timlinin8th said:
Any guesses on who the pick that got away in a previous draft that Gretzky says he "learned" from was?
That 30 seconds was the most interesting part of the whole thing. "I know it's early, but I learned with...."
I did some research. Gretzky was with Arizona from 06-12. Here are their first round picks with Gretzky in charge:
2006: 8th, Peter Mueller; 29th Chris Summers. Philly took Giroux 22nd. It is possible that Gretzky wanted Giroux at 8 but thought he could get him at 29.
2007: 3rd, Kyle Turris. Turris was rated as the #1 NA skater headed into the draft. Notables that went after him are Logan Couture, Jakub Voracek and Kevin Shattenkirk.
2008: 8th, Mikael Boedker. Boedker wasn't in the top 10 of the final CS rankings. They missed on Erik Karlsson and Jordan Eberle, but Boedker was a reach to begin with so I don't think this is it.
2009: 6th, OEL.
2010: 13th, Brandon Gormley; 27th Mark Visentin. They had 13 and 22, ended up trading down from 22. Tarasenko went 16th. Maybe they wanted Tarasenko, but I'm not sure this jives with Gretzky's quote.
2011: 20th Connor Murphy
2012: 27th, Henrik Samuelsson
I think it was Claude Giroux. Giroux wasn't rated highly. Maybe they loved him more than Mueller, but got sucked in to the rankings, took Mueller thinking they could get Giroux at 29. Hits some check marks. Gretzky's first year running the draft, Giroux would've been an off the board pick, etc. The other option is Tarasenko, but I don't think it was him. He was always highly rated but slid due to the Russian factor. Maybe they wanted him and panicked when Gormley fell, but I don't think this fits Gretzky's quote and what they were discussing.