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Chiarelli wasn’t like a lot of GMs who became hands-on during the draft and Gretzky believes in allowing Bob Green and the scouts who are out there watching 200 games a year to follow through to the end and trust their work.

“I have a handle on the players in the first two rounds and Green and his guys have a handle on the entire draft. I think they’re on the right page. I’ll see a little of the guys in the first two rounds again between now and the and I’ll be headed over to Europe as well.”

Gretzky said he’s only interfered on one pick in the past two years, believing it would be worth the wait on six-foot-five American high school prospect, right-hand shooting Michael Kesselring, who had decided to go the college route. Gretzky made him a sixth round selection.

This year, you can bet, they’ll be looking hard at wingers.

One thing that’s happened this season, in which the defense has often looked like a fire drill, particularly while Oscar Klefbom and Andrej Sekera were both out of the lineup, was become an entirely different entity from an organizational point of view while that was happening.

“Defence is the strength of our organization right now. We have a lot of guys coming. They’re not ready yet. But they’re definitely coming,” said Gretzky.

Caleb Jones, William Lagesson, Evan Bouchard, Dmitri Samorukov, Ethan Bear, Joel Persson and Logan Day have so clearly been developing this hockey season that the organization is completely confident that they are all on their way, at one pace or another, to NHL careers.