Vlad The Impaler
Registered User
Epsilon said:
They are at most a couple months older, I think. I know Lecavalier is an 80 birthdate for sure.
If we are talking about outscoring both, I think that probably leaves 4-5 players at most.
1999 the year of the bust
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They are at most a couple months older, I think. I know Lecavalier is an 80 birthdate for sure.
If we are talking about outscoring both, I think that probably leaves 4-5 players at most.
Vlad The Impaler
Registered User
My first thought regarding 1999:
For a while now, my thinking is that the draft is themost *disappointing* ever. But it's not really all that bad. I can't see guys like the Sedins or Saprykin as busts.
Am I high on guys like Beech at this point? No. But I wouldn't write such players completely yet. At all. He had some great tools but some flaws too, and hasn't developed. Could happen. Same with Shvidki and some others. None of them are likely to be superstars but there's a chance for them to contribute in the future. Brendl is the classic case of the unidimensional headcase but there is still a faint hope.
I really liked the Sedins at first but they just kept on being one-trick pony. Crawford hasn't helped them much get past that stage. A bright coach would have eased them more efficiently and made them a bit more effective.
Jillson and Tanabe are fantastic athletes but they are also some of the dumbest Ds around. Experience will help alleviate this somewhat. Jillson could be a Bertuzzi-like D, a late bloomer type. That being said, you're much better off being a forward if you don't read the plays so that's left in the air.
Bad luck on Cerada, not that he was fantastic to begin with. But heart problems are very serious and he lost valuable time as well.
I really liked Michal Sivek in the second round. He is great and energetic. But we're talking about the Penguins. They have all the problems in the world running a legitimate organization so asking them to develop guys properly might be too much right now. Beech and Sivek were formerly with the Caps too, another organization that excels at wasting talent.
It wasn't a great draft for sure. But it wasn't all that bad. The Sedins are somewhat effective as 2nd liners at this point, Stefan is also somewhat effective. The draft is mostly guilty in that no "top drafted guy" because an elite youngster in the NHL so far. Havlat is the closest and I do not think he gets half the credit guys like Gaborik seem to attract.
Leopold is somewhat better than I expected. It's not that bad. Just very, very disappointing because starting in 97, I was hearing LOTS of praises about this draft. I remember a few years before the draft (this was at least 97 or sooner because I didn't have the Internet at the time) I was reading a newspaper article on the Sedins. They were sensations and people were whispering they might be THE next thing after Mario. The article said there was a possibility they'd go 1-2 in the draft, and that teams would fight for the picks. I was all pumped up and intrigued. Back then, I tended to believe what I read. Then the articles kept on coming and in the years that followed, this was talked about as THE great draft. They were saying 98 was going to be good but 99 would be better.
Then 98 came around and they still kept on hyping 99. Now they were beginning to talk about 2000 and 2001. And they were saying 2000 was the crap year with only a few guys worth anything. But no problem, because it was sandwiched between 99 and 01!
Just to give you an idea, the talk regarding Shvidki was more similar to what we heard about Zherdev last year. Even though he played in the CHL, that was what we were hearing about him. Shvidki was hailed as the next Alexei Kovalev by some and he went 12th overall so obviously, this draft was hyped but did not produce the results expected by some.
No biggie. But as far as being called the year of the busts, I'd wait a few more years. Things have a way of changing as the years go by. It was the yeatr of the disappointment for me.
The only positive is that at that point I decided to stop trusting others almost completely and take a deeper look at the prospects myself from that point on. I'm much better for it, and I won't ever again imagine that guys like Taylor Pyatt are faster than Roadrunner. It's amazing the amount of ******** you cut off when you make that decision.
For a while now, my thinking is that the draft is themost *disappointing* ever. But it's not really all that bad. I can't see guys like the Sedins or Saprykin as busts.
Am I high on guys like Beech at this point? No. But I wouldn't write such players completely yet. At all. He had some great tools but some flaws too, and hasn't developed. Could happen. Same with Shvidki and some others. None of them are likely to be superstars but there's a chance for them to contribute in the future. Brendl is the classic case of the unidimensional headcase but there is still a faint hope.
I really liked the Sedins at first but they just kept on being one-trick pony. Crawford hasn't helped them much get past that stage. A bright coach would have eased them more efficiently and made them a bit more effective.
Jillson and Tanabe are fantastic athletes but they are also some of the dumbest Ds around. Experience will help alleviate this somewhat. Jillson could be a Bertuzzi-like D, a late bloomer type. That being said, you're much better off being a forward if you don't read the plays so that's left in the air.
Bad luck on Cerada, not that he was fantastic to begin with. But heart problems are very serious and he lost valuable time as well.
I really liked Michal Sivek in the second round. He is great and energetic. But we're talking about the Penguins. They have all the problems in the world running a legitimate organization so asking them to develop guys properly might be too much right now. Beech and Sivek were formerly with the Caps too, another organization that excels at wasting talent.
It wasn't a great draft for sure. But it wasn't all that bad. The Sedins are somewhat effective as 2nd liners at this point, Stefan is also somewhat effective. The draft is mostly guilty in that no "top drafted guy" because an elite youngster in the NHL so far. Havlat is the closest and I do not think he gets half the credit guys like Gaborik seem to attract.
Leopold is somewhat better than I expected. It's not that bad. Just very, very disappointing because starting in 97, I was hearing LOTS of praises about this draft. I remember a few years before the draft (this was at least 97 or sooner because I didn't have the Internet at the time) I was reading a newspaper article on the Sedins. They were sensations and people were whispering they might be THE next thing after Mario. The article said there was a possibility they'd go 1-2 in the draft, and that teams would fight for the picks. I was all pumped up and intrigued. Back then, I tended to believe what I read. Then the articles kept on coming and in the years that followed, this was talked about as THE great draft. They were saying 98 was going to be good but 99 would be better.
Then 98 came around and they still kept on hyping 99. Now they were beginning to talk about 2000 and 2001. And they were saying 2000 was the crap year with only a few guys worth anything. But no problem, because it was sandwiched between 99 and 01!
Just to give you an idea, the talk regarding Shvidki was more similar to what we heard about Zherdev last year. Even though he played in the CHL, that was what we were hearing about him. Shvidki was hailed as the next Alexei Kovalev by some and he went 12th overall so obviously, this draft was hyped but did not produce the results expected by some.
No biggie. But as far as being called the year of the busts, I'd wait a few more years. Things have a way of changing as the years go by. It was the yeatr of the disappointment for me.
The only positive is that at that point I decided to stop trusting others almost completely and take a deeper look at the prospects myself from that point on. I'm much better for it, and I won't ever again imagine that guys like Taylor Pyatt are faster than Roadrunner. It's amazing the amount of ******** you cut off when you make that decision.
Mark my words, He will live up to the expectations. He's only 22 and has 4 years under his belt. Bertuzzi was not putting up good numbers at the start of his career. I'm hoping this is the year for the Pyatt Breakout.
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