Back From The Draft
Gregory P Korbut
fascinating watching these deals and non-deals go down, instead of hearing
about it later or seeing it on the transaction list of my local paper. Here's
some of what was picked up (maybe) with the handy binoculars:
Before the draft started, and even afterwards, Bobby Clarke was all over the
place, basically just going down the line from table to table and shopping
people. He and Gerry Meehan had a couple of lengthy chats, but eventually
Clarke made the deals for Todd Elik and Craig Ludwig.
I was almost sure at one point before the draft that a Dave Andreychuk - Gary
Suter deal would happen, judging from the amount of conferencing between
Buffalo and Calgary. It may yet happen, but Buffalo's acquisition of Phillipe
Boucher may cause them to back off from paying an excessively high price for
the offense-minded defenseman.
I was pretty sure that another Buffalo-Winnipeg deal was going down. There was
a very long conversation between Meehan and Sam O'Neill's evil twin from the
Jets (I forgot the name), after which the Jet management type held a long
conference with his cohorts, followed by a visit from Lou Franceschetti. The
rumor was that Franceschetti and Scott Arniel would be involved, but nothing
has happened yet.
There was another point where it looked like Keenan might be shopping someone
to the Sabres, either Doug Wilson or maybe even (gasp) Trent Yawney. The
guessing here is that Keenan still asks too much in return on most of his
trades (although sometimes it works, like the Savard deal).
The Nordiques bogged the draft down at their consecutive 2nd-round picks (24th
and 25th overall) pick by taking 3(!) 5 minute time-outs while conferring with
officials of the Washington Capitals, before sending the 25th pick to the Caps
for Mikhail Tatarinov. Something tells me that this isn't the whole deal, and
before it's all said and done, Dale Hunter will again be a Nordique. You just
don't confer that long to pick up a fifth or sixth defenseman (although with
Quebec, that translates to a #2 or #3 defenseman).
A few picks who really plummetted included Boucher (#13 - Buffalo), defenseman
Brent Bilodeau (#17 - Montreal), center Jeff Nelson (#36 - Washington),
defenseman Darcy Werenka (#37 - Rangers), and center Nelson Lafayette (#65 -
St. Louis). Players who plummetted right out of the first three rounds
include left winger Shayne Antoski, right wing Dennis Purdie, and goalie Mike
Torchia.
Surprises (read: reaches) were the picking of wing Peter Forsburg #6 overall
by Philly, Soviet Alexei Kovalev going to the Rangers #15, and wing Ray Whitney
joining Pat Falloon in San Jose on the 23rd pick. Lesser surprises were wing
Alex Stojanov being tabbed #7 by Vancouver, Zikmund Palffy of Czechoslovakia
being claimed #26 by the Isles, and Soviet Sindis Ozolnich becoming a Shark on
pick #30. By the late second round, all kinds of unfamiliar names were being
sent to the podium, as quite a few teams reached for players they felt could
develop into NHL stars in the future. I really don't have room to list 'em
all, though.
A big part of the draft intrigue was finding out where scoring sensation Yanic
Perreault would end up. It seemed like nobody would use a pick in the first
three rounds to draft a 20-year old, until the Toronto Maple Leafs picked him
in the third round, 47th overall. He was Toronto's first pick in the draft,
and frankly, they need all the immediate help they can get.
There was some humor to the draft, most originating from the crowd (heaven help
us all if we have to rely on John Gurtler for yuks). A loud cry of "Boston
Sucks" went up as their table was introduced. One fan yelled, as the Rangers
took a 5-minute time-out, "You've had 51 years, what good's another 5 minutes"
Some Flyers fans near us were yelling constantly at Russ Farwell after the
Forsburg selection. During a quiet moment, someone called from the stands to
"Pick up the phone, Gerry", which Meehan did to scattered applause. As Norm
Green appeared on the floor below our section, the call of "Norm!" brought an
acknowledgement from the Stars' owner.
Scott Bowman was another popular individual, as fans 'appealed' to him to send
Barrasso back to the Sabres for the rights to Jiri Dudacek (inside Buffalo/
Bowman joke). Some Francophones seated next to us were amused by our
description of Yanic Perreault as "the next J.F. Sauve". Winnipeg was greeted
with a cry of "We want Housley back" upon their introduction. Pat Falloon
nearly got a standing ovation just for donning a Sharks sweater on the press
review stand (Lindros refused to don the colors of the Nordiques).
All in all, it was quite an interesting event, except that the rounds seemed
to drag out longer than expected (thanks Pierre Page). I would have liked to
have seen a few more major deals consummated, but perhaps the groundwork was
laid here for the blockbusters of the future. After all, I know who talked to
whom!
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Dr. D (The Devil's Advocate) \\ "So maybe now
v057...@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu \\ The Pope will bow
NHL Draft June 22, Buffalo NY \\____ And kiss my ring
Be there, or don't. \_###) I wanna be king." - C. Cornell
James J. Murawski
>Surprises (read: reaches) were the picking of wing Peter Forsburg #6 overall
>by Philly, Soviet Alexei Kovalev going to the Rangers #15, and wing Ray
Whitney
>joining Pat Falloon in San Jose on the 23rd pick. Lesser surprises were wing
I'm not so surprised by the Sharks' 2nd round pick of Whitney. By
getting Falloon and Whitney in the first two rounds, they've added
a constant to their team - guys who played together last year. When
Whitney (who was said to go anywhere in the first 3 rounds) wasn't taken
in the later stages of the 1st round, I figured the Sharks would take
him with the 1st pick of the 2nd round.
James J. Murawski
Sr. Data Base Analyst
Administrative Systems (412) 268-2650 [office]
Carnegie Mellon University (412) 268-6868 [fax]
4910 Forbes Avenue jj...@ANDREW.CMU.EDU
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