Good to know I'm not the only one!
http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/schedule/show/game/63383
Here's a pic from the London game I saw in November 2012. Fun knowing how many future NHLers that game has already produced: London (Domi/Horvat/Zadorov/ /Maatta/Tierney/Griffith/Harrington), Plymouth (Rakell/Wilson with Hartman/Noesen/Carrick on the way).
I remember writing a recap of the game and mentioning how I was impressed by Horvat (who at the time wasn't as hyped yet and I didn't know of ahead of time).
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At the time, the main debates on the Devils board was:
- Domi or Horvat, with a minority who wanted Hunter Shinkaruk to replace Parise
- Trade down and still get one of the three? The Devils prospect pool was barren and we didn't have 3rd/5th/7th round picks with the Draft in our own building.
Looking at my list, I had it at: 5. Nichushkin 6. Lindholm 7. Monahan 8. Domi 9. Horvat
I distinctly remember that the draft telecast went to commercial break right before the Devils pick. My buddy was watching it with me and I told him I'd begrudgingly take Nichushkin. Figured we were okay with the Russian Factor and Kovalchuk could be a mentor*
If Nichushkin had been off the board, I think I was in favor of trading down with you guys at #12 or Winnipeg at #13 being the likely targets. Thought Philadelphia was a safe bet to take a defenseman at #11 (I thought Zadorov at the time). I think I've seen articles mentioning that Winnipeg tried to trade up for Domi. My thought was to move down and gain an extra 2nd rounder to use on a goalie (Eric Comrie being my man crush at the time) since we had zilch in the pipeline and Brodeur/Hedberg didn't have much a ton of shelf life left.
As it turned out, we'd trade down with you guys in the 2nd round to gain an extra 3rd rounder. I didn't like the trade for Schneider at the time, which didn't really have anything to do with Schneider's ability. I just worried that he only had two years on his contract and could leave via free agency. And that one of those two years might be wasted in an awkward platoon with Brodeur (and it was).
It's funny looking back at it, but I think there was some negative sentiment with Domi among Devils fans just because of his dad (namely how he gave Scott Niedermayer a flying elbow during the 2001 playoffs). It was a little bizarre during Tuesday's telecast that the Devils had Tie Domi as a guest during the start of the third and he was laughing it up with Ken Daneyko (both had been on the Canadian Figure Skating reality show).
*I had heard through the grapevine that Nichushkin wouldn't have been considered and that the Devils management was aware of Kovalchuk's impending departure. Allegedly the Devils would have picked Horvat, but that was contradicted by something our head scout had said about 'the guy ended up not going in the top 10'. But that could have been purposefully vague.