DougLaurieSports
Verified Trader,
There are generally quite a few events going on around the NHL Draft. When it was held in Ottawa a few years ago, we were invited by the league to come out and set up for a card and memorabilia show onsite. While it turned out to not be so great when someone bunged up the security and we had to stay until just about everyone was out of the building the night of the first round, it was still pretty neat.
Luke Schenn stopped at our tables and signed a couple cards after I gave him a Sharpie and there were lots of relatives of the draftees around. I also got to tell John Ferguson Jr. I thought he did a pretty decent job while he was GM of the Maple Leafs. He genuinely seemed to appreciate that.
I also attended the 1996 NHL Draft in St. Louis when it was a lot more low key, more rounds, etc. Still neat to see the families of the draftees explode when the kid's name was called. In a neat little twist, I've gotten to meet a couple of the guys drafted that day. Rik Jackman went fifth overall and a few years ago, he came in the store to get some jerseys framed, including his World Juniors gamer (with the medal!) and his draft jersey. When he handed it to me, I said, "I saw you put this on," and he looked at me like I was nuts. Also, Todd Miller was picked by the Islanders in the sixth round. He's now an assistant coach with the Barrie Colts, and we had a whale of a time getting a namebar for his draft jersey. It just had the "96" on it and that was the Gordon's Fisherman year, so the lettering was wavy.
