Re-do the top 5 picks of the 89 Draft

IggyFan12

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Jul 26, 2010
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If you could re-do the top picks of the 1989 draft how would your top 5 look? Here is what it should have been:

1) Quebec- Nik Lidstrom- Easy pick, a chance to add one of the greatest defenceman ever to a team that boosts Joe Sakic and Peter Stastny but not much else. Lidstrom would be a better building block for Quebec than Sundin was.

2) New York Islanders- Sergei Federov- It's easy to see why the Wings were so good in the 90s with picking the 2 best players in the 89 draft. It was between Feds, Bure or Sundin with Federov's 2 way play and Stanley Cup resume giving him a lift over Sundin and Bure. The Islanders would have boosted Lafontaine and Federov on the same team which would have been one of the best 1-2 centers in the NHL during the 90s.

3) Toronto Maple Leafs- Pavel Bure- The Russian Rocket would have electrified the crowds in Toronto and may have put the team over the edge in the next couple years.

4) Winnipeg Jets- Mats Sundin- A chance to have Sundin and Selanne eventually play together would be way to hard to pass up. With these 2 players playing together perhaps the Jets would still be flying in the peg.

5) New Jersey Devils- Adam Foote- This rock solid defenceman who went on to be a big part in 2 Stanley Cups gets the nod over Guerin, Holik and Draper. The Devils didn't have Stevens or Niedmayer at the time as well.

Thoughts??
 
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vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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the revisionist top four is pretty cut and dry i think.

for the fifth pick, you have three really role players who won a lot of cups between them, with foote and holik probably being more likely picks at that number than draper. or you could go with a future all-star like guerin, as new jersey actually did. kolzig or irbe might be a good number five too. if it were me, i'd take vlady konstantinov without much hesitation. can you imagine going into a playoff series having to face konstantinov and scott stevens? that's a world of hurt.
 

Bear of Bad News

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This is a bit of a lark, since there was a great reason why Fedorov and Bure were taken where they were taken at the time.
 

Dissonance

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Assuming we knew their careers were basically going to unfold the same way they did in real life, I'd take Sundin over Bure in a heartbeat.

With Bure you're basically getting a thrilling, attendance-boosting rookie season plus two truly excellent years before he goes through the motions during the lockout year, then busts his ACL, then takes an extra full season to recover, then posts probably the laziest, most selfish 50-goal season in recent memory, and then holds out. Not even remotely comparable to 17 injury-free, point-per-game seasons from an elite #1 center. (Though, who knows, maybe Bure's career would've gone down very differently in another city.)
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Assuming we knew their careers were basically going to unfold the same way they did in real life, I'd take Sundin over Bure in a heartbeat.

With Bure you're basically getting a thrilling, attendance-boosting rookie season plus two truly excellent years before he goes through the motions during the lockout year, then busts his ACL, then takes an extra full season to recover, then posts probably the laziest, most selfish 50-goal season in recent memory, and then holds out. Not even remotely comparable to 17 injury-free, point-per-game seasons from an elite #1 center. (Though, who knows, maybe Bure's career would've gone down very differently in another city.)

i think it depends on how much of bure's attitude you attribute to the way he was treated by pat quinn and his administration.

you look at fedorov. just as much of a headcase as bure, but he was kept in line by larionov and fetisov and for all of his faults put together a hall of fame career on an annual contender. on the other hand, you have bure in vancouver, where they played hard ball with larionov and lost him, and ended up playing hardball with bure and lost him too, first mentally, then altogether. all because of quinn and burke's stubbornness.
 

Dissonance

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i think it depends on how much of bure's attitude you attribute to the way he was treated by pat quinn and his administration.

you look at fedorov. just as much of a headcase as bure, but he was kept in line by larionov and fetisov and for all of his faults put together a hall of fame career on an annual contender. on the other hand, you have bure in vancouver, where they played hard ball with larionov and lost him, and ended up playing hardball with bure and lost him too, first mentally, then altogether. all because of quinn and burke's stubbornness.

Yeah, that's a good point—a lot of what-ifs with Bure. Quinn screwed him on several contracts and (if I remember correctly) fabricated the whole rumor about Bure holding out during the '94 playoffs for more money. And didn't Bure sulk his way through the lockout-shortened year after being told that, surprise!, he'd get paid in Canadian dollars rather than U.S. dollars as promised?

Maybe if we'd kept Larionov around that might've done wonders for Bure's attitude. (It's amazing how many players Vancouver lost over the years due to Quinn's stubbornness—Larionov, Nedved, Ronning, the botched Gretzky signing… although Quinn also made a whole bunch of lopsided trades prior to '94 so maybe it all evens out.)

On the other hand, Bure's knee injuries probably would've happened no matter where he played (a little while ago someone quoted Peter Twist talking about how Bure's style of skating, like Orr's, made him inherently more vulnerable to knee injuries), and it's still hard to pick a guy destined for a short (if electrifying) career over a guy who will give you 17 consistent seasons as a #1 center without any drama.
 

LeBlondeDemon10

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you look at fedorov. just as much of a headcase as bure,

I didn't know Fedorov was considered a headcase. Please elaborate.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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^ like bure, fedorov's effort flagged at times though never in the playoffs. both also had very well-documented holdouts. and fedorov clashed with bowman.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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as for bure vs. sundin, if we hypothesize that the attitude issues could have been overcome under different circumstances, i think i would lean towards have the one who was an elite, game-breaking talent over the guy who was a consistent all-star but never truly a superstar. if sundin were modano, it would be a different question but i never thought sundin was a guy who could carry a team to the finals. bure could and did.

i think, like ron francis, sundin was miscast as a franchise player when he really was best suited to being a really fantastic second option. francis got to play his ideal role in pittsburgh, while sundin sadly had to carry a leafs team that could never get over the hump and had perhaps the purest "ewing theory" career of his generation.
 

jkrx

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Feb 4, 2010
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i think it depends on how much of bure's attitude you attribute to the way he was treated by pat quinn and his administration.

you look at fedorov. just as much of a headcase as bure, but he was kept in line by larionov and fetisov and for all of his faults put together a hall of fame career on an annual contender. on the other hand, you have bure in vancouver, where they played hard ball with larionov and lost him, and ended up playing hardball with bure and lost him too, first mentally, then altogether. all because of quinn and burke's stubbornness.

This makes no sense. Fedorov won the hart prior to Fetisov and Larionov joining the team. In fact he held out after they joined the team. He was a gold digger for sure but so are a lot of players.

After Fedorov left Detroit he instantly and publically regretted it.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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This makes no sense. Fedorov won the hart prior to Fetisov and Larionov joining the team. In fact he held out after they joined the team. He was a gold digger for sure but so are a lot of players.

After Fedorov left Detroit he instantly and publically regretted it.

i am just pointing out that he had some of bure's -- or, if you prefer, lafleur's -- diva in him. he didn't need larionov and fetisov to win the hart. bure didn't need larionov or anyone else to win three scoring championships. lafleur probably could have won his art rosses without savard and cournoyer. but at the times when the effort flags or the star starts to clash with the coach or think he is bigger than the team, it helps tremendously to have a solid organization full of proven winners and leaders to keep the situation from turning into a sideshow.
 

jkrx

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i am just pointing out that he had some of bure's -- or, if you prefer, lafleur's -- diva in him. he didn't need larionov and fetisov to win the hart. bure didn't need larionov or anyone else to win three scoring championships. lafleur probably could have won his art rosses without savard and cournoyer. but at the times when the effort flags or the star starts to clash with the coach or think he is bigger than the team, it helps tremendously to have a solid organization full of proven winners and leaders to keep the situation from turning into a sideshow.

Im not arguing that it wouldn't help, I am just disagreeing with the comparison to some extent.
 

Epsilon

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I'd easily take Sundin over Bure.

Definitely. You get both more years out of him, and more games during those years. Plus Sundin was just as productive as Bure (just not as flashy/explosive), and brought better secondary aspects (better defensively, better leadership, etc.). For this draft I like:

1. Lidstrom
2. Fedorov
3. Sundin
4. Bure
5. Foote
 

KingGallagherXI

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Jul 10, 2009
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3) Toronto Maple Leafs- Pavel Bure- The Russian Rocket would have electrified the crowds in Toronto and may have put the team over the edge in the next couple years.

Pavel Bure and Doug Gilmour in 1992-1993 would have dominated the league and eliminated the Kings, no doubt.
 

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