I really like stories like this. Kinda a behind the scene's sort of thing
It's too bad teams don't release more stuff, although it's understandable that they don't. The Capitals and Penguins had draft day videos from 2006 and the Blues had ones from 2006/2007. Gare Joyce wrote a book about how Columbus let him be a pseudo scout for their 2006 and 2007 Drafts.
From the Penguins video, Ray Shero's big dilemma was whether to keep the 2nd overall pick or trade it to Carolina for Jack Johnson. At the time, it made sense since they seemingly could have used a franchise D and then add in Crosby/Johnson's friendship. I vaguely recall Shero calling another GM to get another opinion on what to do.
From the Capitals video, they were targeting Nicklas Backstrom at #4. At one point, George McPhee was running through the expected draft scenario with his staff. Everybody knew Erik Johnson going #1. At #2, they figured Jordan Staal was being taken (either by Pittsburgh or Carolina). At #3, McPhee said the Blackhawks were taking either Toews or Kessel which meant they should get Backstrom at #4.
Just before their pick, somebody from the Bruins table offered #5 and #37 in exchange for #4. The Capitals asked who Boston wanted and their rep said "The Swede." Washington then politely declined the offer.
From St. Louis' 2007 video, head scout Jarmo Kekalainen (now Columbus' GM) badly wanted Jakub Voracek. They offered #9 and #24 to Edmonton for #6, but the Oilers opted to keep the pick. When Voracek went off the board at #7, St. Louis then decided to move back since their next target was Lars Eller.
It's interesting to see how much teams might know another team's board. The Blues table was debating if they could get Eller at #13. One scout said something like "Well, Carolina's all over [Brandon] Sutter at #11."
In their 2006 video, Kekalainen/GM Larry Pleau took Johnson #1 but spent the rest of the first round trying to trade up for Patrik Berglund who was in their top 10. Just shows you how "crazy" an NHL team's board might look compared to ISS, Central, etc.
The Avs released a draft prep video a couple years ago. It was mostly vauge, but Rick Pracey bragged about how they had Ryan O'Reilly #15, Stefan Elliott #22, and Tyson Barrie #24 on their 2009 list.
Although it is amusing to compare and contrast how good their 2009 Draft was and yet their 2010 Draft was mostly a disaster. Similarly the Bruins hit it out of the park in 2006 and whiffed badly in 2007.
The Flyers put out a draft video of their 2013 draft prep. The one memorable scene was Paul Holmgren walking in and seeing that his scouts had Sean Monahan ranked behind Sam Morin. Holmgren made a slightly snide comment out of disbelief. And the original release of that video accidentally revealed a good chunk of Philly's board, later it was edited to blur out the names.
so hopefully we can either trade down or up. Just saying.
