Most controversial draft picks all time?

shatner_rules

You're in Trouba
Nov 22, 2004
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Manitoba
What are you talking about? The Panthers haven't changed GMs since their 1st year in the league. All the moves have been the same: boneheaded.


Sure they have. Dudley-Keenan-and now Martin. Maybe you're thinking about the Thrashers?
 
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reckoning

Registered User
Jan 4, 2005
7,012
1,251
Jiri Dudacek, for iron curtain purposes

A good example why Sabre fans don't hold Scotty Bowman in the same high regard as everyone else. Considering the very low chance of pulling off a defection, wasting a 1st rounder on an Eastern Bloc player in the early 80s was a huge mistake.
 

Wetcoaster

Guest
Yep. Canucks chose even numbers, Sabres chose odd numbers. It landed on what the Canucks thought was roman numerals for 2, but it was 11.

I don't know why I said coinflip.
There was a coin flip but that was for the expansion draft.

Ah yes... The Curse of the Roman Numeral (aka Hey Clarence grab some reading glasses.)

For those of you not around for the birth of the Canucks back in 1970, here is a history lesson and the tale of the Wheel of Misfortune.

My "favourite" bad luck moment occurred BEFORE the Canucks played their first NHL game and IMHO it set the tone for the coming years symbolizing the Canucks futility. Of course it took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal which was Commissioner Clarence Campbell's home away from home.

After the NHL tossed scraps to Vancouver and Buffalo in the Expansion Draft (Buffalo won the coin toss and selected Tom Webster and Vancouver took Gary Doak), the two expansion teams were on deck to determine who selected first in the amateur entry draft. The prize was the scintillating (term was copyright by HNIC's Danny Gallivan) Gilbert Perreault who was almost universally hailed as the next superstar in waiting.

Having done the coin toss, the NHL brass decided they needed to jazz things up and decorated a Crown and Anchor wheel with odd and even numbers. The Canucks took the evens and Commish Clarence (no Vanna White in those days) spun the Wheel of Misfortune.

The wheel stops and the Commish bellows "Number Two" (for the arithmetically challenged that is an even number). The Canucks management - GM Bud Poile and coach Hal Laycoe - were celebrating when Buffalo GM Punch Imlach brought to everyone's attention that it was really the number eleven and not the Roman numeral "II" which the Commish had misread.

The Sabres happily took Perreault where he played his entire career over 17 seasons, 1191 gms, 512g, 814a, 1326pts and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1990.

The Canucks then settled for Dale Tallon who spent 3 seasons in Vancouver and 7 in the CHL, AHL and NHL with Chicago and Pittsburgh (642 NHL games, 98g, 238a, 336pts and currently GM in Chicago - enough said). The Canucks could not decide whether to play Tallon at forward or defense so they switched him back and forth and he became accomplished at neither position.

BTW the next two players selected in the Draft were Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish who would be instrumental in the success of the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970's. OHHHHH… and selected at number eight by the Leafs was a one-dimensional offensive player by the name of Darryl Sittler.

The Canucks amateur draft "success" would continue almost unabated throughout their history - call it the "Curse of the Roman Numeral".

Black cats run and hide when they hear the words "Vancouver Canucks".
 

Wetcoaster

Guest
In the 2003 draft Keenan spent his 9th on Ovy and said the four leap years that Ovy lived through pushed him into elligibility for that year. Trying to pull a fast one.
I believe that it was Rick Dudley who tried to get that one through was it not? Not Keenan. The argument was pretty novel and involved counting actual days and using leap years since Ovechkin was just over the cut-off date for the draft by a few days.
An 18-year-old center, Ovechkin was so highly regarded for his two-way play that former Florida General Manager Rick Dudley tried to draft him in the ninth round of the 2003 draft, only to have the pick ruled ineligible by the league because Ovechkin was deemed too young.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCM/is_1_33/ai_n6355250

The Canucks had a little more success with the same strategm with Bure although there were some pretty shady goings on in Russia and at the NHL head office that allowed the Canucks to land him.

Bure went late because he was considered not to be eligible for the draft that year according to the NHL and the Canucks took a flyer hoping to prevail. In those days it was a requirement that a younger player have played so many games with the national team (not junior nats) and/or so many games in the Russian pro league. Bure was short a couple of games so was considered ineligible according to the NHL list.

If he had been eligible he would have gone top three that year as he was that good.

The NHL initially ruled the Canucks pick void and the Canucks appealed.

After a number of hearings the Canucks produced some extra game sheets showing Bure on the roster of a Russian elite league team for several games. Oddly enough his name was on the bottom of the roster list on each of the extra game sheets.:dunno:

No decision was made for months on the appeal and then suddenly.....

Late on the night before the next year's draft Zeigler reverses his decision and awarded Bure to the Canucks not leaving sufficient time for an appeal by other NHL clubs.

In another odd coincidence the Canucks and new GM Pat Quinn then immediately discontinued their appeal lawsuit against Zeigler over his banning of Quinn and fines imposed due to the "Quinngate" affair. This was where Quinn while still under contract to and coaching the LA Kings and negotiating with them for a contract extension, had at mid-season taken $100,000 cash in a paper bag from the Canucks (delivered by a Canucks trainer) while in Vancouver to coach a game against the Canucks.

For some reason John Zeigler had some problems with the transaction although Quinn was unable to see he had done any wrong.:eek:

In the result Zeigler had banned Quinn for life for conduct detrimental to the NHL but subsequently commuted his sentence to a ban until the next season and a 2 year ban on coaching. This spawned a series of court actions in which Zeigler's ban on Quinn was upheld but the fine against the Canucks was reduced. It was the appeal of the decision on Quinn that was abandoned by the Canucks after Bure was finally awarded to them.:shakehead

As Roger Neilson once remarked - There are two things in life you do not want to know - what goes into a hot dog and what goes on at the NHL head office.:biglaugh:
 
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lemieux32*

Guest
I thought the same thing as well. A franchise owned by one of the best players ever is in trouble and possibly moving and amazingly, behind closed doors, they win the lottery to draft the most anticipated player since the owner of that team. Makes you wonder.
 

NewGuy

Registered User
Jun 29, 2002
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I thought the same thing as well. A franchise owned by one of the best players ever is in trouble and possibly moving and amazingly, behind closed doors, they win the lottery to draft the most anticipated player since the owner of that team. Makes you wonder.

Every team in the league had a representative at the "behind closed doors" lottery drawing.
 

barfy2000

Registered User
Jun 23, 2005
1,784
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Whitby, Ontario
the first year san jose came into the league, instead of the expansion getting the first overall it was given to quebec (lindros). i think it may have been the first year they ever did that. still not 100% sure but i think it had something to do with gund (owner of the sharks) making a deal with the league or something...maybe u can dig up old threads in the sharks forum.

I believe that was because the Sharks owner made a deal for them to enter the league a season or so earlier than they were originally scheduled to do so.
 

LePoche69

Registered User
Jul 15, 2004
3,424
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Montreal
Isn't it Mel Bridgman that drafted a player that had allready been drafted in the same draft, the first year of the Ottawa Senators? Stupid mistake...
 

Badger Bob

Registered User
Not totally sure if this one was controversial, but it was certainly one of the most provocative:

http://www.sabresfans.com/history/DraftPicks.asp

In the 1974 draft Punch Imlach selected Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas using 183rd pick overall. Everyone thought that the Sabres had uncovered a new talent from Japan. So who was this new unknown future superstar? There's two stories on this part of the pick. The first states Imlach picked the name out of the phone book, the second that Tsujimoto was a waiter in a Japanese restaurant that Seymour Knox III had visited the night before. And "Katana" was the Japanese word for a sabre. Regardless of how the name was picked, the pick itself turned out to be a joke played on the other GM's by Imlach. Weeks later Imlach admitted as much and pick was declared null and void by the NHL.
 

Grimshaw

Registered User
Apr 7, 2007
172
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Victoria, B.C.
Not totally sure if this one was controversial, but it was certainly one of the most provocative:

http://www.sabresfans.com/history/DraftPicks.asp

Taro Tsujimoto, obvious one

Jiri Dudacek, Alex Mogilny, for iron curtain purposes

Jaromir Jagr, military purposes

Pavel Bure, for the RSL papers / igor larionov thing

Perreault, for the confusing coinflip

Ovechkin.. the 9th rounder Keenan used in 2004 to try to draft him

Any more?

The very first name put forward in this thread, how does someone miss something like that?
 

Oilers1*

Guest
I thought the same thing as well. A franchise owned by one of the best players ever is in trouble and possibly moving and amazingly, behind closed doors, they win the lottery to draft the most anticipated player since the owner of that team. Makes you wonder.

I think if they were going to do that, it would be 'Sidney Crosby of the New York Rangers'
 

Fish on The Sand

Untouchable
Feb 28, 2002
60,203
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Canada
DiPietro. First goalie to ever go #1. The next two picks: Heatley, and Gaborik. Other notables in that draft - Lundqvist going in the 7th round, Liles in the 4th round, and Visnovsky (who was 24) in the 4th.

Dipietro wasn't the first goalie to go first overall.
 

Wetcoaster

Guest
Rick Dudley trying to draft Ovechkin a year early - in four different rounds:
Florida General Manager Rick Dudley attempted in four different rounds to draft Ovechkin, arguing that, if leap-year dates were taken out of the equation, Ovechkin actually would turn 18 four days before his recognized birthday and thus have been eligible for 2003. The NHL rejected the Panthers all four times, but the league did comply with Florida's request to make the final one in writing. This way, if it is ruled that the Panthers were in the right, they could justify a claim on Ovechkin.

Dudley said team management hatched the idea a month ago, and he acknowledged its limited chance at success.

"It's a long shot," he said. "But, if it's a viable long shot, we would be a very happy crew because he's a special player."
http://www.post-gazette.com/penguins/20030629nhlnot0629p5.asp
 

DFF

Registered User
Feb 28, 2002
22,275
6,525
not really controversial but in hindsight was stupid

Flames traded the the 20th pick and something for NJ's 11pick. Flames took the overratedTrevor Kidd, Devil took a nobody named Martin Brodeur.

The Devils have won a few cups since. The Flames have won a few playoff series...very few.
 

CaptBrannigan

Registered User
Apr 5, 2006
4,259
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Tampa
That Bure story is crazy, somehow I've never heard that before. It would be interesting to see those "discovered" game rosters. Normally a roster is arranged numerically or alphabetically. I highly doubt they're genuine.
 

Dennis Bonvie

Registered User
Dec 29, 2007
29,206
17,561
Connecticut
First thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title.

Also, the 2003 draft when Atlanta passed over Phaneuf to draft Braydon Coburn. The analysts were all surprised, and rightly so by the looks of things right now.

Though Phaneuf scores more, he was a -11 last year as Coburn was a +7 in a shutdown role.

Phaneuf is also a -12 in his brief playoff career (only 25 games). Coburn a +6 in 20 playoff games.
 

Wetcoaster

Guest
That Bure story is crazy, somehow I've never heard that before. It would be interesting to see those "discovered" game rosters. Normally a roster is arranged numerically or alphabetically. I highly doubt they're genuine.
In those days in Russia it was pretty much "what do you want the documents to say". No problem if cost was no object.

There were a number of odd coincidences connected to the Bure pick and the subsequent decision to allow it. Not just the suspect game sheets.

Ziegler waited until the eve of the next draft to make his decision which effectively cut off any appeals and the Canucks and Quinn discontinued their appeals against Ziegler's decisions in the Quinngate affair shortly thereafter.
 

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