What If Your Team: Draft Edition

[Kirikanoir]

Simply idea, what if your team had drafted differently. What players were still available. What if your team had finished a few points higher or lower. Wide open thread any what ifs involving your team and the draft are welcome.

My team Vancouver, might as well start right at the beginning.

In 1970 Two new expansion teams joined the leagyue for the 1970-71 season. Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres. Therefore the spin of a roulette wheel would determine which team got the 1st overall draft pick. Canucks had numbers 1-10, Sabres 11-20. When the wheel was spun initially it appeared to land on No 1 for the Canucks. But sadly that black cloud of fate that has hung over this franchise would rear its head. On a second look the wheel had stopped at 11 not one so Vancouver would draft second.

That one spin of that cursed roulette wheel would be the difference between drafting Gilbert Perreault instead of Dale Tallon.

And to add insult to injury Reggie Leach, Rick MacLeish, and Darryl Sittler were all drafted in the 1st round after Vancouver picked Dale Tallon.


1970-71 Vancouver`s first season.

Tue, Dec 8, 1970 Vancouver 4 NY Rangers 1
Tue, Feb 16, 1971 Vancouver 5 Boston Bruins 4
Tue, Jan 26, 1971 Vancouver 3 Chicago Black Hawks 3

Boston Bruins 57W-14L-7T-121P
New York Rangers 49W-18L-11T-109P
Chicago Black Hawks 49W-20L-9T-107P
Vancouver Canucks 24W-46L-8T-56P

Astounding, the expansion Canucks managed to win two and tie one against the top three teams in the league that season. Cause for celebration right. Sadly just like the with that roulette wheel it requires a second look.

Vancouver...................56
Detroit Red Wings.........55
California Golden Seals...45

In large part due to those 5 points in games against teams they had no business winning against they managed to finish one point better than the Detroit Red Wings. And their reward, drafting Jocelyn Guevremon while Detroit gets Marcel Dionne.

Click to read more...

 

[tony d]

Here's a what if for Ottawa based on drafts from 1992-2007:

1992: Drafted Alexei Yashin. Would keep him
1993: Drafted Alexandre Daigle. Could have had Chris Pronger
1994: Drafted Radek Bonk. Could have had Patrik Elias
1995: Drafted Bryan Berard. Could have had Jarome Iginla
1996: Drafted Chris Phillips. Could have Zdeno Chara
1997: Drafted Marian Hossa. Smart choice
1998: Drafted Mathieu Chouinard. Could have had Pavel Datsyuk
1999: Drafted Martin Havlat. Good player but they could have had Henrik Zetterberg
2000: Drafted Anton Volchenkov. Could have had Henrik Lundqvist
2001: Drafted Jason Spezza. Smart choice
2002: Drafted Jakub Klepis. Could have had Alex Semin
2003: Drafted Patrick Eaves. Could have had Loui Eriksson
2004: Drafted Andrej Mezaros. Could have had Mike Green
2005: Drafted Brian Lee. Could have had Anze Kopitar
2006: Drafted Nick Foligno. Could have had Milan Lucic
2007: Drafted Jim O'brien. Could have had Wayne Simmonds

 

[ForsbergForever]

For the Habs:

1997: Took Jason Ward instead of Marian Hossa

1998: Took Eric Chouinard instead of Simon Gagne

2003: Took Andrei Kostitsyn instead of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Zach Parise, Jeff Carter or Mike Richards (god what a waste of options!)

2005: Took Carey Price instead of Anze Kopitar (Halak becomes uncontested starter)

 

[McGuillicuddy]

2003: Took Andrei Kostitsyn instead of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Zach Parise, Jeff Carter or Mike Richards

Ouch. Shea Weber too. He sure would have looked good patrolling the Montreal blueline.

 

[jkrx]

The only thing I can think off right now would be if Detroit drafted Chara instead of Jesse Wallin and/or Aren Miller but that's just because of how intriguing it would be with a Chara - Lidström pairing.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

A summary of Blackhawks 15th overall or higher picks 1979-2007...

Note: I only used alternatives that were drafted somewhat close to our player (in other words, I didn't use any 7th rounders that turned out to be great).

2007: Drafted Patrick Kane (Keep him)
2006: Drafted Jonathan Toews (Keep him)
2005: Jack Skille (could have picked Anze Kopitar)
2004: Cam Barker (could have picked Ladd (ended up with him anyway for a short time), Zajac is another option, we were slotted for the 2nd pick which would have been Malkin, but got leap-frogged when Washington won the lottery, at least we got Bolland in the 2nd round)
2003: Brent Seabrook (Keep him if you wanted a defenseman, otherwise could have gotten Parise, Getzlaf, M. Richards, Perry)
2001: Tuomo Ruutu (could have gotten Ales Hemsky)
2000: Drafted Mikhail Yakubov and Pavel Vorobiev back to back (could have had Boyes and Frolov, Kronwall and Orpik if you went for D)
1998: Mark Bell (could have picked Tanguay, Gagne, or Gomez)
1997: Dan Cleary (could have picked Brendan Morrow, sidenote: Marian Hossa was drafted just one pick in front of Cleary)
1994: Ethan Moreau (Keep him)
1992: Sergei Krivokrasov (could have picked Gonchar, or Straka if you wanted a forward)
1989: Adam Bennett (could have picked Bobby Holik)
1988 Jeremy Roenick (Selanne came after him and easily had the better career, but I think I have to say Keep him just because of how beloved he was when he was here)
1987: Jimmy Waite (could have picked Joe Sakic, if you wanted a goalie the best would Jeff Hacket, but he didn't go till mid 2nd round, note: best goalie of the whole draft was probably Guy Hebert who went in the 8th)
1986: Everett Sanipass (could have had Adam Graves)
1985: Dave Manson (probably Keep him if you want D, Calle Johansson also an option)
1984: Ed Olczyk (could have picked Gary Roberts)
1982: Ken Yaremchuk (could have picked Dave Andreychuk, just missed Scott Stevens by two picks and Phily Housley by one)
1981: Tony Tanti (could have picked Al MacInnis, prob Keep him if you wanted a forward)
1980: Denis Savard (Keep him, Coffey an option for D)
1979: Keith Brown (the very next pick was RAY BOURQUE, DOH!)

 

[Derick*]

 

[JackSlater]

I wonder what would have happened if Detroit had drafted Bure, as was rumoured to have nearly happened. Would Detroit have ever hired Bowman and committed to a more defensive minded brand of hockey? Would they have needed to? Would Bure have developed a defensive conscious, and would he lose much of his offensive effectiveness as a result? Would Bure be paired with Fedorov on the Russian unit, and if so what would the chemistry have been like? Would the Red Wings have traded Yzerman if the playoff failures continued until 1997?

I would speculate that Bure would have been content with the Red Wings, as he would have been well paid and would have had a Russian core including a Soviet legend in Fetisov. I would guess that the Red Wings win the Cup in 1994 if they had Bure as they probably are able to beat San Jose (Bure would have annihilated them) and the West was weak that year. The Rangers would have been tough though. They possibly win in 1995 (although they were smoked by the Devils without Bure they may have had a dfferent mentality with him and presumably with more success from the previous season) and have a better shot in 1996 against Colorado. In 1997 and 1998 they wouldn't have Shanahan presumably and their motivation may have waned had they already won some cups, so possibly they lose those championships instead. If the Red Wings don't get smoked by the Devils in 1995 and possibly beat them, perhaps the defensive era that followed wouldn't have been quite as defensive as it ended up being, although the process was already in effect. Players like Datsyuk and Zetterberg may not have emerged if the Red Wings didn't develop their two way philosophy, so the team may have ended up far weaker in the 2000s.