Colorado Avalanche

The Avs’ philosophy has always been to get the best player available, and they plan on taking that approach with their 18th pick in Saturday’s NHL Draft.

“Even with the new CBA, we haven’t changed our approach or philosophy,” said Jim Hammett, the team’s chief scout. “We’re always looking to build on speed, skill and character. No matter how much the game has changed. Our philosophy we always have had is we always try to pick the best player. ”

The Avs have six picks in the draft, which has been reduced from nine rounds to seven rounds this year. Their first three picks are at No. 18, 51 and 81, and they are one of 11 teams that has a pick in each of the first three rounds.

At 18, the Avs have their highest pick since 2000. In fact, since the team moved to Denver in 1995, only three times have the Avs had a higher draft choice — Vaclav Nedorost in 2000 (14th overall), and Alex Tanguay (12th) and Martin Skoula (17th) in 1998.

“We feel we’re going to be able to draft a good player,” Avs executive vice president and general manager Francois Giguere said. “I think our guys are excited. They’ve been working all year.”

Hammett said his staff has been working year round to compile a list of players and look at players who may be available when the Avs get to pick.

“We’ve been very active since the lockout,” Hammett said. “Starting in summertime, through North America and Europe, we’ve met. We met in January to comprise initial list, and again in April to come up with final list.

“We’ve been through numerous interviews, and we’ve been to the combine. We feel comfortable we’ve come up with our final list.”

The Avs have had success in building their teams in the middle to later rounds. Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk were fifth- and sixth-round picks in 1994, David Aebischer was seventh-round pick in ’97, John-Michael Liles was an eighth-round pick in 2000, and Marek Svatos, who tied for the team lead in goals this past season with 32, was the 227th overall pick in ’01.

Hammett said he thinks the Avs can get good players throughout the draft.

“The draft is deep. We’re very optimistic,” he said. “We feel the draft is going to have some good players in middle to late rounds. We look to continue to build on that.”

Hammett said the general managers, starting with Pierre Lacroix and now Giguere, have trusted his staff to make decisions on potential draft choices.

“We’ve been fortunate that our Gms have let the scouts have the freedom, and I don’t see that changing,” he said. “We’re obviously excited about Saturday. It’s a year’s worth of work into one day.”