Class Act

Oren Koules is the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and after his actions at the most recent NHL Entry Draft he is now in my good books forever.

With the 203^rd pick in the draft the Tampa Bay Lightning, on the specific orders of Koules, picked David Carle of Shattuk-Saint Mary’s School. David is the younger brother of current NHLer Matt Carle of the San Jose Sharks and was considered to be a 2^nd round pick. However only weeks before the draft David was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart that can cause a sudden heart attack and death especially in athletes. The disease was actually only discovered at the NHL combine which was held earlier in the month requires each player to take a physical.

"It was a selection made by our new owner, Oren Koules," said Jay Feaster, the Lightning GM. "He did some discussions with some people, but he came and asked us if we would make that pick. He said the young man worked his whole life to be in a position to be drafted today. He wanted us to make the pick and that's why we did it."

That right there is pure class. It is one man realizing that someone has worked their whole life to try and achieve that dream and then something out of their control comes along and that dream gets shelved. Koules wasn’t about to let that happen to Carle and he went out of his way to make the selection. That is a sign of an exceptional human being.

Many people would argue that the pick is irrelevant and that 7^th round pick is useless anyways. But try telling that to the Detroit Red Wings and Henrik Zetterberg who they drafted 210^th overall in 1999. The fact that it was the 7^th round is arbitrary the point remains that Koules saw an injustice and used his authority to do something about it. A big thumbs up goes out to Koules and the entire organization down there in Tampa Bay.