If not for a rebound in the exchange rate between the Canadian dollar and its American counterpart, there’s a fair chance all-star winger Johnny Gaudreau wouldn’t be wearing a Calgary Flames sweater today.
Since joining the organization in the fourth round of the 2011 draft, Gaudreau has upended the Flames’ on-ice identity, infusing high-octane skill and speed into a franchise long known for strength and truculence.
But looking back a few years before that draft day, you get a sense of just how close Calgary came to missing the boat on their prized winger.
“When I first started in Calgary in ’97, in my first year they were having a season-ticket drive to keep the Flames in Calgary,” says Tod Button, the Flames’ director of amateur scouting. “A few years later when I was doing budgets for the Flames, we were budgeting for the U.S. (exchange) at $1.55, so we made a conscious effort to try and keep our scouts in Canada just because of the dollar.”
With a lopsided exchange rate leaving the prospect of hiring a full-time U.S. scout impractical, the Flames stuck to limited coverage of the American leagues. When the exchange rate shifted in their favour in the late-2000’s, the door opened for change.
“It’s hard to cover the world without the proper resources,” Button says. “So the biggest thing for me that changed is the dollar evened out and our ownership saw the need for a full-time scout in the United States.
“The first scout we added full-time was Rob Pulford — Rob was instrumental in (drafting) Johnny Gaudreau.”
Pulford, son of former Toronto Maple Leafs Hall of Famer Bob Pulford, joined the Flames’ scouting department for the 2008-09 season. Soon after, in July 2010, he got his first look at Gaudreau.
“The first time I saw John was at the U.S. Select Camp,” says Pulford, now an amateur scout for the Arizona Coyotes.
Then just 16 years old, Gaudreau was suiting up alongside a number of other American prospects looking to crack the roster for the 2010 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup. He didn’t fit the Flames mould, according to Pulford, but that soon became a non-issue.
“It’s Calgary — they had a track record of drafting CHL players, mainly in the West (or) in Ontario, and big players. But you go out there and you couldn’t help but notice this kid,” Pulford says. “He was 5-foot-6, a buck-30 soaking wet, but he had an impact on every single game of that tournament.”
Gaudreau posted four points through five games at the 2010 Ivan Hlinka, helping Team USA claim a silver medal. Then came a run with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, for whom Gaudreau dominated to the tune of 36 goals and 72 points in just 60 games.
“The hockey sense was off the charts on the kid. You definitely had concerns about the size, but it never seemed to affect him in the USHL, which is a hard league to play in,” Pulford says.
“He was probably the smartest, most creative player that I ever scouted in the U.S. A lot of the way that he played the game, and saw the game, reminded me of Gretzky.”
Gaudreau added a team-leading 11 points in 11 playoff games en route to the 2011 USHL championship.
“I talked to one coach that (Gaudreau’s Fighting Saints) were playing in the playoffs and he was telling his kids, ‘Somebody go out and kill that guy,’” Pulford recalls. “And the kids would come back and say ‘We can’t. We can’t catch him.’
“Even though he was small, he thought the game on an entirely different level…He sees things that other players are going to do before they even think of what they’re going to do.”
Assistant general manager Craig Conroy remembers a uniqueness in the young winger.
“You’re trying to figure out ‘Where is this guy going to be two, three, four years down the road? Does he have an NHL attribute that you can say, OK, his work ethic, his skill, there’s something there?’” Conroy says. “When we saw Johnny, everything, all the reports, were saying the same thing. This guy is electric.”
With Pulford and the rest of the scouting staff convinced, the Flames picked Gaudreau 104th overall after sitting through a tense third round in which they had zero picks before nabbing him in the fourth.
History has shown it was a wise gamble. In the three years between draft day and Gaudreau’s arrival in Calgary, the winger hauled in an NCAA championship, a world junior gold, a scoring title (posting 80 points in 40 college games) and a Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top men’s player. Finally joining the Flames for his rookie campaign in 2014-15, Gaudreau continued his run of success in the NHL, collecting 64 points, an all-star nod and being named a Calder Trophy finalist while helping the Flames end a half-decade playoff drought.
In 2017-18, Gaudreau raised his ceiling yet again. With a career-high 84 points, he finished tied for the 16th-highest sum in the league, leading Calgary in scoring for the third straight season.
He’s been an undeniable success for the Flames. And yet, if not for that exchange rate levelling out and the Flames adding an American scouting staff, Gaudreau’s highlight-reel skill could very well be on display with a different logo on his chest.
“We covered tournaments and we’d see guys,” Button says of scouting the U.S. in those early days. “But to be honest, I think maybe in the early-2000’s or mid-2000’s, up until we had a full-time (scout), a guy like Johnny might have slipped through the cracks.”
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