RALEIGH - Tony MacDonald didn't change much about the way the Carolina Hurricanes' amateur scouts go about their business when he took over the department last summer.

He had spent 13 years as Sheldon Ferguson's chief deputy, so his promotion to director of amateur scouting was an endorsement of the status quo.

What's changed is the man making the call. Where Ferguson was likely to answer a question before it was completely asked, MacDonald will clear his throat and take all due consideration before responding.

"Night and day," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. "Sheldon is more emotional, probably more aggressive, excitable. Tony is more laid back. It's why they worked so well together."

Still, though MacDonald's personality may differ from his predecessor, his methods do not. So when the Hurricanes pick 14th overall tonight in Ottawa and make five picks in the later rounds Saturday, the past performance may be an indicator of future results.

Under Ferguson, the Canes selected 29 OHL players, 27 NCAA or college-bound players, 21 WHL players, 17 Europeans and eight players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

As always, expect a predilection for picking players from the OHL's Plymouth Whalers, the junior team owned by Canes owner Peter Karmanos. The Canes have drafted 12 players from Karmanos' junior teams since he bought the then-Hartford Whalers in 1994.

"We've pretty much stayed with the same format and structure that we've used in the past," MacDonald said. "The way we've looked at the season and the scouting assignments has been virtually the same. It's a system that has worked well for us."

Still, for MacDonald, being in charge is a change, at least at the NHL level. At 61, he's a veteran of decades on the scouting scene who tonight will make the call on an NHL first-round pick for the first time.

A year ago, as the Hurricanes prepared for the draft, MacDonald had reconciled himself to his role as chief deputy on one of the NHL's smallest scouting staffs.

A week later, Ferguson left the team -- he accepted an offer to become general manager of the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL, only to back out a few days later -- and MacDonald found himself in charge for the first time in the NHL.

"It was something that always intrigued me and interested me because it was something I had done at the junior level," MacDonald said. "It's always a little more exciting to have the additional responsibility of directing the scouting department and making that decision.

"It's safe to say I had sort of accepted the fact I was working closely with Sheldon, and that was quite satisfactory and I was quite happy with that."

MacDonald, who works out of Guelph, Ontario, had a long resume of work with various junior teams long before he made the jump to the NHL. Five of the teams he worked for made it to the Memorial Cup, Canada's junior championship. He won twice, most recently with Kitchener in 1982.

He was working for Windsor in 1984 when Karmanos bought the team and has been in and out of Karmanos' hockey umbrella ever since. He joined the Whalers in 1995 after stints with the Los Angeles Kings and CIPRO, an ill-fated attempt by four NHL teams to merge their scouting staffs.

"I always thought that you never had to worry about Tony taking shortcuts," said Hurricanes pro scouting director Marshall Johnston, who hired MacDonald for the CIPRO combine. "You don't want a 'yes' guy. You want a guy that tells you what he sees."

After all the long years on the road, MacDonald will be in charge tonight. Though Rutherford will make the final decision, it's basically MacDonald's call -- a decision a long time in coming.

"It's a tough grind," MacDonald said. "Like all jobs, there are a lot of positives, but there is a lot of tedious long hours and research and grinding it out on the road and time by yourself and away from your family.

"But it's a job that if you like it, and you have a passion for it and a passion for the game, it's not really work."