My Prospect Rant

[discostu]

Right. So this guy was so "safe", that not only did they pass him over repeatedly that year, they and everyone else also completely ignored him for years before. Players that are guaranteed to be NHL'ers don't just remain available for years, which is how they become "older picks".

This is *clearly* a guy who was seen as having limited upside, and/or a late bloomer.

I haven't followed this whole thread, so I'm not sure of the entire context, but I was the one that did find the original link, which I'll try reposting:

http://groups.google.ca/groups?q="P...=en&lr=&[email protected]&rnum=1

Hopefully it works now.

It's a google groups post, but it does seem to confirm the article that trentmcleary and myself remember reading once upon a time.

The Sens apparently had him ranked very high, and he was high on some lists. The reason the Sens passed on him repeatedly, from what I remember, and from the dug up google post, is that in the early rounds (1st and 2nd) they were still going after guys that they had ranked higher. By the mid-rounds (3rd-5th or so) they were going after positional players (looking to draft D-men, goalies and role players). After that point, they thought there was an error with their records, and assumed that he was drafted, until they realized differently in the 9th round.

I don't doubt too much that this is what happened from the Sens perspective. They were highly unorganized in their first few years, and something like this could have happened. However, despite what appear to be his high prospect status at the time, there were likely a number of teams that were not convinced he was going to be anything special, and likely passed on him for that reason.

Still, I would say that he was more highly regarded than a 9th round pick, and if the Sens management was even slightly better organized, I could have seen him going in the 3rd round.