Anatomy of a Draft Pick – How the Kings Decided on Byfield

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• News post

• John Hoven

It seems that nearly every year there is a debate among two players either at or near the top of the NHL Draft board. This year was no exception, with Quinton Byfield vs. Tim Stuetzle being a common theme among prognosticators and fans alike.

• Quinton Byfield
• Tim Stuetzle

• Mark Yannetti

# Mark Yannetti

It wasn’t a consensus among the staff. It was not like Drew Doughty in 2008. It wasn’t a consensus pick, but it was the right pick because Rob wants to build the team a certain way.

I had two other players in that group at various points this year. It was as much as a group of four for me. For some of the scouts it was a group of three. For Ruutu it was always a group of one.

We used live scouting. Among our staff, nine of the scouts saw Byfield play in a live game that wasn’t a prospect game. Seven of our staff saw Stuetzle play in a live game. And at least five of our staff saw multiple live games of each player. The live views are the first component we used, where the results were split.

Everything is as equal as it can be. From the process, to the format, to what we’re looking for. It was like a NASCAR thing, everything was made to be equal.

Stuetzle might have been a little ahead in the first round of video. Then, with the analytics, they pointed to Byfield. Then, in the second round of video, things pointed back toward Byfield.

Regarding the interview process, they’re in the same group. They’re different, but in terms of layering the interview, they’re in the exact same tier – no question. Neither will be a better or worse teammate than the other. One wouldn’t have more drive or desire than the other. They’d be dead even there.

Byfield has a dynamic personality. Stuetzle makes everybody around him happier.

The General Manager. Rob Blake has a plan, I can tell you that. It’s a legit plan; I like it, I’m in. That plan means the team is going to be built a certain way. Dean [Lombardi] had a plan – the team was going to be built from the backend out; defenseman, center, winger. He defined for us, the team is going to win by doing this, they might not score as many goals, but we’re going to play a possession based style, etc. Dean had a plan. We drafted players — for the most part — to fit his philosophy, to fit Darryl Sutter’s philosophy, to fit Terry Murray’s philosophy. Now, Blakey has a plan. And if two guys are close, whoever fits into the mold of how he wants the team to play becomes the obvious choice. It can be razor thin and the choice can be obvious; or it can be razor thin and the choice can be hard. It’s just circumstance. In this case, while extremely razor thin close between two players, the choice for Byfield was easy because the team is being built a certain way. Todd is going to have the team playing a certain way and Blakey is going to help build the team to play that certain way. And these type of players are going to help Rob and Todd win.

The scouting staff brings Rob Blake all the information. They bring him the process, the information, and a recommendation. That being said, Rob is the boss and he makes the decision. If the staff presents something completely foreign to what Rob’s decision would want to be, there would be a lot more discussion before we got to the end.

We said it’s razor thin, but we like Byfield better than player B. Rob didn’t make a decision in that moment either. He took all the information in and then he had the ability to review it at his leisure. A couple weeks later, he told me the direction he wanted to go. Based on how he wants the team to play, it’s easy for me to understand why that was the pick.