Ducks assistant GM Martin Madden discusses 2024 NHL Draft

Ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft, which takes place next week on June 28 and 29, Ducks assistant general manager Martin Madden addressed local media via Zoom. These responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Last year Bedard went No.1 and the talk was that the draft started at No. 2 and that was your pick. Is there something a little bit similar this time just in terms of No. 1 and then the draft really begins at that two spot and then you’re right behind at three?

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that statement except that it’s a bit more complex afterward. Last year was pretty straightforward. After one, there were three guys for us that we were considering in that spot and lots of debating between those three guys. This year, it goes a little bit deeper than that. I would say that the next nine or 10 could go two, three, four, five. Even though the players are quite distinct from each other, the values are very similar. It’s going to be an interesting first round.

How many guys are you looking at at three and what have the conversations and even the debates been like?

I would say we debated between eight players. Didn’t just start our meetings in May. It started well before, right? Well before the U18s as we were seeing where we were going to pick, the area we were going to pick. How the second half went for different players. How they evolved, how they changed, how they got better or stagnated a little bit. How it fits with our prospect pool, although that’s a minor issue because seven years from now nobody’s going to remember who we had as prospects and will just look at who’s turned out.

I think Bob McKenzie has mentioned as much in May, he’s never seen so much diversity in the top 15 from the guys he talks to, and internally, I think that is also true. Lots of guys who are passionate about certain players and that leads to interesting debates.

This draft has been said to be very defense-heavy near the top. How does that group compare to other years with defensemen at the top of the draft?

It’s always a tough question to answer. It looks as good as some of the best drafts on defense in the last 10 years. But who knows? In terms of depth, for sure it is. At the top, I don’t recall as many defensemen being in that grouping.

But every year there are two or three guys that surprise with the upside and let’s see if it’s a defenseman or a forward this year. That’s what we’re trying to assess. It’s not about what they look like today, it’s what they’re going to look like five years from now and the impact they’re going to have on our team five years from now. That is a challenge.

This draft, the order could go so many different ways, it’s almost a little bit like the draft coming out of the pandemic where there were more limited viewings. Do you see kind of a similar variability? What do you think about the overall quality of this crop?

Yeah, a little bit for different reasons. But similarly, in terms of variability of the outcome, this top 10 is better than that year’s top 10.

When you have that level of diversity of prospects, there tends to be a variable order and of course, when you have seven picks in the first three rounds. Is this more of a gear-up and bear-down type of season given the nature of the class and also just the sheer quantity of picks you guys have pretty high in the draft?

In terms of the scouting, I don’t think it changed our process. But the last few weeks, trying to plan for how this is going to go and strategize around those picks in the second and third rounds certainly was different. We’ve had drafts where we had many picks and the last two or three drafts, we’ve picked a lot.

So we’re familiar with that situation, but those picks are going to come fast and furious here, so going to try to make the most of it whether it’s through trades or just making sure we get a good diversity of upside picks this season. As for the number three slot, it is what it is. We have to make the right call. The process and how we got to it was not much different than usual.

You mentioned the potential for a trade or maybe consolidating picks, moving up, that sort of thing. How do you guys plan––in a general sense––for that? There are all kinds of contingencies as far as moving up, sliding back, that sort of thing. Has that been more challenging this year in any sort of way?

I thought last year there was going to be a lot of movement. The week before, there seemed to be a lot of traction on some of those types of trades and nothing happened. It is so on-the-moment dependent. You can lay the groundwork. You can know who’s interested in moving up and moving down and who’s got the picks and where teams are lacking picks. But at the end of the day, if there’s not one player that you want or that you want at that precise pick, then it just doesn’t happen.

It probably gets a little more murky in that it’s not just one guy unless you’re picking next. By the time it’s time to pull the trigger, what are the odds that the two or three guys you’re looking at are still going to be available six, or seven slots behind? You don’t want to overthink it. We want to come out of the first round with two guys who we’re super excited about, and who we targeted, and I think that’s our goal for Friday.

(General manager Pat Verbeek) talked about what he wants for the parent club, the top roster. But organizationally, what needs are you guys looking to fill, whether it’s through free agency, trades or the draft?

In terms of needs through the draft––I think I said it last year, I’ll say it again this year––we went in that direction twice in the last 10 years and it didn’t work out for us. Those picks were forced and five years later, I’m not even sure it would have addressed the need we have at this time. So we’re going to go with the old boring way and say that we’re going to go with the best player available according to our opinion and our projection. Then, hopefully, it gives Pat some flexibility down the road to make trades like he did this year, using Jamie (Drysdale) to acquire Cutter (Gauthier). If we can help in that way, we’ll have done our jobs.

Has the list of players you guys are targeting with the Oilers’ first-round pick changed as they’ve continued to succeed in playoffs, thereby dropping the draft position from potentially 22nd overall to either 31st or 32nd overall?

It happened after the scouting season so in terms of live viewings, it had no impact. But in terms of strategizing and the grouping that we think this pick is going to come out, for sure. Going from 22 to 31 or 32, it’s going to be a different player for sure. No doubt.

Do you anticipate using both first-round picks at this point?

You’re going to have to ask Pat about that. *laughs* I’m preparing like we are going to, but anything can happen, you know? I think what we want to do is improve the team and as a scouting staff, we feel that we’re fully on board with making the organization better whichever way Pat decides to.

You were with Pat at the Gold Star pre-draft combine this week. What were your takeaways about seeing some of those players in person for the first time?

You watch players on video but it’s nice to get a better sense of their skating stride. That is one thing that’s hard. You can gauge comparatively how they skate on video, but in terms of the nuances of the stride, most of those camera angles don’t do justice. Effort away from the play is not as obvious on video.

Having said that, it’s one agent’s camp, so I can’t say it was intense like a regular game, let’s be honest. It’s a camp amongst friends, right? But it was nice to go and talk with those players face-to-face and be around them in the gym and assess their drive and their level of passion. You can definitely gather that better in a face-to-face meeting. For that purpose, it was worth it.

How valuable is something like the draft combine or the pre-draft combine that Dan Milstein had for his clients in terms of evaluating a player’s character or personality?

At the end of the day, that part of the job comes down to our regional scouts. They do the most groundwork with coaches, with scouts from other junior leagues, with billets and players around other teams. We should be able to get a good sense of a player’s personality and their strengths and weaknesses off the ice before we meet them for 15 minutes at the combine.

Having said that, we all know a first impression is important. We do get an impression of self-awareness in 15 minutes and that’s what we try to gauge. It adds an impact. It’s not a huge one, but we don’t go through the process every year for the sake of it. There is something to be said for a kid showing up in front of 10 adults and presenting himself and seeing how that goes. We’ve drawn some conclusions over the years, but we try to keep it as a––it’s the salt and pepper on decision-making that is going on here.

When it comes to making a pick, especially in the later rounds, in terms of that selection, is that more Pat relying on you and the rest of the scouting department? Do you have more of a say in those decisions?

I think we are really lucky and have been for the 15 years we’ve been here to be part of this. We’re trusted. They trust us to make good decisions, taking into account their philosophy, their values, what type of players they want. Pat likes to scout, so he’s involved in that process.

At the end of the day, that’s how it goes. It’s a group thing. Nobody is dictating anything here. Scouting and drafting, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a consensual thing, it’s not just, ‘OK, we’re going to go with the consensus’. That’s not what it’s about. But it is about drawing the best out of every one of our scouts and coming up with the best argument for that player at that spot. So, we feel trusted, we are valued and I think it’s been reflected in our work over the years.

There are a couple of late risers in this draft, namely (Beckett) Sennecke and (Tij) Iginla. I was wondering how you value that “late riser” potential and how you parse out what among that is sustainable versus what you deem as fool’s gold, perhaps.

I always laugh about that. We’ve talked about this internally over the years. Late risers. Late risers for whom? That general kind of talk, it really is amongst public lists. Somebody rises on a public list and now he’s a late riser. Well, not really. We don’t really pay that much attention except to get a sense of what the market looks like for different players. We make our own assessments throughout the year and whether a player is going up or down on public lists before the draft, it really has no impact on our process.

Your question could also be answered by looking at historically, do players who improve a lot in the second half of the year end up being better players than those who fall? We’ve looked at that and I don’t think there’s any real conclusion to be drawn, I think it’s pretty random. You have to look at the season or the previous two seasons as a whole to try to predict what the future five will look like. So that’s the way we go about it.

The Gold Star Showcase had a lot of Russian players that you hadn’t seen before as you mentioned. There are some projected to be selected at the very top of this draft. How comfortable would you be spending an early pick like that or even a later pick on the Russians projected to go in the second or third round?

Five years ago, I would have said not at all. But we did have to go through a few drafts where we basically drafted off of video ninety-five percent. You get one live look at a player and you still have to assess off of 10, 20, 25 live video viewings. By now, we are comfortable with the process. We’ve had enough live viewings of these players through Konstantin Krylov, our Russian scout. For me, it’s nice to have been able to get a live look in terms of Ivan Demidov. He’s still hurt, so he didn’t get on the ice. But to talk to him and so on and so forth. To answer your question, we are comfortable. It’s not a big deal.

The Ducks have walked away from the last three drafts having selected a goaltender. Is that a trend that might continue or are you pretty comfortable with the goaltending pipeline at this point?

I think we are happy with where our goaltending pipeline is. Previously, we had not drafted many goalies for a few drafts, so it was an obvious need. At this point, it’s not as much of a need. But given the number of picks that we have, if a goalie is the best player available and we feel we’ve addressed other needs at that point, we wouldn’t shy away.

How do you see the increase in the salary cap influencing movement via trades? How do you see it influencing movement at the draft this year as opposed to the years when the cap was flat?

I’m not sure I would have been able to answer before this week, but it looks like it has had a bit of an impact if you look at the two major trades that happened this week. So I would assume that it might still be. Having said that, I have not looked at 31 other situations to tell you is that going to impact the draft? But it seems to be able to give flexibility to some teams to say ‘We’re going to take risks that we might not have otherwise’.

There are three defensemen––different types of styles––at the top of the draft: (Artyom) Levshunov, (Artem) Silayev and (Zeev) Buium.

Levshunov is a solid two-way guy. He’s got really good tools. He’s physically mature and close to being able to play (in the NHL). Still needs some seasoning, but he’s got lots of tools that are close to being NHL-ready. I think he’s going to be able to play defensively and add a little offense, maybe a little bit more than that and he’s a right-handed shot.

Silayev is a unicorn. Big guy who can really skate. Has really good defensive awareness. Had a great start to the season. Had to deal with some injuries in the second half, but showed he was able to adapt to different levels. Really interesting player.

Zeev’s a winner. He’s won everywhere he’s been. He led that Denver team to a championship. He’s a really smart, mobile, modern D. That’s the way I would put it.

As far as the No. 3 pick in particular, how much does NHL readiness affect that decision? Is that taken into consideration or is that more long-term profiling and potential?

I would say it is not. We want to add an impact player. So three to five years from now, we want that player to be an impact player for our team. Whether that’s on D or forward, that’s what we’ll be picking.

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