Why Kelowna never traded the #1 pick

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Madden Daneault.

The Rockets used the first overall pick to select the highly skilled forward, a player McFaul believes has all the ingredients to become a franchise cornerstone.

“He’s a franchise player,” McFaul said. “He’s a major building block that we’ll be able to work with and build around.”

That’s a strong statement from a scout who has spent decades evaluating elite young talent.

What impressed McFaul most wasn’t just Daneault’s skillset. It was everything underneath it.

“He’s probably a better young man than he is a player – and he’s a great player,” McFaul explained. “He is so full of compete. He makes players around him better. He’s more concerned with helping his teammates get better than he is with his own game.”

For McFaul, that matters.

The Rockets have drafted talented players before. But he believes Daneault brings something different.

“He’s skilled, he can be physical, he plays with bite, he can skate, he can score,” McFaul said. “I just don’t know how you go wrong with this guy.”

McFaul even referenced watching Sidney Crosby years ago at the Max Midget Tournament as a 15-year-old. Not because Daneault plays exactly like Crosby, but because of one trait that jumped off the ice.

“All I heard was how much compete he [Crosby] had and how competitive he was,” McFaul said. “Well, I’ll tell you what, Madden Daneault is not far off. His competitiveness and compete edge is through the roof. He hates to lose.”

That edge is one reason the Rockets never seriously regretted keeping the first overall pick despite plenty of chatter around possible trade scenarios.

“We were prepared,” McFaul said. “If the right deal came along and it was best for the organization, we would have traded it. But the asking price was a lot because the player we got is very special.”

When no team met that price, the Rockets stayed put.

“It wasn’t a hard choice to keep the pick.”

The Rockets made 11 selections overall, including seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender. McFaul admitted there were moments during the draft when the scouting staff was pleasantly surprised by who remained available.

“We were surprised by a couple of kids that we got where we got them,” he said.

McFaul credited the organization’s scouting staff for laying the groundwork over the last year.

“Our guys are very thorough, and they do a good job,” he said. “They really pay attention when they’re there. I thought we did a really good job.”

The Rockets stayed patient through stretches where they didn’t own picks in consecutive rounds. McFaul joked that the group spent those moments hoping their targets wouldn’t disappear before Kelowna was back on the clock.

“Hopefully, there are players left,” he laughed.

The organization selected several centres, though McFaul said that wasn’t by design.

“We just took the best player available,” he said. “Every time we looked, we’d say, ‘Oh boy, this guy’s still there.’”

Among the names McFaul highlighted was forward Cole Chudyk, a smaller player with offensive ability who played alongside Daneault at the Alberta Cup.

“He can really score,” McFaul said. “They fit together very well.”

McFaul was also excited about big Prince Albert defenceman Luke Trann.

“He developed so much this year,” McFaul said. “At the end of the year, he was one of the best guys in Saskatchewan.”

Then there was local product Cohen Short from OHA Penticton, selected in the sixth round.

For Kelowna fans, seeing a local player drafted always carries extra intrigue.

“We saw him a lot all year,” McFaul said. “Captain of his team, plays hard, big, strong kid. Just all the quality things we look for in a player.”

The Rockets also dipped into the American talent pool, selecting a defenceman out of Minnesota and a goaltender from California.

McFaul said the Minnesota blueliner, Zachary Martin, came highly recommended through one of the club’s U.S. scouts.

“He’s rated very high down there,” McFaul said. “We thought we’d take a shot at him and see if we can get him here.”

As for the California goalie, the Rockets had been tracking him closely throughout the season.

“We saw him play quite a bit,” McFaul said of Huntington Beach’s Jacob Fleming

One thing McFaul and assistant general manager Curtis Hamilton did manage to keep quiet was their draft board.

Even with endless speculation around the first overall selection, McFaul said very few people knew what the Rockets planned to do.

“The only people who knew who we were taking were Curtis and me,” he said.

Now comes the next big question surrounding Daneault….how quickly will he arrive in the WHL?

McFaul believes the young forward is talented enough to challenge for games immediately, but stressed the organization will not rush the process.

“It’ll speak for itself once he gets here and we see how he fits,” McFaul said. “We don’t want to hurt this guy by rushing him too early.”

He pointed to former Rocket Nick Merkley as an example of a player who forced the organization’s hand.

“We didn’t think he’d be able to stay and play at 16,” McFaul recalled. “Once he got here and got on the ice, we couldn’t get him off.”

McFaul believes Daneault may eventually do the same thing.

For now, though, the draft is complete, the scouting meetings are over, and the Rockets head toward a Memorial Cup year with renewed excitement about the future.

McFaul and the scouting staff will return to Kelowna later this month for the Memorial Cup festivities, something he called a reward for the work everyone has put in.

“All the boys are coming,” he said. “It’ll be good.”

And after landing a player McFaul describes as a franchise cornerstone, there’s a growing feeling the Rockets may have found the perfect piece at the perfect time.