Stephen
Moderator
- Feb 28, 2002
- 77,850
- 51,520
I was too young to really follow Glen Wesley in the late 80s and early 90s when he was on the Bruins and only really started following hockey shortly before the time he was signed as an RFA by Hartford in 1993-94, but considering what Jim Rutherford was willing to give up for him, assumingly to play with Chris Pronger.
After 1994, he basically settled into a ho-hum reliable defensive defenseman's role, but before then he was drafted 3rd overall, had good size, put up some great offensive numbers in Boston in the late 80s, had pretty good playoff stats, and I'm assuming he was good defensively given what he specialized in later in his career. And he was good enough that a team would want to trade 3 first rounders for (albeit a dysfunctional team like Hartford at the time).
My question is, given his early pedigree, what kind of career path was Wesley expected to take? Did people think he was going to be a Ray Bourque-lite type player, a perennial all-star, or was he seen as a product of playing with Bourque?
After 1994, he basically settled into a ho-hum reliable defensive defenseman's role, but before then he was drafted 3rd overall, had good size, put up some great offensive numbers in Boston in the late 80s, had pretty good playoff stats, and I'm assuming he was good defensively given what he specialized in later in his career. And he was good enough that a team would want to trade 3 first rounders for (albeit a dysfunctional team like Hartford at the time).
My question is, given his early pedigree, what kind of career path was Wesley expected to take? Did people think he was going to be a Ray Bourque-lite type player, a perennial all-star, or was he seen as a product of playing with Bourque?