked all those boes it’s a great question l i mean part of our process we go through you have you have the scouting side and then you have the analytic side and as you said they don’t always match um our from The Scouting perspective the pro Scouts pounding the table for the guy this guy is an a player that’s direct hard finishes checks and not just finishes checks but finishes checks hard and there was a real um need for that in my opinion as I’ve said a few times now and so then you flip to the analytics side and and maybe you go into the discussion thinking that it wouldn’t be as good but actually our our guys um we’re we’re pretty excited about this player so which which then just gives you more information and more Comfort um especially giving up a good asset I have we had a great talk uh spoke to him minutes after the trade was official and you know and I I’ve been there trust me as a player sometimes you’re a little shocked and he couldn’t have been more excited and uh more on board and knows some players on our team likes our team and was ready to go uh which part you mean for our roster just the overall draft Yeah I think um we came into this draft with a couple goals in mind um and I when I say draft you know let’s say draft week um just the whole as you lead into the next couple days as well we wanted to make sure that we got our list right and we added Talent into the organization and der Jerry’s done a phenomenal job with the with the amateur staff of just making sure that we’re we’re putting ourselves in the best spot especially with some of the value picks that I think we we were able to do and make some trades today and move up down and all that um so yeah we I think we did a good job in terms of really um you even adding to our already you know good depth in the prospect pool um adding a player that we felt that really fit what we were looking for um was also something that we were hoping to do or player or players um you know we were aggressive last night in different ways that if if it made sense which we were trying to do to help a roster that was out there as well but teams weren’t you know comfortable making the moves that we were hoping that we could do so now you you will continue conversations tonight and tomorrow on some different things that we have that are still out there a little bit and also you turn your attention quickly to okay now you leave the draft we had things that we were working on um now you go to the if there’s free agents that we’re looking at um that we think can help us in the ways that we’re need then we’re going to go after those guys um and that’ll be the conversation that we’ve already had been now leading into the next 24 hours as a staff like okay where are the guys at the top of the list um for what we need um and so it’s the the offseason still in complete you know there’s still time to to do different things and that’s what we’ll go to work on in the next few days here well you can still make trades right so it’s not like it it’s a it’s not like a trade deadline where things just are over so um there’s still things we’re working on on that front that we’ll continue to pursue um that that were kind of independent from the draft um but yeah it’s there there’s free agents that and never when I say free agents they’re guys you think will be there on July 1st they could still sign before with their teams before uh July 1st so we’ve tiered it we’ve done the work um internally um we’ve we’ve prioritized exactly what we’re looking for the needs um right from forwards through the organization um D and goal tending so um now we’ll just we’ll go after it and it’s always a little um unsure you know because has to be a match we have to we have have to um put our best foot forward in terms of free agents and they have to want to be in Buffalo and um we got to make it work but that’s what we’ll do um in the areas that we think we need to add I mean it’s part of the CBA I’m I’m certainly open to it um never never in my mind is it something you should rule out I think they’re tricky because uh typically they’re going to get matched and you know so what are you really accomplishing but if we thought it was um a move we could do that would help us uh make our team better we’ll do it no it’s uh we initiated the process um today so it’s a stepbystep process so um that’s that’s yep uh started that that process was started uh early this morning and um you know that’ll Mark Jackowski can be better in terms of specifics on and just the timeline of it but um that was started and that’s our intention to move forward ofp element your of it’s always one of the elements you’re looking for um it’s really tough uh to be able to identify and check all the boxes uh with the players when they’re 17 years old and I heard Kevin you know talk about the the trade and the player we added I mean what makes it so attractive something like that is that’s a player that’s already doing it at the NHL level so you’re trying to predict with which 17-year-old is going to be a player that’s willing to take that on in the future it’s not just a matter of a player having size um I think the thing we value the most is the high compete level and obviously size is important and you hope that in time those two things will uh end up um you know morphing into you know even maybe more toughness and aggressiveness than you see at the time when you’re watching in their draft job was a huge priority player for us we had them high in their list it seems like there’s one of these players uh each year for us that we’ve been fortunate enough to get in their early to mid second round obviously a a big kid uh skates well I think he has a good brain for the game the uh the character with this kid is uh just as much a part of the story as anything else he he left Minnesota high school hockey uh before his junior year to move out to Lincoln Nebraska played two full years in the USHL which is extremely rare uh for a kid to leave Minnesota high school at that stage uh going into Minnesota duth next year as a as a true young freshman uh forced his way onto the US team at the W Junior a challenge uh was the youngest team member on that team and started as a seventh Eman and by the end of the tournament was their their best player uh so the package and the person are both extremely attractive to us always helps or usually helps if you have the right shot as well and I think he he’s a player where you’ll see um the what I just talked about the the compete in character that morphs into some toughness and aggressiveness as he goes up levels it really wasn’t and there were probably actually a couple picks there where got in our brain a couple times and that we were thinking should we go after a forward in this spot uh to balance out the class a little bit because we were a little dehey last year as well but but I do think the previous couple drafts before that we were a little bit heavy on the forward side so we thought about it we weren’t really focusing on D we had a feeling in the second third round it might fall that way the twice there was a forward we were targeting in the third fourth round where the the player Tak him right before our pick was a forward but we were still very happy with the next player on our list I would say close to every year and you’re going to balance that out in terms of what round you take them in it it’s really difficult there tends to be a run on goalies as we all know in the second and third round and it seems like once the first one goes uh a bunch go right after we didn’t feel like we had one slotted uh in the early rounds where we were comfortable taking them we thought we had one we were going to take in the fourth a goalie just like a couple of forwards went right before our pick and then we had a few that we were targeting late so one worked out late but it helps to have them in your pipeline we were very happy to get you know rats laugh where we got them last year so that that piggybacks on that a little bit too we had a if we did not get zemer with that pick we were going down over 20 slots on their draft board to the next player that would have been available a captain of the US team uh moved all around their top six all season long really for two seasons is a player that just makes other players and linemates and really that drives the entire teams and programs culture there I’m very convinced we’re all very close on our staff with the University of Minnesota staff I can almost assure you he’ll be just like he was at the national program he’ll be a future captain at the University of Minnesota and he’s got a fallback game but he’s also got great hands around the net and a good shot overall and and I will add and I see some of the commentary and you know cona is the same thing 511 5 11 and A2 forwards these players are 190 and 197 PBS already I don’t know if any of you saw con’s uh brother yesterday but he plays in the same program for the junior team in uket couple years older he’s a little bit over 6 feet tall and 212 lbs I I don’t know if we expect you know helenus to get to that size but I would expect he’s going to play over 200 lbs and touch six feet by the time he’s playing in the NHL and zemer is same way I think he’ll be over six feet and play at probably 210 pounds guys great story there uh another high compete player two years in the USL uh forced his weight into the lineup at Michigan State this year and obviously was Stir back there and you know the the the draft elb player that we saw Michigan State so many times he was a player that Jason Nightingale was extremely passionate about as were others myself included uh we brought them into our own little mini combine in Buffalo I had you know Timmy Kennedy and Jason and others telling me what an elite athlete he was always uh we ran ran him through the same test that um our NHL players run through and that they use at the combine he would have tested out at the combine in the top three percentile of all the athletes at the combine and probably top five percentile of our NHL players and love the path you know a couple more years at least at Michigan State and you know the Buffalo being a buffalo kids a bonus and we obviously know his character inside and now I would consider him still a very raw player and I think by his own admission he was a little bit of um he used the term that a couple coaches used with him he was a little bit of a cowboy on the ice at times I I would say like a wild horse he just wanted to rely on high compete all the time and being at Michigan State and playing college in in the Big 10 he’s adapting to a little more structure scored the game-winning goal in the Big 10 championship game uh started to rain his game in a little bit but the thing we like most is athleticism skating strong frame and high compete level thanks um how’s everyone doing I feel like I haven’t seen you guys um um I know we’re getting kicked out here in a half hour

We are live with GM Kevyn Adams and AGM Jerry Forton after the 2024 #NHLDraft.

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