LightningFast said:
I was looking at an old 1999 THN draft preview and It just came to me, how in the hell did the Islanders do to screw up that bad that year. They had 4 first rounders!!! Three in the top 10!!!!
What's most unfortunate is that the 99 draft sucked mightily.
How did they **** up? I think in part, because they loaded in firsties the wrong draft year, unfortunately.
LightningFast said:
Those four prospects were obviously Tim Connolly, Taylor Pyatt, Branislav Mezei and Kristian Kudroc .
Should we give up hope that these 4 guys will never be more than busts?
What do you see as the potential of these 4 guys and were do you see them in 5 years?
Personnaly, this is what I think...
T. Connolly (out of the league or at best 2nd liner on a very weak team)
T. Pyatt (Still have hope for him, so i will say a 20/20 man on a new team)
K. Kudroc (Depht defenseman or back in Russia)
B. Mezei (5/6 Defenseman but far from what was expected from him)
Well, these players still have a little bit of time left.
If you look at Connolly's career so far, he is one of the most productive in his year's class so far in the NHL. His numbers are similar to the Sedins.
His problem was lack of development and then he got sidelines with one nasty concussion. Milbury could hardly predict that. Overall, considering may were actually hyping players like Beech and Shvidki, it looks like Milbury made a decent choice there.
The Pyatt selection is cool. Obviously, people who hyped him as having Porsche-like skating should be shot dead, preferably after being tortured but that's beside the point. He's still a big, strong, mobile forward with decent skillset. At his rank, the selection made sense. Those kind of kids take their time, so no worries there but it doesn't look like he'll be an impact player.
Pretty much everyone was surprised by the Mezei selection. A bit early. He was a gamble and all about projection.
Kudroc later is much the same.
The trend here:
Connolly was a relatively small player with superb skillset. Risky player.
Pyatt was more of the potential power forward mold. Difficult to assess.
The two mammoths on defense were classic huge guys and Milbury had struck gold with Chara previously. Risky players.
All in all, he went for risk, thinking the odds were 2-3 of these players might make it.
Unfortunately, much like guys like Woodlief and Dudley, much of Milbury's behavior indicates he thinks all you have to do is draft talent to make it happen. There's much more to it.
David Conte is not half the scout he is proclaimed to be. The players just happen to be well-schooled which makes a huge difference in NJ. They make good decisions on their youngsters, where they need to be and how to bring them up. That's the key to replenishing your talent pool.
Some of the Isles players were rushed, in an unstable, losing environment. Some of them also experienced bad luck. I believe Kudroc has also had concussion problems, which is not something Milbury could have predicted easily.
Sure, everybody is kicking themselves for not discoveriung Havlat but that's just the way it is. Most of the players who have now "passed" the early draftees did so thanks to development.
Lots of players drafted that year are still in limbo. It just doesn't look like a good draft period. Milbury was part unlucky, part clueless as to what to do with these youngsters once he selected them.
I think the strategy of pick high risk players when you have several picks is not bad. But it didn't work that time.
He was ranked 3rd in Euro prospects behind the Sedin's. Hope this is a help.
