I was doing some writing and prospect reporting and analysis back in 1999 when the website was jsut starting out. I pretty much wrote and compiled all of the information regarding the OHL players for the 1999 draft. I participated int e official Mock Draft for Nashville on Hockey's Future. I picked Brian Finley and I remember many roasting me badly on it. Again, I was picking based on how I thought Nashville would pick. Based on how that Mock draft went, I felt Finley was their guy and sure enough, he was int he real draft.
The following year I remember being invited onto a radio show in Columbus before the 2000 draft. They had the fourth pick and it was their first Entry Draft. Since they are a US based team in their first draft they were hell bent on information regarding Rick Dipietro. Goalies are a funny breed. It is always tough to predict where they go. And that is what I told the radio hosts. I remember telling them that with a new franchise a player like Klesla who was a big body D-Man with the ability to move the puck and stay calm in the defensive end is where a team should start. But they hammered away at Dipietro. Sure enough, Dipietro goes first overall to the Isles. Columbus did select Klesla.
Anyway, all that is to say I was following Hockeys Future back in 1998. There was no discussion Board back then. When the discussion board did start it was full of crap. It was almost ridiculous at how bad the posts were so I left it alone. When the NOOF basically ceased to exist, I gave HF Boards another look. A lot of the people that were NOOFers were on the HF Boards and the Junior Discussion was decent for the most part. Sure, sometimes it results in silly flaming and what not but it is a great resource for Junior Hockey considering the mainstream media coverage of Major Junior Hockey is very light.