HF Interview with Atlanta GM Don Waddell

[Blatny Spears]

Done by Thrashers editor Holly Gunning. Informative read about the draft process from Atlanta's perspective. Non-Thrasher fans would probably enjoy it too.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/article.php?sid=6989

Click to read more...

 

[ttnorm]

Excellent read. Good call Blatny Spears.

 

[DaveyCrockett]

Good interview. That was an interesting read.

 

[neelynugs]

absolutely awesome...great job holly

 

[spence___]

HF: Where are you in the finalizing process with your draft list?
DW: Our list is final, subject to my changing. We just came from Toronto a week ago, we interviewed 112 kids there at the testing. The interview process and testing there counts about 10 percent of it. We know how the players play. We know them very well. I always say the testing and the interviews can either put a player ahead of someone equal, or behind. Because I’ve interviewed kids who are very good interviews, and I’ve also interviewed kids where I say ‘you know what, I really don’t want this kid as part of our organization.’ So our list is done.

I found this kind of odd.

 

[littleHossa]

Wow after reading the interview I have to say that I really like Don Waddell, the position of a GM seems really exciting when coming to prospects. Also great job by the Atlanta Thrashers editor for the questions.

 

[Flames Draft Watcher]

I found this kind of odd.

You didn't do a particularly good job of explaining what you found odd about it. Made sense to me...

 

[Matt Gunning]

I found this kind of odd.

What he is saying is that interviews can slight affect the draft order.

What kind of interviews would make you nervous? I once heard about an interview with a top prospect where the player's dad answered all but one question.

 

[spence___]

You didn't do a particularly good job of explaining what you found odd about it. Made sense to me...

Sorry I was just real tired when I posted that. What Matt Gunning posted makes sense, I just found it odd that a players interview could go so bad as to have the GM rule out the kid almost entirely.

 

[markov`]

Done by Thrashers editor Holly Gunning. Informative read about the draft process from Atlanta's perspective. Non-Thrasher fans would probably enjoy it too.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/article.php?sid=6989

Great call Blatny. I'm not a Thrasher fan at all, but it was one good read.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

One of the best interview I have read, not just at HF but hockey in general, in a long time.

Very informative and Holly's knowledge of the Thrashers org. showed throughout the read. Lots of FUN, PERTINENT questions. Which is more than I can say of media, even professional ones, 99% of the time.

Also, a sign of good interviews, Holly was reacting to what DW said, adjusting and asking questions based on the answers already given instead of reading from a made up list of lame, sad and pointless questions.

A great read.

 

[Steve Latin*]

One of the best interview I have read, not just at HF but hockey in general, in a long time.

Very informative and Holly's knowledge of the Thrashers org. showed throughout the read. Lots of FUN, PERTINENT questions. Which is more than I can say of media, even professional ones, 99% of the time.

Also, a sign of good interviews, Holly was reacting to what DW said, adjusting and asking questions based on the answers already given instead of reading from a made up list of lame, sad and pointless questions.

A great read.

Ditto what Vlad said. I was really impressed. Unfortunately, the mainstream media writes for, um, the mainstream, not crazy hockey fanatics like us!

S L

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Sorry I was just real tired when I posted that. What Matt Gunning posted makes sense, I just found it odd that a players interview could go so bad as to have the GM rule out the kid almost entirely.

I think it made perfect sense. You can have a draft failure for 2 reasons - scouts misread a players potential, or a player fails to realize their potential. I would bet that the majority of draft failures are due to a player not realizing their potential, rather than scouts bombing on their evaluations.

The worst draft bombs in recent memory that jump into my mind are guys like Daigle, Zyuzin, Shvidki & Volchkov. They had the natural ability, but lacked the maturity and discipline to translate that into NHL production.

The guys that jump to mind to me for the other catagory are guys like Rupp, Kilger and basically every Hawks draft pick from 1989-1997. Scouts just misread a players potential, based on some characteristic of their game (ussually size).

I also agree with Vlad. Great interview!

 

[Kevin Forbes]

to add my thoughts to the issue spence brought up,

Waddell seems to be a GM who wants a close team and a dressing room that gets along. He may not want players who will cause problems because of their attitude or cockiness, those are other things that could come out in an interview.

 

[Legionnaire]

Great interview Holly!

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

I really liked this interview. This and the Doug MacLean interview from several weeks back are two of the most enjoyable articles I ever read here.

 

[spence___]

Yeah, I forgot to mention how much I liked the article. Well done.

 

[Enoch]

One of the best interview I have read, not just at HF but hockey in general, in a long time.

Very informative and Holly's knowledge of the Thrashers org. showed throughout the read. Lots of FUN, PERTINENT questions. Which is more than I can say of media, even professional ones, 99% of the time.

Also, a sign of good interviews, Holly was reacting to what DW said, adjusting and asking questions based on the answers already given instead of reading from a made up list of lame, sad and pointless questions.

A great read.

Entirely agree. Mighty fine interview!

 

[PecaFan]

Hate to be a me-too-er, but simply can't avoid it. That was *incredibly* well done. Fantastic questions, great preparation and knowledge (especially loved the Ray DiLauro stuff, where she knew were he was drafted and what he's doing while Waddell didn't). The part about how the lists were done separately was also extremely enlightening.

Article of the year.

 

[nazzy]

That's some article, that's for sure.

Absolutely great read, very good insight. I really learned a lot more about Waddell and how he does business, love his approach on things.

Great job Holly, loved it.

Out of curiousity: How did you manage to score an interview with him?

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

The fact that Holly noticed that when it comes to the Thrashers drafting prospects, they tend to go after raw players with one exceptional skill rather than well-rounded players was pretty neat, too. It was also cool how Don Waddell as like "hey, no-one's ever noticed that. You're right".

 

[Duff88]

This is the best article I ever read on HF! Great work, it was extremely interesting!