There are no sure things in the later rounds of the NHL draft. Back in 2003, there were nine rounds.
“When you get down to the seventh, eighth, ninth round, they’re all maybes,” Smith says. “There’s something you like about them, but not much, otherwise you’d take them earlier.”
Byfuglien, a burly defenseman from Minnesota playing in Prince George, was on the Blackhawks’ radar. In pre-draft discussions, Blackhawks director of player development Marshall Johnston and western scout Bruce Franklin were at odds over Big Buff. Smith vividly recalls the debate.
Franklin: “He’s so f***ing fat, he can’t f***ing play.”
Johnston: “I don’t give a f*** how fat he is, he can f***ing play.”
Smith told them he’d consider taking him as a late-round flyer, and the Blackhawks wound up grabbing him in the now non-existent eighth round. Less than a week later, at prospect camp, Smith was thumbing through all the shirtless photos of all the players taken during their fitness tests as a way of evaluating body types and potential growth.
“Oh, my God, this guy is fat,” Smith recalls saying to no one in particular.
