During 1993, everyone was talking about Daigle. He was touted as the next French Canadian superstar (the "next" Lemieux). Ottawa signed him to an insane rookie contract. Quebec offered a king's ransom to Ottawa for his rights.
Yet I did uncover some pre internet IRC hockey user groups, where some people were really skeptical of him. They said his play would not translate very well against bigger, stronger, and more talented players. They were right.
So how did Daigle receive so much hype?
I think the Quebec part has become a bit of an urban legend. The 1993 Draft was held in Quebec City, so the sexy headline was that the Nordiques wanted to get Daigle who could be their 'hometown' star that would help them get a new arena built. Early in the process, Quebec asked Ottawa if they'd consider moving the pick but the Sens also envisioned Daigle as their franchise guy that would help them get a new arena. Somebody uploaded the draft to YouTube and seemingly both Quebec/Ottawa GMs said that names were never discussed.
And the draft broadcast was a little bit more reserved about Daigle. Bob McKenzie compared him to LaFontaine/Sakic and cautioned that Daigle wasn't Lemieux.
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I got in a bit of rabbit hole about the #2 pick last night after Jeff Marek mentioned it in his podcast yesterday. While Quebec offering a king's ransom for the #1 pick may be a bit of fiction, in actuality they were badly trying to get #2 from San Jose because they wanted Chris Pronger to go along with all of their young forwards. Marek mentioned that San Jose interviewed Pronger pre-draft but told him that they wouldn't be taking him because they were "set" with young D. There was a split opinion within the Sharks scouting room. Some wanted Pronger, some wanted Paul Kariya, but co-GM Chuck Grillo wanted Viktor Kozlov. Grillo ended up "winning."
Quebec tried to get #3 from Tampa Bay for Mike Ricci but Phil Esposito declined; Presumably Quebec would have swapped spots with San Jose for extra picks. San Jose's other co-GM Dean Lombardi set up a pre-draft meeting with Quebec to negotiate, but the Nordiques brass no-showed according to Lombardi.
Apparently right before the draft started, Quebec offered an unsigned Peter Forsberg to San Jose for the pick. San Jose turned it down, but not because of talent. After the draft, Lombardi vented to the press about Quebec's disorganization (we were only a year removed from them trading Eric Lindros twice).
Markus Naslund sued the league regarding his free agent status. Right before the 1993 Draft, the league relented and Naslund (and teammate Peter Forsberg) were designated as Group IV restricted free agents. They'd be eligible to sign offer sheets and the original team could match. But unlike Group I/II RFAs, if the original team didn't match, they'd received no compensation. The previous summer, Calgary signed Teemu Selanne to an offer which Winnipeg begrudgingly matched; Teemu would then have his 76 goal rookie season.
Lombardi implied that San Jose would have accepted Forsberg contingent on a contract being signed. But Quebec making that last second offer gave San Jose no time to negotiate with Forsberg's agent. So they couldn't risk trading the #2 pick and possibly be in a position where they couldn't financially match an offer sheet. A week later, there were rumors that the Rangers offered Forsberg a 4-5 million dollar signing bonus. Back in those days, some teams barely had a 10 million dollar payroll.