Draft Day Memories: Brandon Montour

The mix of emotions a player goes through during the NHL Draft have been well-documented over the years.
Look no further than Ducks prospect Antoine Morand, one of two players the club selected in the second round last year. Tears flowed down his face. The emotion was real. The dream became a reality. His best friend, left wing Max Comtois, had been chosen by Anaheim 10 picks earlier.
On the flip side, Cam Fowler's face during the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft said it all. Expected by many to be taken within the top five, Fowler's demeanor changed when someone else's name was called with every passing pick. He would fall no lower than 12th, however, when the Ducks snatched him up, and he has gone on to become a cornerstone for this franchise.
As the 2018 edition nears, we asked a handful of Ducks to recall their experiences at the draft and the days leading up to it. Their recollections will be part of a feature series leading up to this year's draft on June 22-23 in Dallas.

We begin with defenseman Brandon Montour, chosen by Anaheim in the second round (55th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. His path to the draft was unusual and somewhat remarkable. Montour was 20 years old at the time, in his final year of eligibility for the draft. Before he made the jump to the United States Hockey League, Montour was flying under the radar playing Junior B-level hockey in the Greater Ontario Hockey League.
"People came to watch, but there were rarely any scouts," Montour recalls of his time in the GOHL. "There were zero NHL scouts."
It appeared the easy-going and humble Brantford, Ontario native was set on furthering his hockey career by playing Tier II somewhere in Alberta when he got a call notifying him he was selected by the Waterloo Black Hawks in the 18th round (267th overall) of the 2013 USHL Draft.
It wasn't until he began playing for Waterloo when things started to change.
"Once I went to the USHL when I was 19, that's when it started to pick up," he says. "That was my last year of eligibility in the USHL. That's where I kind of took off. People were actually watching me play. That's where it kind of started."

Montour took the USHL by storm in his first year. He posted 62 points (14g/48a) with a +35 rating in 60 games with the Black Hawks and was named the USHL's Player of the Year and Defenseman of the Year after leading all USHL blueliners and ranking ninth overall in scoring. According to the USHL, it was the most points by a defenseman in the USHL Tier 1 era (2002-present), surpassing the 60 points (13g/47a) by Colby Cohen of the Lincoln Stars in 2006-07, and five points shy of the all-time mark of 67 points scored by Mike Ross of the Rochester Mustangs in the 1986-87 season. A First Team All-Star, Montour helped Waterloo to the top record in the regular season and led the league in postseason scoring with 16 points (6g/10a) in 12 Clark Cup Playoff games.
He garnered interest from NHL clubs throughout the season, including Anaheim. "I talked to a number of teams, but there were a handful of teams that talked to me a lot more," Montour says. "You never know going into the draft what was going to happen, but I talked to the Ducks quite a bit throughout the year. I knew there was some interest. I had some good relationships with the guys that came to watch me at Waterloo."
As the draft drew closer, the interviews became more frequent. Montour says there might have been five teams he didn't meet with. "There were a lot of teams I talked to, but there were a lot I only talked to once or twice," he says. "I think I saw Anaheim six or seven times, so I knew there was interest. I'd have one meeting with a scout one time, and then he'd come back with another guy. I met a number of guys at the NHL Draft Combine. The whole crew was there."
Since Montour was older than most of the draft-eligible players that year, he figured most of them, at least the ones ranked high, would get taken first. Montour ranked 92nd among North American skaters in Central Scouting's final rankings. Nevertheless, he said it didn't really matter what round (or pick) he was chosen with. He just wanted to hear his name called.
"If a team likes you and thinks you're able to play, if you're on the board, they take you," Montour says. "I think I was ranging from the second round to the fourth or fifth round. You never knew, but I knew I was going to get drafted."
Montour says he attended Day 1 of the draft at the request of his agent. The first day features the first round (top-30 picks at the time), while the second (and final) day encompasses Rounds 2-7. He was training in Boston near UMass Amherst (the college he would go on to attend) at the time, so he made the 5-6 hour drive to Philadelphia and met up with his parents and his agent.
"He wanted me to go because he knew I was going to get drafted," Montour says.
When Day 2 came around, Montour was ready. "The nerves didn't really kick in," he says. "I was just taking it all in."

He says it wasn't until around pick No. 50 when he had a feeling something might happen. He remembers there being five or six teams he thought had interest. "I talked to them a lot," he recalls. "My agent knew that and said, 'You never know what could happen here.'"
Around that time, someone on the draft floor caught his attention. The nerves started setting in.
"I forgot who it was, but one of the scouts with Anaheim gave me a thumbs up," Montour says with a laugh. "He found me in the crowd. I wasn't too far. He was kind of waving. I glanced over and he was smiling and giving me a thumbs up. So I thought, 'Let's wait and see.' I was kind of shaken a little bit."
After hearing his name, Montour knew it was real. "The nerves and excitement hit me right then," he says. "I went down and met everybody, and then did media and pictures. Met up with my parents again and we went up to the suite to meet the owners and a couple other players that were drafted."
Following the draft, Martin Madden, Anaheim's director of professional/amateur scouting, had this to say about Montour. "He's an interesting story. He was playing with his junior team last year, and he played as much forward as he did defense. Then he moved to the USHL and he just blew that league wide open from the defense in terms of his offense. Knowing we didn't have a third or a fourth [round pick], we felt comfortable swinging hard for that pick and going for that homerun-type of selection with him."
Since then, Montour quickly climbed the ranks. He earned 20 points (3g/17a) in 21 games with UMass Amherst before stints in Norfolk (Anaheim's previous AHL affiliate) and San Diego.
Montour recently completed his second season with the Ducks, collecting 32 points (9g/23a) with a +16 rating in 80 games. He co-led NHL defensemen with five game-winning goals, which matched a single-season team record by a blueliner, and finished second among Ducks defensemen in goals and tied for second in points.