“Captain Crunch” is back on Buffalo radio, making his Morning Bull debut today. We figured it’d be a great chance to chat with one of the fan favorites of the late 90’s teams, on the eve of the NHL Draft right here in downtown Buffalo this weekend.
Michael shares stories of his draft day experience, and the jitters all players go through. “It’s obviously exciting. Most of these kids have been playing high-level hockey for a long time. When you start to see the people that you know go through it you start to get even a little more anxious for it. For me it was pretty cool, it was anywhere in the second half of the first round or the first half of the second round. The 
cool thing was, there was a lot of family there to support me. As you’re going through it, you’re anxious for yourself to get drafted, but you also have these emotional waves when you see teammates, linemates, and other friends get drafted as well.”
On getting picked 40th overall by Vancouver, “I never had any preference. I was just looking forward to getting drafted. As these players go through the interview process with a lot of teams, you start to get a feel for who might be a good fit, and certainly Vancouver was that for me when I was going through the interview process. I met with them a lot, and got to really like Pat Quinn and his scouting staff. I don’t think many players have a preference going in, but you just start to feel a connection with somebody. For the most, these guys are just looking to get their names called.”
On the opportunity presented to the city of Buffalo hosting the draft for the first time since 1998, “It’s pretty special. I remember being here in ’91 for the draft, which was the year before my draft. It was at the Aud and it was pretty neat. But I think what’s has been happening with the Pegulas, and what they’ve been able to generate here as far as hockey excitement is pretty incredible. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement in the youth hockey community, the registration numbers are through the roof in our area. But the national and global recognition with the Combines, and a lot of different things taking place in Buffalo, it’s really neat. Everybody’s been looking for different things to kinda kick start some development downtown, and they’ve done that. And now to use that building for some incredible events has been special.”
For the rest of Morning Bull’s chat with Michael Peca, click below.
