Alberta Oilers Evaluation
I started out with Bobby Orr and with that pick I figured I'd put together the greatest defensive corps ever seen. My second pick with Coffey had me salivating at the prospect of those two playing together. By the time my third pick came, most of the truly elite defenseman were already scooped up and I was sweating not having a forward yet.
The plan after grabbing Perreault was to have the fastest team out there, but by the time my fourth pick came I started to panic a bit not having a goalie selected yet so I grabbed Fuhr. I was still sticking to the plan of having a real fast team until my eight pick when I selected Sittler, not a slouch by any means but not exactly a speedster.
From that point on I pretty much grabbed the best guy available until my 11th pick with O'Reilly. At that point my team was lacking grit after Gainey and I made a point selecting gritty guys after that.
I shake my head a bit because I pretty much always picked guys I've actually seen. I hummed and hawed a bit but the deciding factor most always ended up being guys I've seen. I probably could have put together a better team had I put more weight on the history books.
Strengths:
* Bobby Orr & Paul Coffey, While having Orr and Coffey together would be something else but it would have left my second pairing a little weak. Those two would man the powerplay though. No team as ever has two rushing defenseman of this caliber before so I can't really draw comparisons but I'd bet it would be an awesome sight and hard to defend.
*Flexible, like the Trail Smoke Eaters, I think my team is pretty adaptable, want to skate? I can do that with guys like Perreault, Cournoyer, Kovalchuk or Middleton. Want to play physical? I can do that also with Gainey, Clark and O'Reilly. Get in a shootout? Goulet, Sittler and Broadbent can score in bunches.
*Shutdown line, Gainey, Madden and O'Reilly would be pretty tough to break through. I think they'd be awesome protecting a lead. If only Outsider wouldn't have picked Peca just before me........
Weaknesses:
*Goaltending, hard to imagine Fuhr, Richter and Luongo as a weakness but compared to some in this draft they don't quite stack up.
*Lack of game breaker winger, My team needs a Howe, Richard, Lafleur or Hull on the wing. Not that I think mine are chopped liver but in an all-time draft I'm missing a truly great top 10 all-time winger.
Steals:
Punch Broadbent, 20th round, 332nd Overall - The man lead the league in points and penalty mins in one season and owned a 16 game goal scoring streak record until Gretzky came along.
Yvan Cournoyer, 7th round, 111th Overall - I was pretty surprised one of the fastest guys ever, Conn Smyth winner and 10 time cup winner would fall out of the top 100
Darryl Sittler, 8th round, 128th Overall - I was surprised to see him fall out of top 100 also.
Too Soon:
Paul Coffey, 2nd round, 33rd Overall - He might have fallen but the temptation to have Orr and Coffey was to much.
Terry O'Reilly, 11th round, 179th Overall, A lot of better players went after him, might have dropped a few more rounds but I was looking to toughen up my team at this point.