As part of Dean Lombardi’s North American tour to visit draft prospects, he met with Zach Bogosian this week. Here’s a short story from the Peterborough Examiner, with a couple quotes from Bogosian and the assertion, from Bogosian’s father, that Bogosian wouldn’t mind playing for a West Coast team.
If you read Don’s interview with Drew Doughty a few weeks ago, Doughty made no secret of the fact that he wants to play for the Kings. Doughty, one of the top prospects in next month’s draft, could very well end up being a King, if the team doesn’t go with Zach Bogosian.
Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times, stuck in Detroit for the Stanley Cup Finals, caught up with Doughty today and he talked more about his desire to be drafted by the Kings.
Playing for Kings would be ‘dream come true’ for No. 3 draft prospect
Dean Lombardi, Michael Futa, Mark Yannetti and the gang are out all over the continent this month, having sit-down meetings with prospects and their families, and the group will be in Toronto tomorrow for the draft combine. I’ll do my best to get an update on how things looked in Toronto.
Finally…the end. Here’s the last part of the interview with Mark Yannetti and Michael Futa. It focuses mainly on where the organization stands now and where it’s heading and (hopefully) will give you some idea of their vision for the future. I hope everyone found the interview worthwhile! Here’s the last part…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview VI” »
OK, I thought this would be the final installment, but there’s still another one to come. In this part, Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti discuss what it’s like to work for Dean Lombardi and discuss how it can be both challenging and rewarding. It’s a bit of an insight as to what it’s like to work for the Kings these days…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview V” »
Here’s the second-to-last installment of the interview with Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti. Unfortunately, the final installment will have to wait, since I left my recorder at home this morning. Oops. This part is some real meat-and-potatoes stuff about the job these guys do leading up to the draft…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview IV” »
In this third installment of the interview, Futa and Yannetti talk about preparing for all the different scenarios they might face on draft day, plus they discuss how there is a consensus, among the staff, about which player to select with the No. 2 pick…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview III” »
Here’s the second part of the interview with Mark Yannetti and Michael Futa, in which they start to go into some detail about what their lives are like these days, and how hectic the weeks leading up to the draft can be…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview II” »
Here’s the first part of the long interview I did on Saturday with Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti, the Kings’ co-directors of amateur scouting. The interview took place after I sat in on their session, so you’ll read a couple references to that morning’s meeting.
For a little background, Futa and Yannetti were named to their roles on June 5, 2007, so this is really their first year overseeing the Kings’ draft efforts.
Previously, Yannetti worked as a scout for the Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Futa spent the previous five seasons as the general manager of the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League.
What follows is the start of a lengthy, wide-ranging interview. As you’ll see, it starts with a simple question but a long, involved answer in which the guys discuss their work and their philosophy. After this, the questions and answers will get more specific. Here’s the first part…
Continue reading “Futa/Yannetti interview I” »
The NHL has created nhlentrydraft2008.com, which is a great resource for many of the top prospects, with bios, photos, videos, a sortable database of prospects and other features. It’s definitely worth a look…
I will be able to start posting some of the quotes from the extensive interviews with Mike Futa and Mark Yannetti later today — stuff I really think you’ll enjoy — but I wanted to take a few minutes to answer some questions people had about the Saturday meeting.
Q: Does this mean the Kings have the final draft list done already?
A: No, it’s still very much a work in progress. As Yannetti said, they’ll be looking at guys up until draft day, and they always have to be prepared for possible changes.
Q: Did the Q word come up by chance?
A: Assuming you’re referring to the first name of a recently-let-go coach, no.
Q: I agreed to not reveal certain details, such as specifics about how players are evaluated and which players are being discussed. Don’t think of me as ungrateful, but isn’t that really the only part of this that interests us?
A: That’s for you to decide, but I think you’ll enjoy the quotes that came out of it, if you didn’t particularly enjoy hearing about the generalities of the day.
Q: When you say “later round prospects”, do you mean late-first round guys or potential 3-4-5 guys?
A: More like sixth- or seventh-round guys, it seemed.
Q: Did you get the impression the Kings staff are in agreement on whom they will pick at #2, whomever that may be?
A: Yes, I do get that impression. I asked Futa and Yannetti about this specifically, so you’ll see the full answer a bit later. But the short answer is, yes.
Q: Did the question of whether to trade down ever come up?
A: Not specifically. But if you’re talking about the No. 2 pick, I don’t think it will happen.
Q: Has DL ever made any comments about the various published rankings? Does the org use them in their own evals? I guess, does DL think that they are an accurate and useful tool at all? If they are useful, to what extent are they used?
A: No, he hasn’t made any comments, but given what we know about Lombardi, I seriously doubt he takes scouting-service rankings into serious consideration. If he did, I don’t think Thomas Hickey would have pulled on a Kings sweater last June.
Q: You say they talked about latter rounds. Was that intentional on their/your part?
A: Not on my part, and I don’t believe on their part. I was initially supposed to come in on Friday but it got changed to Saturday. I think that’s just who they happened to be discussing.
Q: What I am really curious to know, is that after all the reporting you’ve done since the DL era began, and especially after this recent meeting you attended (very jealous:), in your opinion, do you think the Kings are headed in the right direction?
A: This is a good question, one for everyone to discuss, and it deserves a better, longer answer so I will address it in the near future.
Q: What kind of food did they serve there Rich? Did they offer you coffee or anything?
A: They’re always very gracious hosts, and there’s plenty of food in the room to sustain the scouts, but I didn’t have anything.