Article content continued
“When we made the trade to go back, we realized there was a very good chance that he wouldn’t be there,” Wright said. “We didn’t have a lot of picks and we didn’t have lot of opportunity to recoup some picks. Sometimes you have to get a little bit risky. That doesn’t mean we liked him any less or any more.
“We were trying to get value for our picks, we’re trying to get value for where we make the picks. Sometimes you gamble and you lose and sometimes you win and I think we won on that one.”
Prior to selecting Savoie, the Oilers had a number of excellent options with their first-round pick. Edmonton was speculated to be interested in Portland Winterhawks forward Seth Jarvis, who lit up the Western Hockey League this past season, but he was taken with the previous selection by the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Oilers went on to select Holloway, 19, who also put up impressive offensive numbers in the AJHL before moving on to the University of Wisconsin. The Bragg Creek, Alta., product, whose father, Bruce, played two games for the Vancouver Canucks in the mid-80s and is now a helicopter pilot, is going into his sophomore year at Wisconsin.
“There are a lot of things I like about him,” Wright said. “I think he’s going to tell us when he’s ready to play. His play and his development is going to dictate that for us. Obviously, the sooner the better for us. He’s been on our watch for quite some time for us.
“The head coach in Wisconsin, Tony Granato, worked in Detroit when I was there and I have a relationship with him. The way that we want to look as an organization, we want to be fast, we want to be hard, we want to be physical, we want to be skilled and I think he checks all those boxes.”
