The 2005 draft makes me angry in general. We had an equal shot at Crosby along with Pittsburgh, the Rangers, and Columbus (I think). Instead we get Marek ****ing Zagrapan. Can you even imagine adding Sidney Crosby to the 2005-06 team? How many Cups would we have by now if the balls fell differently? (that sounds wrong)
I’m with you 100%
I will preach this gospel to literally anyone who brings it up.
The exact same chance as I believe 9 other teams, and we got mfing Marek Zagrapan....
There were 14 players in that first round who became some sort of quality nhler. And we got a flat dud.
Imagine the lockout team with even the lesser lights in hindsight, doesn’t T.J. Oshie make it a lot easier to dump Max or Kotalik for Briere’s money?
Does Kopitar make the loss of the co-caps irrelevant after winning a cup? He was just under ppg for a bad kings team in 06-07. Does he take Connolly/Roy’s spot during that season to be ppg or better with Vanek and give them the big bodied weapon they needed against Ottawa and eventually Anaheim.
And of course, if the lotto hits for us, and you add Crosby for free, instead of getting nothing....
I mean what does 100 point rookie Crosby do on the run and gun post lockout teams? 120 points?
How many goals can Crosby produce with Vanek on the third line at even strength? Is the answer all of the goals? I think it might be.
Who exactly stops a line of 20 year old Crosby Prime Briere Prime Max?
Who doesn’t get absolutely dominated by a line of Crosby Drury Hecht? Go ahead score on Hecht and Drury and keep up with a hanging Crosby.
I mean the Pens had a great core of young guys that grew together and won a cup. And then had to regroup to win again. But of the teams that had the same odds to win Crosby, the Sabres were in a position like no other. They had a ready made team to win immediately at a contending level, particularly with his addition and at the same time, they had excellent future pieces to fit around him and the cap. The co-caps disaster would have been much more avoidable, if for no other reason than one of those two guys is sticking around to win with an all time great. Letting Vanek go is a real possibility and all those picks coming back to elongate the run with Briere and Crosby as your top stars with excellent depth.
A better what if than 1066 could ever hope to be!