Director of Scouting David Conte Interview

[Oneiro]

You guys need to relax. Especially about Larsson. For starters, no one really looked at Merrill or Gelinas as clear-cut "franchise No. 1" d-men. Unlike Larsson.

I agree that the draft record of the past decade has been terrible at best.

And we do have a problem with rushing certain guys. Josefson and Larsson included. And Conte even disagreed with putting Matteau in the NHL. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boucher take a while as well.

Literally, only Merrill has stuck without needing extended work in the AHL.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Albany stats

Jon Merrill - 14GP - 2G - 7A - 9P - (-1)

Adam Larsson - 14GP - 1G - 8A - 9P - 0+/-

guess which one is given tons of NHL time

We can't necessarily judge a player by stats only, but I think you do watch the Albany games?
If so, how confident does Adam look and is he jumping into the play and trying to make plays?

There is much more than stats from a defenseman.

 

[SeidoN]

We can't necessarily judge a player by stats only, but I think you do watch the Albany games?
If so, how confident does Adam look and is he jumping into the play and trying to make plays?

There is much more than stats from a defenseman.

he looks alot more confident joining the rush and making good plays

also his breakout passes are ALOT better. to the point where im actually wondering if his long passes suit faster forwards better

 

[ajdevjet]

9 points in 14 games while playing great defense and covering Gelinas. any other GM would clear a spot by now.

I find myself agreeing with everything you are posting today....must be the jedi mind trick

 

[Oneiro]

Larry Robinson talked about Adam being kind of fragile and very hard on himself.

I think an extended stay being the man in Albany is not a bad thing. Maybe he can recapture that quiet swagger he had at the World Juniors before the draft.

The only reason to bring him up is if you believe we are a better, playoff-worthy team with him up here. And I don't think that's the case. A better team? Maybe. But not season-changing.

 

[NJD Kula]

Conte's record is impressive, the Devils have 5 finals appearances and 3 Cups since Conte was promoted to head scout in Aug 1993.

If a pick was a "bust" it's not because scouts sucked it more likely had to do with the fact that the Devils' defense was stacked for almost two decades with Niedermayer, Stevens, and Daneyko having a lock on 3 roster spots. Meanwhile Marty was in net for 99% of every game played from 1994 - last month so any goalie picked was useless.

As for forwards I'd say they did an amazing job in their selections and the development was just fine, I'd say far better than average.

A recap of Conte's picks since 1994:

1994 (one of the best drafts for njd)
pick / player
25 Sharifjanov - sucked but part of Mogilny package so huge
51 Elias - heroic
71 Souray - awesome
233 Sullivan - amazing (traded for Gilmour & Ellett) bad deal???

1995
18 Sykora - golden
lot of suck
79 McCauley - nice (included in Gilmour deal)

1996
10 Lance Ward - ****
bags of suck
47 Dagenais part 1 suck
49 White - awesome
91 Boumedienne - a lot of ppl thought he'd be pretty good
199 Mitchell - gr8

1997
24 JF Damphousse - idk why they bothered to pick goalies
38 Gron - suck
more suck
131 - Bicek - almost
159 - Goc - wrong goc brother, good in europe tho
215 - Scott Clemmensen - not bad

1998 (amazing draft!!!)
26 - Mike Van Ryn - sneaky loophole ****ed but good pick
27 - Gomez - hate him now but amazing pick!
37 - Berglund - wasnt horrible
82 - Gionta - huge!
105 - Dagenais - 2nd attempt, wasn't a terrible hockey player

1999 (draft wasn't great but a lot of teams ****ed up)
1 Stefan - LOL
2-3 Sedins - no brainers right
4 Brendl - LOLLLL
Devils drafted
27 Ahonen - actually really good in the KHL but we didnt need another goalie until what we now know as 2014 so why the **** bother
and
42 Mike Commodore - not a bust
rest of the picks were useless

2000 (not bad)
22 Hale - over 300 games, not really a bust for a late first but not a win either
39 Laine - so fast!!!!
56 Suglobov - almost
62 Martin - amazing pick i'd say
76 Rupp - pretty epic pick not exactly an amazing player but key role player
135 Murderer - woops!
194 Engelland - let him go but who knew that 15 seasons later he'd be as good as Peter Harrold?!

2001 (woops but rly only 20 solid NHLers came out of this entire draft, devils just went to the finals)
28 Foster - got injured, risk didnt pay off
a lot of who is that?
229 Aaron Voros - guy was actually talented but let us recall there was absolutely no room for skilled forwards to break into our lineup unless they were multidimensional

2002 (there were really only 10 rly good NHLers in this draft, if that, was ****ing awful draft and the devils didnt have a 1st, how do you blame Conte?)
51 Kadeykin - poop
53 Tallackson - the mighty
crap
117 Janssen - ok
218 Pikkarainen!

2003
17 Parise - traded up for this gem after we won the mother ****ing Stanley Cup! Zach clearly cursed us though in spite of his skills
42 Vrana - talented but no go for NJD, one dimensional
rest were nothing

2004
20 Zajac - struck gold again imo
didnt pick again until the 5th round so who cares

2005
23 Bergfors - the guy had talent, 83 pts in 173 is not a terrible bust at 23 and got us Kovy
28 Frazee - was actually playing really well up until taking a skate to the throat
84 Fraser - not bad
155 Fayne - some of you think he's a top 4 dman, maybe not that great but a solid 155th pick for sure

2006
30 Corrente - picking last what do u rly expect?
58 R.I.P.
77 Sharkov - lol owell

2007
no first
79 Palmieri - not terrible
117 Halischuk - good value

2008
24 Tedenby - too soon to call a bust nothing special right now
52 Burlon - not going to break through given the chips around him on d
54 Cormier - helped land Kovy, good value
82 Henrique - what else could you want in a draft???

2009
20 Josefson - only 23, not a bust yet but obv nothing special or so it seems
54 Gelinas - already happy with this draft now
73 Urbom - got this guy back from the Caps and he's still young, could be the next Fayne

2010
no first
38 Merrill - guy is already in the NHL, could you srsly ask more from your scouting dept???
84 the Wedge - could be good
174 Clermont - another solid goalie pick

2011
4 Larsson - you'd be stupid not to have taken him, the team sucking isn't conte's fault
99 Boucher - huge
159 Scarlett - i doubt he'll break through given all the talent on defense but a good pick most will agree

2012
29 Matteau - too soon to tell
60 Severson - everyone likes this pick

2013
Cory Schneider thank you very much, doesn't even matter who else was picked

 

[Brodeur]

1996
10 Lance Ward - ****
bags of suck
47 Dagenais part 1 suck
49 White - awesome
91 Boumedienne - a lot of ppl thought he'd be pretty good
199 Mitchell - gr8

1996 was known to be a terrible draft year up top. It's unfortunate that they chose Ward, but the Devils were hardly the only team with a regrettable top pick that year. They also got the 37th pick in 1998 as compensation for not signing Ward, which turned into Berglund which turned into a couple seasons of the Viktor Kozlov experience.

1997
24 JF Damphousse - idk why they bothered to pick goalies
38 Gron - suck
more suck
131 - Bicek - almost
159 - Goc - wrong goc brother, good in europe tho
215 - Scott Clemmensen - not bad

Marty ended up signing a four extension in December 1997 that kept him under contract through 2002. Hypothetically, a goalie drafted in 1997 might be ready to take over in five years. Damphousse didn't pan out, but I think the organization wanted a contingency plan just in case.

1999 (draft wasn't great but a lot of teams ****ed up)
1 Stefan - LOL
2-3 Sedins - no brainers right
4 Brendl - LOLLLL
Devils drafted
27 Ahonen - actually really good in the KHL but we didnt need another goalie until what we now know as 2014 so why the **** bother
and
42 Mike Commodore - not a bust
rest of the picks were useless

Unlike '96, hopes were high for '99 but most of those guys busted hard. I don't mind the Ahonen pick since the 2nd round wasn't exactly filled with future All Stars. Jordan Leopold's probably had the best career of the thirty guys taken after Ahonen.

It's also possible that the Devils simply were drafting the best asset. Ahonen's "stock" was at its highest after the 2001 WJC. The Hockey News had him, off the top of my head, as the 5th best drafted prospect. Lou tried to use Ahonen in a trade to get Rob Blake but Colorado trumped our offer.

----------------

It won't happen under Lou's watch, but I'd love to see some behind the scenes draft coverage and see how some of the meetings go among our scouts.

From reading a couple books and watching other teams' draft videos, it really does seem to be a little bit of controlled chaos. I'm not sure why it's so surprising, but seeing scouts from the same team have polar opposite opinions on players was kinda eye opening.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

The biggest failure has been our scouts in Europe. They need to be replaced or the should just stick to drafting North Americans in at least the first 3 rounds. After that they can consider any recommendations from the European guys. First 3 rounds they shouldn't say a word.

 

[NJD Kula]

The thing with drafting Euros is that they will always have a bigger contract waiting for them in Europe if their club doesn't develop them out of the AHL.

So it's not so much bad European scouting as it is not developing Europeans fast enough to keep them from going to the KHL/SEL/etc

 

[Oneiro]

Well we rushed all the Euro players we've ever had.

 

[Devils Dominion]

He should have told Lou to sign Zuccerello

 

[Devils Army]

Conte's record is impressive, the Devils have 5 finals appearances and 3 Cups since Conte was promoted to head scout in Aug 1993.

If a pick was a "bust" it's not because scouts sucked it more likely had to do with the fact that the Devils' defense was stacked for almost two decades with Niedermayer, Stevens, and Daneyko having a lock on 3 roster spots. Meanwhile Marty was in net for 99% of every game played from 1994 - last month so any goalie picked was useless.

As for forwards I'd say they did an amazing job in their selections and the development was just fine, I'd say far better than average.

A recap of Conte's picks since 1994:

1994 (one of the best drafts for njd)
pick / player
25 Sharifjanov - sucked but part of Mogilny package so huge
51 Elias - heroic
71 Souray - awesome
233 Sullivan - amazing (traded for Gilmour & Ellett) bad deal???

1995
18 Sykora - golden
lot of suck
79 McCauley - nice (included in Gilmour deal)

1996
10 Lance Ward - ****
bags of suck
47 Dagenais part 1 suck
49 White - awesome
91 Boumedienne - a lot of ppl thought he'd be pretty good
199 Mitchell - gr8

1997
24 JF Damphousse - idk why they bothered to pick goalies
38 Gron - suck
more suck
131 - Bicek - almost
159 - Goc - wrong goc brother, good in europe tho
215 - Scott Clemmensen - not bad

1998 (amazing draft!!!)
26 - Mike Van Ryn - sneaky loophole ****ed but good pick
27 - Gomez - hate him now but amazing pick!
37 - Berglund - wasnt horrible
82 - Gionta - huge!
105 - Dagenais - 2nd attempt, wasn't a terrible hockey player

1999 (draft wasn't great but a lot of teams ****ed up)
1 Stefan - LOL
2-3 Sedins - no brainers right
4 Brendl - LOLLLL
Devils drafted
27 Ahonen - actually really good in the KHL but we didnt need another goalie until what we now know as 2014 so why the **** bother
and
42 Mike Commodore - not a bust
rest of the picks were useless

2000 (not bad)
22 Hale - over 300 games, not really a bust for a late first but not a win either
39 Laine - so fast!!!!
56 Suglobov - almost
62 Martin - amazing pick i'd say
76 Rupp - pretty epic pick not exactly an amazing player but key role player
135 Murderer - woops!
194 Engelland - let him go but who knew that 15 seasons later he'd be as good as Peter Harrold?!

2001 (woops but rly only 20 solid NHLers came out of this entire draft, devils just went to the finals)
28 Foster - got injured, risk didnt pay off
a lot of who is that?
229 Aaron Voros - guy was actually talented but let us recall there was absolutely no room for skilled forwards to break into our lineup unless they were multidimensional

2002 (there were really only 10 rly good NHLers in this draft, if that, was ****ing awful draft and the devils didnt have a 1st, how do you blame Conte?)
51 Kadeykin - poop
53 Tallackson - the mighty
crap
117 Janssen - ok
218 Pikkarainen!

2003
17 Parise - traded up for this gem after we won the mother ****ing Stanley Cup! Zach clearly cursed us though in spite of his skills
42 Vrana - talented but no go for NJD, one dimensional
rest were nothing

2004
20 Zajac - struck gold again imo
didnt pick again until the 5th round so who cares

2005
23 Bergfors - the guy had talent, 83 pts in 173 is not a terrible bust at 23 and got us Kovy
28 Frazee - was actually playing really well up until taking a skate to the throat
84 Fraser - not bad
155 Fayne - some of you think he's a top 4 dman, maybe not that great but a solid 155th pick for sure

2006
30 Corrente - picking last what do u rly expect?
58 R.I.P.
77 Sharkov - lol owell

2007
no first
79 Palmieri - not terrible
117 Halischuk - good value

2008
24 Tedenby - too soon to call a bust nothing special right now
52 Burlon - not going to break through given the chips around him on d
54 Cormier - helped land Kovy, good value
82 Henrique - what else could you want in a draft???

2009
20 Josefson - only 23, not a bust yet but obv nothing special or so it seems
54 Gelinas - already happy with this draft now
73 Urbom - got this guy back from the Caps and he's still young, could be the next Fayne

2010
no first
38 Merrill - guy is already in the NHL, could you srsly ask more from your scouting dept???
84 the Wedge - could be good
174 Clermont - another solid goalie pick

2011
4 Larsson - you'd be stupid not to have taken him, the team sucking isn't conte's fault
99 Boucher - huge
159 Scarlett - i doubt he'll break through given all the talent on defense but a good pick most will agree

2012
29 Matteau - too soon to tell
60 Severson - everyone likes this pick

2013
Cory Schneider thank you very much, doesn't even matter who else was picked

In 2013 we got Santini which was a pretty solid move, I would have absolutely loved it if had gotten Landeskog, he's the captain of the Avs and would love him as captain (Salvador really?)