As the strenuous testing continued on the arena floor below, the Montreal Canadiens and their staff were also hard at work in Buffalo on Saturday morning. Assistant General Manager Trevor Timmins was on hand to oversee the testing of some of the top prospects available in the upcoming NHL Draft, and he set aside a moment to meet with the media on hand.
The Habs drafting guru broke down the ideals that make up the Canadiens’ drafting and scouting process, stating they don’t want a quick fix, but players who will build this team into an annual contender. He touches on handling the pressure from fans, and how to decide on drafting needs versus the best player available overall.
Despite watching hundreds of hours or more of prospects on the ice, Timmins discusses what his staff can learn about a player from their sitdown interviews. The Canadiens this year introduced a new system for helping to analyze potential prospects, and how they can use their answers to further understand what makes those players tick on and off the ice.
Finally, Timmins and the Canadiens introduced a new bit of information regarding Canadiens-centric testing that will come to light in the next few weeks. All in all, it’s clear that Timmins and his staff are diving headlong into this draft, and he’s looking forward to using the team’s stockpile of picks — especially in the second round — in what he referred to as “two Christmases.”
