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Post by nfld77 on Nov 23, 2018 2:59:32 GMT -5
I posted the following message on Facebook while talking to a Leaf fan and a Hab fan..I'll be curious as to see what their response will be tomorrow..But as you read it, you'll notice theres no intention whatsoever to make fun of Price but to wonder HOW do you go from being one of the BEST every season to having the WORST CONTRACT IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE..
Carey Price is currently 36th place among all goaltenders with a 3.17 goals against average. In Save % he sits even worst at 40th with a .895 save percentage... A .910 % is what many consider average.. Last season Price had a terrible season by his own standards, so far this season, his stats as a goaltender are even worse.. Before last year, Carey Price had excellent numbers every season.and was one of the best in the league..I often wonder what happened to him?? How do you go from being one of the best every season to having numbers even worst than most back ups, let alone starters. Being a Bruins fan and after watching Price play throughout his career and being so good, I'm really puzzled as to what's going on with him..I'm certainly not posting to make fun of him or any of the sort as you can easily read..Regardless if I'm a Boston fan or Price plays for the Habs, it dont matter here one bit, not the subject..Everyone who reads my hockey posts, and Terry knows quite well and will back me up, I dont play dirty or make fun of teams or players.. Just as a huge fan of the sport, I would really like to know what's wrong with Price.. Do he have a nagging injury..I doubt it because it would have been fixed during the summer..Is it a mental problem, is there something really bothering him?? If it is, he's had the problem for over a year now. Price's salary is 10.5 million a season for the next EIGHT YEARS,,I thought I would never say the words but right now Carey Price's contract is one if not the worst in the league right now...
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Post by SeaBass on Nov 28, 2018 12:37:04 GMT -5
Snippets of the 31 thoughts article:
18. Hours before Boston’s 4-2 loss in Toronto on Monday, Bruins GM Don Sweeney confirmed he’s looking for help. “Up front, certainly.” he said.
19. Sweeney’s club has been decimated by injuries. Kevan Miller spent the night in a Toronto hospital after being hit in the throat by a puck. It was his fifth game back after being out 13. Torey Krug and John Moore also are back after missing time. Cornerstones Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara remain sidelined — joining Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Urho Vaakanainen.
“We don’t know what our team really looks like,” Sweeney said. “If there’s good news, it’s that some other guys have had to drive the bus…given us an idea of what they can do. (Coaches) Bruce Cassidy and Kevin Dean were part of our development plan, so they knew what we had.”
Who has impressed you? “(Jeremy) Lauzon. Small sample size, but he’s done well. Matt Grzelcyk. He’s come a long way…earned a higher profile, played almost 25 minutes (last Friday against Pittsburgh). Joakim Nordstrom, he’s our Swiss Army Knife up front.”
20. One of the things I asked Sweeney is if he ever worries that Bergeron’s body will give out. He’s going right to the Hall of Fame, but you wonder if it’s sooner rather than later because the 33-year-old’s been through some traumatic injuries.
“I don’t want to make it sound like I’m downplaying anything, but I don’t worry as much because it’s not concussion-related,” the GM answered. “If anything, sometimes we have to make him wait, because Patrice tries so hard to get back. He’s wired differently…all about winning, everything he does, you name it. It’s all about winning.”
21. Boston does one thing differently than any other visitor to Toronto. When Chara is playing, he gets a goaltender-sized stall; a little honour for him. Tuukka Rask gets the second, while his backup combines two regular-sized ones. With the captain out of action, Rask was in his regular spot (although not the evening’s starter) and Jaroslav Halak got the double. I was surprised they didn’t go the regular route, but the Bruins stayed consistent, awarding the unique perk to 877-game veteran David Backes. Neat detail.
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Post by SeaBass on Nov 29, 2018 7:24:00 GMT -5
If you’ve been on Twitter for a decade or so like I have, you’ve seen roughly five or maybe even six good tweets. The all-time best hockey tweet, we can all agree, is this one. But not far behind is this beauty from the 2015 entry draft, which still resurfaces from time to time:
The Bruins held three straight picks in the first round that year, and they could indeed have used those picks to nab Mathew Barzal and Kyle Connor. (And, uh, Oliver Kylington, but let’s skip that part.) Instead, they picked Jakub Zboril, Jake Debrusk and Zachary Senyshyn. Let’s be charitable and say they went 1-for-3.
If you’re a Boston fan, you may be haunted by visions of Barzal and Connor slotted into today’s Bruins lineup, and thoughts of what might have been. But that’s hardly unusual. In fact, every team has had a draft like the 2015 Bruins, where you wish you could go back and will your team to make different picks.
So today, let’s do that. We’re all scouting geniuses with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, so let’s pretend we’re time traveling hockey fans from the year 2018 who can go back and visit the draft table of each NHL team for one year and convince the GM to change three picks. Which year would you go back to for your favorite team? Or put differently, how painful was your team’s worst missed opportunity?
Two important ground rules here, and I’m even going to break out the bolded text to make sure everyone sees them before they go yell at me in the comments. (They will not.)
– We can only convince teams to take guys who are going to be chosen relatively close to that team’s actual pick. Otherwise, there’s not much fun here – every team wishes they’d taken Dominik Hasek in 1983 or Pavel Datsyuk in 1998, but reading that 30 times wouldn’t be all that interesting. So let’s pretend that no GM is going to listen to a time traveler telling him to reach too far, which we’ll define as more than five picks in the top 10, or more than 10 picks anywhere else.
– In a further attempt to avoid going overboard on the Datsyuk-type picks, only one team can change their pick to any given player. In other words, no player can be redrafted more than once. And to ratchet up the pain, we’ll give first dibs to whichever team was closest to where that guy was ultimately picked.
With those caveats in mind, let’s find the most painful draft possible for all 30 teams that have been around long enough to know they screwed up. (Sorry, Vegas, you’ll have to sit this one out. Check back in a few years.) For teams that have relocated, we’ll count the previous version too, since some of those players would have made the move to the new market.
This is going to get long, so we recommend CTRL+F’ing your favorite team, crying for a little bit, and then circling back to point and laugh at everyone else. Let’s do this.
Anaheim Ducks: 2007 They could have had: #22 Max Pacioretty, #43 P.K. Subban and #129 Jamie Benn
Instead they picked: #19 Logan MacMillan, #42 Eric Tangradi and #121 Mattias Modig
The Ducks are a nice place to start – thank you, alphabetical order! – because they do a good job of demonstrating the concept we’re going for here. Three all-stars, including an Art Ross and a Norris winner, there for the taking. Instead, the Ducks grabbed two forwards who combined for a total of five NHL goals and a goaltender who never made the NHL. Was the entire Ducks’ front office drunk in 2007? [Remembers how that year’s playoffs went.] Yeah, they were probably drunk.
Arizona Coyotes: 2015 They could have had: #4 Mitch Marner, #35 Sebastian Aho and #37 Brandon Carlo
Instead they picked: #3 Dylan Strome, #30 Nick Merkley and #32 Christian Fischer
It’s a little ironic that it only takes us two teams to get to the 2015 draft that inspired this post. And for extra fun, we’re even stealing one of Boston’s picks in the process.
It’s admittedly a little risky to go back just three years, since 2015 is recent enough that we can’t say for sure how the draft will turn out. Maybe Strome reaches his potential in Chicago, Merkley still makes it and Fischer goes from solid young depth to difference maker. But for right now, the Coyotes with Aho, Carlo and Marner – or Ivan Provorov or Zach Werenski for that matter – would look pretty scary.
Boston Bruins: 1981 They could have had: #15 Al MacInnis, #40 Chris Chelios and #107 Gerard Gallant
Instead they picked: #14 Normand Leveille, #35 Luc Dufour and #98 Joe Mantione
It’s tempting to stay true to the source material and just go with 2015 for the Bruins, maybe swapping in somebody like Thomas Chabot or Brock Boeser for Kylington. But while Barzal and friends are very good young players, they’ve got a long way to go to be first-ballot Hall of Famers like Chelios and MacInnis.
Gallant is the third wheel here, and you could go with somebody like Tom Kurvers or Greg Stefan instead if you wanted, but the key point is that the Bruins could have built their 1980s blueline around Chelios, MacInnis and Ray Bourque. (And if you want to argue that already having Bourque means they wouldn’t have bothered drafting defensemen, remember that they spent the first overall pick in 1982 on Gord Kluzak.)
Buffalo Sabres: 1977 They could have had: #15 Mike Bossy, #33 John Tonelli and #73 Jim Korn
Instead they picked: #14 Ric Seiling, #32 Ron Areshenkoff and #68 Bill Stewart
It’s the context that makes this one sting. Back in 1977, the Sabres and Islanders were both recent expansion teams that had already built contenders. The Sabres had put up three straight 100-point seasons, while the Islanders had just had their second. Both teams felt like they were on the verge of a breakthrough, as if they were just a player or two away from something special. Then the Sabres let Bossy and Tonelli slip through their fingers in favor of two guys who played the same positions, and the final pieces of an eventual Islanders dynasty fell into place.
Korn’s basically an afterthought here; the real question is whether flipping these picks means the Sabres and Islanders flip 1980s destinies too.
Calgary Flames: 1990 They could have had: #19 Keith Tkachuk, #34 Doug Weight and #85 Sergei Zubov
Instead they picked: #11 Trevor Kidd, #32 Vesa Viitakoski and #83 Paul Kruse
For reasons I can’t quite figure out, the Flames are one of the hardest team to find a really regrettable draft for. It’s not that they don’t make bad picks – everyone does – but they seem to spread them out, or at least let a team or two get in between them and their worst misses.
So we’ll cheat just a little by going with 1990 here. The three players they miss are all top-tier stars, and despite having a dozen picks the only real NHLers they found were Kruse and Kidd. But as Flames fans know, this draft lives in infamy because the Flames traded up with New Jersey from #20 to #11 to get Kidd, only to see the Devils use that #20 pick on the draft’s second highest-rated goaltender … Martin Brodeur. Whoops. Even on the draft floor, sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.
Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers: 1989 They could have had: #53 Nicklas Lidstrom, #74 Sergei Fedorov and #221 Vladimir Konstantinov
Instead they picked: #52 Blair Atcheynum, #73 Jim McKenzie and #220 John Battice
This one almost feels unfair, as the Red Wings have quite possibly the greatest draft in the history of the NHL with the Whalers picking right in front of them the whole way along. Hartford even misses out on a 1,000-game man in #116 Dallas Drake in favor of #115 Jerome Bechard. But at least #136 Scott Daniels ended up being a marginally better pick than #137 Scott Zygulski. Eat that, Detroit!
Chicago Blackhawks: 2004 They could have had: #5 Blake Wheeler, #63 David Krejci and #258 Pekka Rinne
Instead they picked: #3 Cam Barker, #54 Jakub Sindel and #256 Matthew Ford
Chicago fans probably aren’t surprised to see the Cam Barker pick show up here in some form. Missing on Krejci and Rinne hurts too, as does passing up guys like Ryan Callahan and Andrej Sekera. The good news is that the Hawks did find some important depth pieces for their future dynasty in Dave Bolland and Bryan Bickell. But as for the franchise-defining draft finds, those would have to wait a couple of years.
Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques: 1988 They could have had: #8 Jeremy Roenick, #10 Teemu Selanne and either #67 Mark Recchi or #70 Rob Blake
Instead they picked: #3 Curtis Leschyshyn, #5 Daniel Dore and #66 Darren Kimble
The Nordiques whiffed so badly that I have to put Alexander Mogilny in the honorable mentions. He went with the 89th pick, two spots after the Nordiques took Stephane Venne.
The league felt so sorry for Quebec after this draft that they let them have the first overall pick in each of the next three years.
Columbus Blue Jackets: 2014 They could have had: #25 David Pastrnak, #79 Brayden Point and #205 Ondrej Kase
Instead they picked: #16 Sonny Milano, #76 Elvis Merzlikins (and #77 Blake Siebenaler) and #197 Olivier Leblanc
Given the Blue Jackets’ uninspiring first decade in the league, you might think we’d find their nightmare draft earlier. But we’ll go with 2014, if only because Pastrnak would sure look nice as part of the current Cup contender. If you’re not sold on Kase, they could have also had #112 Victor Arvidsson instead of #107 Julien Pelletier.
Dallas Stars/Minnesota North Stars: 1983 They could have had: #4 Steve Yzerman, #121 Rick Tocchet and #199 Dominik Hasek
Instead they picked: #1 Brian Lawton, #116 Tom McComb and #196 Milos Riha
Woof. Lawton is one of the biggest busts to ever go first overall, and the Yzerman miss is especially painful since they could have also gone with Pat LaFontaine, who went third. In addition to a six-time Vezina winner, they also missed out on guys like Esa Tikkanen, Peter Zezel, Marc Bergevin, Garry Galley and Viacheslav Fetisov in favor of Brian Durand, Malcom Parks, Mitch Messier, Rich Geist and Sean Toomey, who combined to play 21 games. Oh, and the could have protected Yzerman with Bob Probert (#46) instead of taking Frank Musil (#38).
Detroit Red Wings: 1987 They could have had: #15 Joe Sakic, #33 John LeClair and #166 Theo Fleury
Instead they picked: #11 Yves Racine, #32 Gord Kruppke and #158 Kevin Scott
In case you’re keeping track, that’s 1,486 career goals passed up, in favor of … 37. They also could have had Mathieu Schneider, who went at #44, but took Bob Wilkie at #41 instead.
This really has to rank as one of the worst drafts ever. Even putting side the stars they missed, the Wings had 13 picks and only got three guys who played in the NHL at all, with only Racine lasting more than 23 games. And you know what? Good. The Red Wings have stolen Hall of Famers in the mid and late rounds of so many other drafts, it’s nice to know they faceplanted in at least one.
Edmonton Oilers: 1990 They could have had: #20 Martin Brodeur, #40 Mikael Renberg and #123 Craig Conroy
Instead they picked: #17 Scott Allison, #38 Alexander Legault and #122 Keijo Sailynoja
Edmonton fans know this draft well; it’s the one where the Oilers made history by using 11 picks and not landing a single player who so much as played an NHL game. That should be nearly impossible, but the Oilers pulled it off. Luckily it only cost them a Calder finalist, a 1,000-game NHLer and arguably the greatest goaltender of all time.
Florida Panthers: 1995 They could have had: #11 Jarome Iginla, #91 Marc Savard and #116 Miikka Kiprusoff
Instead they picked: #10 Radek Dvorak, #88 Daniel Tjarnqvist and #114 Francois Cloutier
Iginla is the big miss here, even though Dvorak wasn’t a bad player. Iginla and Kiprusoff would end up forming the backbone of the Flames years later, although neither was actually drafted by Calgary. Meanwhile, the Panthers did manage to find Peter Worrell and Filip Kuba in the later rounds, so the 1995 draft wasn’t all bad, even though they left a Hall of Famer on the table.
Los Angeles Kings: 2008 They could have had: #15 Erik Karlsson, #38 Roman Josi and #93 Braden Holtby
Instead they picked: #13 Colton Teubert, #32 Slava Voynov and #88 Geordie Wudrick
This is a bit of a weird one, since the Kings’ 2008 draft started off great – they picked franchise cornerstone Drew Doughty second overall, and we obviously aren’t going to touch that pick. But they left a ton of value on the table the rest of the way, including taking fellow defenseman Teubert over Karlsson and missing out on a chance to form one of the greatest blueline combos ever. The Kings had six picks in the first three rounds and used four of them on blueliners, but future Norris contenders Karlsson and Josi eluded them.
Minnesota Wild: 2005 They could have had: #5 Carey Price, #62 Kris Letang and #72 Jonathan Quick
Instead they picked: #4 Benoit Pouliot, #57 Matt Kassian and #65 Kristofer Westblom
If you build a contender from the net out, this would have been a solid start in Minnesota. Instead, they took two NHL depth guys and a goalie who never made the big leagues.
By the way, this seems odd: While Pouliot is widely seen as a bust, his 130 career goals makes him the most productive scorer the Wild have drafted in the last 15 years. Does that make Wild fans feel better or worse? I’m guessing worse.
Montreal Canadiens: 2006 They could have had: #22 Claude Giroux, #50 Milan Lucic and #71 Brad Marchand
Instead they picked: #20 David Fischer, #49 Ben Maxwell and #66 Ryan White
It’s hard to figure which would have been better for Montreal fans: adding a QMJHL star who once won the Guy Lafleur Trophy, or preemptively dismantling the heart of a future Bruins’ championship. Luckily we don’t have to choose, because the Canadiens passed on both options to pick three players who combined to score five goals in Montreal.
Nashville Predators: 2010 They could have had: #26 Evgeny Kuznetsov, #131 John Klingberg and #178 Mark Stone
Instead they picked: #18 Austin Watson, #126 Patrick Cehlin and #168 Anthony Bitetto
The Predators have been a reasonably strong team at drafting and developing for most of their history, which makes it a bit of a challenge to find a truly regrettable draft. But this one qualifies, as the Preds miss out on three all-stars even as they still find two guys who are at least contributing at the NHL level.
New Jersey Devils: 1984 They could have had: #51 Patrick Roy, #117 Brett Hull and #171 Luc Robitaille
Instead they picked: #44 Neil Davey, #107 Kirk McLean and #170 Mike Roth
More than a few teams will kick themselves over the 1984 draft, and at least the Devils did OK with the McLean pick. They also got Kirk “You Know” Muller with the second overall pick, and useful players like Paul Ysebaert and Mike Peluso later on. On the other hand, they also took Craig Billington and Ian Ferguson and over Stephane Richer and Cliff Ronning.
But what really puts this one over the edge was when you remember that this was also the year that the Penguins out-tanked the Devils for the No. 1 overall pick. That was, of course, Mario Lemieux. That means that there were four slam-dunk Hall of Famers available in this draft, and the Devils had a realistic shot at each and every one of them … but came away with Kirk McLean instead.
New York Islanders: 2011 They could have had: #7 Mark Scheifele, #58 Nikita Kucherov and #104 Johnny Gaudreau
Instead they picked: #5 Ryan Strome, #50 Johan Sundstrom and #95 Robbie Russo
Admit it, you were expecting the Islanders to clock in with a Mike Milbury draft. Instead we only have to go back to 2011, as three 80-plus point forwards slip through their grasp. And it doesn’t stop there; they could also have picked #39 John Gibson and #64 Vincent Trocheck instead of #34 Scott Mayfield and #63 Andrey Pedan.
New York Rangers: 2003 They could have had: #19 Ryan Getzlaf, #52 Corey Crawford and #245 Dustin Byfuglien
Instead they picked: #12 Hugh Jessiman, #50 Ivan Baranka and #243 Jan Marek
Every Rangers fan who saw this list probably figured that the Hugh Jessiman draft would show up. That pick has become infamous, as the Rangers blew a top-12 choice in the most loaded draft ever on a guy who only played two games.
And sure, that was bad – in addition to Getzlaf, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise and Brent Burns went in the next few picks after Jessiman. But even putting the Jessiman whiff aside, the Rangers didn’t get much of anything in this draft despite holding 10 picks. The best player they found was Nigel Dawes in the fifth, and their top three picks combined to play three NHL games.
Ottawa Senators: 2012 They could have had: #20 Andrei Vasilevskiy, #78 Shayne Gostisbehere and #86 Colton Parayko
Instead they picked: #15 Cody Ceci, #76 Chris Driedger and #82 Jarrod Maidens
It was tempting to stick the Senators with the 1993 draft based solely on passing up Chris Pronger in favor of Alexandre “Nobody Remembers No. 2” Daigle. But at the risk of incurring the wrath of that segment of the Ottawa fan base that still insists Ceci is an elite talent, let’s go with 2012, as the Senators miss on two excellent young blueliners and a Vezina finalist. And if you’re not sold on Vasilevskiy as your goalie of the future, they could have waited a few rounds and used the Maidens pick on Matt Murray (#83) or Frederik Andersen (#87).
Philadelphia Flyers: 1990 They could have had: #5 Jaromir Jagr, #45 Slava Kozlov and #156 Peter Bondra
Instead they picked: #4 Mike Ricci, #42 Terran Sandwith (and #44 Kimbi Daniels) and #151 Patrik Englund
The weird thing about this entry is that the Flyers actually had a pretty good 1990 draft. Ricci was a solid player, and they also found decent NHLers like Chris Simon, Mikael Renberg, Chris Therien and Tommy Soderstrom. But it could have been far better, as they left over 1,600 goals on the table from three European wingers.
Pittsburgh Penguins: 1994 They could have had: #51 Patrik Elias, #133 Daniel Alfredsson and #233 Steve Sullivan
Instead they picked: #50 Richard Park, #128 Clint Johnson and #232 Jason Godbout
I mean, it’s not like the mid-90s Penguins really needed a lot of help up front. But missing out on three of the top five scorers in the draft, including two borderline Hall of Fame candidates, leads to a host of “what if” scenarios. At the very least, Elias/Alfredsson/Sullivan could have made for a pretty solid third line on that 1996 Penguins team that forgot how to score against the Panthers in the conference finals.
San Jose Sharks: 2003 They could have had: #7 Ryan Suter, #45 Patrice Bergeron and #49 Shea Weber
Instead they picked: #6 Milan Michalek, #43 Josh Hennessy and #47 Matt Carle
The Sharks were beautifully positioned for the stacked 2003 draft, picking up extra picks in both the first (thanks to the Owen Nolan trade with Toronto) and second. And then they went and did this.
And here’s the thing: It’s even worse. We’re not even using their other first round pick, which saw them take Steve Bernier at #16 instead of Zach Parise (#17) or Ryan Getzlaf (#19) or even future-Shark Brent Burns (#20). And they also could have also had Dustin Byfuglien, but picked Alexander Hult instead. Carle was a decent journeyman, and finding Joe Pavelski in the seventh helps salvage this draft a little, but only a little.
By the way, this was Doug Wilson’s first draft as a GM. Good news, Doug, there’s nowhere to go but up.
St. Louis Blues: 1998 They could have had: #27 Scott Gomez, #162 Andrei Markov and #171 Pavel Datsyuk
Instead they picked: #24 Christian Backman, #157 Brad Voth and #170 Andrei Troschinsky.
You wouldn’t think you could find a worse choice than 1983, when the Blues sat out the entire draft because a dog food company was trying to move them to Saskatoon. (No, really.) And yet, here we are.
Instead, the Blues become the lucky winner of the Pavel Datsyuk sweepstakes, by virtue of having the choice that came directly before the Red Wings lucked into a superstar made one of the greatest picks of all-time. Gomez and Markov round out a nice trio, and they could have also had #44 Mike Fisher or #45 Mike Ribeiro instead of #41 Maxim Linnik, who never made it to the NHL.
Tampa Bay Lightning: 1993 They could have had: #4 Paul Kariya, #35 Jamie Langenbrunner and #111 Miroslav Satan
Instead they picked: #3 Chris Gratton, #29 Tyler Moss and #107 Ryan Brown
Yes, kids, there really was a time when picking 6-foot-3 bangers like Gratton instead of a skilled winger like Kariya made sense. But given that Kariya was coming off a record-setting season that saw him win the Hobey Baker, leaving him on the board was a risk even given the era. In addition to over 1,000 career goals from Kariya, Langenbrunner and Satan, the Lightning also missed out on Eric Daze and Todd Marchant.
Toronto Maple Leafs: 1982 They could have had: #5 Scott Stevens, #119 Ron Hextall and #134 Doug Gilmour
Instead they picked: #3 Gary Nylund, #115 Craig Kales and #129 Dominic Campedelli
The tough task with the Maple Leafs is narrowing the bad drafts down to just one. We’ll go with 1982. Gilmour and Stevens are Hall of Famers, but if you’re not sold on Hextall, could I interest you in some or all of #75 Dave Ellett, #88 Ray Ferraro or even legendary tough guy Dave Brown at #140? Sorry, the Leafs took #73 Vladimir Ruzicka, #87 Eduard Uvira and #139 Jeff Triano instead.
Vancouver Canucks: 1979 They could have had: #8 Ray Bourque, #48 Mark Messier and #69 Glenn Anderson
Instead they picked: #5 Rick Vaive, #47 Ken Ellacott and #68 Art Rutland
Here’s the bad news: By missing on Messier and Anderson, Vancouver indirectly helped build the Oilers’ dynasty that would make the Canucks a Smythe Division afterthought for the next decade. And while Vaive scored 441 career goals, only 13 of those came for Vancouver, so it’s safe to suggest that Bourque would have been an upgrade.
Here’s the worse news: I had a really hard time deciding which draft to use for the Canucks, because they had another one that was almost as painful, if not even worse. In 1990, they could have had Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra and Martin Brodeur. Our rules say that the Flyers beat them to Jagr and Bondra by virtue of being closer to the picks, which means we don’t have to argue over whether Jagr+Brodeur is a better combo than Bourque+Messier, but in theory the Canucks could have landed both. Sleep well, Vancouver fans.
Washington Capitals: 1974 They could have had: #4 Clark Gillies, #22 Bryan Trottier and #39 Charlie Simmer
Instead they picked: #1 Greg Joly, #19 Mike Marson and #37 John Paddock
Here’s another case of the Islanders dynasty dodging a bullet. This time, it’s the expansion Capitals who manage to come up largely empty despite making an NHL record 25 picks. (Yes, 25. You could do that back then, because the 1970s NHL draft was weird.)
Joly was OK and Marson was a historically important pick that more of today’s fans should know about, but the Capitals probably would have been better starting off the franchise with a pair of future Hall of Famers and a two-time 56-goal man. If it’s any consolation, this was hardly the worst moment of that inaugural Caps’ season.
Winnipeg Jets/Atlanta Thrashers: 1999 They could have had: #2 Daniel or #3 Henrik Sedin, #77 Craig Anderson and #138 Ryan Miller
Instead they picked: #1 Patrik Stefan, #68 Zdenek Blatny and #128 Derek MacKenzie
We’ll end with a beginning, as the first draft in Thrashers history turns out to be a big part of why they eventually wind up in Winnipeg. MacKenzie was a decent player, but I think we can all agree that Zdenek Blatny is clearly a made-up name. Meanwhile, Stefan was arguably the biggest first overall bust in NHL draft history, and the Thrashers traded up to get him while a pair of Hall of Famers went second and third. And Miller and Anderson would have made for a decent goaltending combo for a franchise that ended up struggling at the position for the next 17 years or so.
But yeah, this is mainly for the Stefan pick. You had the Sedins right there for the taking, how do you miss that sort of open net tap-in? Oh right, poor choice of words…
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