What was your opinion on Hugh Jessiman when he was drafted?

[007]

I remember there was a whole lot of WTF? around the Jessiman pick, but as always, I was hoping he'd work out -- if he had, it would have been special. I really liked Ivan Baranka, go figure. As for McIlrath, I wanted Fowler, but I sorta went with the braintrust on this one, and liked the idea of a better-skating Beukeboom on the blueline (which in the end, he wasn't).

Tangentially, anyone remember this article? Jessiman turned out to be a thoughtful, interesting guy, if not and NHL player:
A Draft Bust Playing in Vienna Pictures Life After Hockey

 

[E-Train]

I remember really wanting Phaneuf. When he was off the board I didn't lock in on anyone else. I remember some questions regarding Jessiman and how good he really was. I didn't want Carter or Parise for whatever reason.

 

[nyr2k2]

The reality of it is in 03 everyone relied on the beat for the most part and also Blueshirt Bulletin to come up with info on these players. So any opinions at the time, were likely not formulated from actually watching Jessiman play unless they saw him at Dartmouth or maybe in Brunswick prior to.

I remember reading that he was a poor mans Lindros by one of the articles. Poverty must have struck that description awfully hard!

Yes and The Hockey Rodent. Back then there were no streams. You might get a radio feed but that tells you nothing other than what's happening in the game, and maybe the opinion of one or two guys. You had the beat, BB, stuff like THN and their draft recaps and prospect capsules, etc. And if you were lucky you lived close enough to see some kids playing in an AHL or CHL game. That was it though. Now everyone is professional f***ing scout.

 

[Edge]

The reality of it is in 03 everyone relied on the beat for the most part and also Blueshirt Bulletin to come up with info on these players. So any opinions at the time, were likely not formulated from actually watching Jessiman play unless they saw him at Dartmouth or maybe in Brunswick prior to.

I remember reading that he was a poor mans Lindros by one of the articles. Poverty must have struck that description awfully hard!

There were quite a few writers on here who had pretty good access, especially compared to Blueshirt Bulletin at the time.

Unfortunately, that was also right around the time HockeysFuture tried reinventing themselves and in the process probably pushed away the best sources they ever had, and in the process, pushed the following generations of reporter to other sites and or other mediums.

HockeysFuture always had the potential, but never quite the business leadership to become all that it should have.

When I look at what some other sites and observers have become, it makes me a little sad. HockeysFuture should've had the inside track on a lot of what you see out there today.

But the decision makers were pretty stubborn and made some truly awful decisions.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Go to the prospects board and search titles containing 'Jessiman'. You'll see threads that go back 15 years.

Here's one from 07
https://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/hugh-jessiman.420371/

Too bad this board doesn't go back as far as Prospects one

 

[romba]

I was unimpressed but turned the corner when he accepted my Facebook friendship and continue to hold out hope to this very day

 

[Thirty One]

He was a Ranger fan and he hit someone through the glass. 16 year old me just doesn't not like that player.

 

[Edge]

2003 was also the last year Jessiman would ever be a ppg player at any level, anywhere --- except for a 20 game stint in the ECHL in 2006-2007.

 

[haveandare]

I was 13 years old and had the same reaction I had at 11:27 on Saturday.

I just didn't know this place existed yet to fight with all of you about it.

I was all aboard the Parise and Getzlaf train and was devastated when ZP was drafted by the Devils.

Kind of the same way I feel about Wahlstrom and the Islanders.

Just gonna chalk it up to "typical Rangers"

Jessiman is absolutely not to Parise as Kravstov is to Wahlstrom.

 

[Sarge13]

I tend to forget Mark Stuart was also in the conversation , he was a big leader on Team USA, it was a position we needed.... well we needed everything....

2nd round was another oddball choice. Can't believe how many people complained about Patrick O'Sullivan on that one, the other name that was always up for debate then before the draft was David Backes. Would've liked him.....

 

[SnowblindNYR]

2003 was also the last year Jessiman would ever be a ppg player at any level, anywhere --- except for a 20 game stint in the ECHL in 2006-2007.

If a player plays in the KHL post draft he can be in the same boat and be an excellent NHL plaer.

 

[Edge]

If a player plays in the KHL post draft he can be in the same boat and be an excellent NHL plaer.

Yeah, but when he’s doing it in the ECHL, circa the mid-2000s, probably not to much.

 

[Ola]

Yeah everyone knew better bla bla bla.

Facts are that in 03’ there was a redline offside in this league and the game peaked in destructiveness. Calgary got to the finals in 04 without making one outlet pass in the POs, and I am not even exaggerating.

Nobody even considered skating the puck through the neutral zone in 03’.

We picked a 6’5 PF at that time.

After very very very much debate back and forth, the league came to a decision that was far from given that changed the game completely. That change was great for the game, but of course a team having picked a 5’11 speedster like Parise benefitted on it over the team that picked the 6’5 PF.

It’s like if we pick a 6’6 goalie in 2019 and then in 2020 the NHL decides that the nets shall be adjustable and relative in size to the size of the goalie meaning that our 6’6 goalie have to play in a net twice the size of someone 5’10 — what does that say about the pick? Changed conditions happen. It is what it is. It sucked, but crapping on that pick is just so false.

 

[McRanger]

Jessiman was an impressive player as a freshman. He looked less so after he turned pro. The game got faster and Hugh got slower after his ankle injury.

But as impressive as he was most other 2003 college guys looked like better bets. And that’s just the NCAA. He was a bad pick for that draft. A really bad and worse an obviously bad pick.

That said, if we had taken him, say where we took Korpikoski in 2004, I wouldn’t have minded.

 

[Edge]

Yeah everyone knew better bla bla bla.

Facts are that in 03’ there was a redline offside in this league and the game peaked in destructiveness. Calgary got to the finals in 04 without making one outlet pass in the POs, and I am not even exaggerating.

Nobody even considered skating the puck through the neutral zone in 03’.

We picked a 6’5 PF at that time.

After very very very much debate back and forth, the league came to a decision that was far from given that changed the game completely. That change was great for the game, but of course a team having picked a 5’11 speedster like Parise benefitted on it over the team that picked the 6’5 PF.

It’s like if we pick a 6’6 goalie in 2019 and then in 2020 the NHL decides that the nets shall be adjustable and relative in size to the size of the goalie meaning that our 6’6 goalie have to play in a net twice the size of someone 5’10 — what does that say about the pick? Changed conditions happen. It is what it is. It sucked, but crapping on that pick is just so false.

Ryan Getzlaf, Eric Staal, Jeff Carter, Brian Boyle and a lot of other guys did pretty okay for themselves.

Maybe the bigger issue was that Jessiman just wasn’t a very good player.

That wasn’t a very far out thought on here. Of course you had apologists, they’ll always exist when a player underperforms. But the Jessiman pick was one of those rare times where there was almost an instantaneous and prolonged feeling of “I think we just royally screwed this up.”

It did a pretty good job of uniting the majority of this board at the time. Granted it was for all the wrong reasons, but we were pretty united.

 

[Shadowtron]

What happened to your old profile, man? Weird to see it as a 2017 account.

I couldn't remember my password for my old account. So when Hf made the switch to the new board, I couldn't get back in. I sent a message to the hf team see if I could get a password reset. The account was so old, I could even remember the email address, if any, that it was associated with lol!!

 

[Ola]

Ryan Getzlaf, Eric Staal, Jeff Carter, Brian Boyle and a lot of other guys did pretty okay for themselves.

Maybe the bigger issue was that Jessiman just wasn’t a very good player.

That wasn’t a very far out thought on here. Of course you had apologists, they’ll always exist when a player underperforms. But the Jessiman pick was one of those rare times where there was almost an instantaneous and prolonged feeling of “I think we just royally screwed this up.”

It did a pretty good job of uniting the majority of this board at the time. Granted it was for all the wrong reasons, but we were pretty united.

The conditions changed, it was a very different game after 05’. Draft picks are almost never BPA in hindsight, we don’t start threads because we made a bad choice picking Kreider over ROR.

I just don’t see the point talking about Jessiman 15 years afterwards in light of how much the conditions changed after the pick was made. I had no stake in that pick, didn’t know who he was before we drafted him.

The Jessiman pick has been discussed for what, 60 posts in this thread? Kids will believe that it was ‘another’ unbelievably bad pick. Nobody mention the fact that the pick was made at the time were really there was zero room for finesse guys, none whatsoever, and the kid came into his first camp — when the game had done a 180’. Of course it had a very big impact.

 

[Edge]

The conditions changed, it was a very different game after 05’. Draft picks are almost never BPA in hindsight, we don’t start threads because we made a bad choice picking Kreider over ROR.

I just don’t see the point talking about Jessiman 15 years afterwards in light of how much the conditions changed after the pick was made. I had no stake in that pick, didn’t know who he was before we drafted him.

The Jessiman pick has been discussed for what, 60 posts in this thread? Kids will believe that it was ‘another’ unbelievably bad pick. Nobody mention the fact that the pick was made at the time were really there was zero room for finesse guys, none whatsoever, and the kid came into his first camp — when the game had done a 180’. Of course it had a very big impact.

Ola, there’s a huge difference between picking Jessiman over a bunch of others in the draft, and Kreider over someone like ROR.

It’s not just the kids who think it was a bad pick. There are middle aged people who hated it then, as well as today.

As for how people reacted on here reacted in 2003 — not well.

As someone who was here, I can tell you it wasn’t popular — even at the time. This isn’t a case of hindsight.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

I was 13 years old and had the same reaction I had at 11:27 on Saturday.

I just didn't know this place existed yet to fight with all of you about it.

I was all aboard the Parise and Getzlaf train and was devastated when ZP was drafted by the Devils.

Kind of the same way I feel about Wahlstrom and the Islanders.

Just gonna chalk it up to "typical Rangers"

Comparing the Jessiman-Parise debate to the Kravtsov-Wahlstrom debate is ridiculous.

 

[Ghost of jas]

Comparing the Jessiman-Parise debate to the Kravtsov-Wahlstrom debate is ridiculous.

Are you surprised?

 

[JT Kreider]

Comparing the Jessiman-Parise debate to the Kravtsov-Wahlstrom debate is ridiculous.

Maybe, maybe not. I see a lot of people excusing the Rangers inability to develop an elite offensive talent because they are on an unprecedented streak of bad luck.

So what's to say the Rangers passing on Wahlstrom only for him to become Bossy 2.0 is just more bad luck for this franchise?

 

[Ola]

Ola, there’s a huge difference between picking Jessiman over a bunch of others in the draft, and Kreider over someone like ROR.

It’s not just the kids who think it was a bad pick. There are middle aged people who hated it then, as well as today.

As for how people reacted on here reacted in 2003 — not well.

As someone who was here, I can tell you it wasn’t popular — even at the time. This isn’t a case of hindsight.

A lot of things aren’t popular at this place, don’t make it wrong. I posted at RFC since 1997 and stayed away from this place pretty long since it from the start was mostly about nutty made up rumors back then, like canoe if anyone remember.

Picking Jessiman was part of a change of culture in NY. He wasn’t alone. We picked 6’6 220 lbs center iceman Bruce Graham 51st overall in 04’. Graham wasn’t a bad player. Did fairly well as a top center in the Q before the redline was removed.

We had not adopted to the trapping era. As a concequence we didn’t make the POs for 7 straight years despite spending more than anyone, and more than twice as much than many.

At the time, teams was desperate for size. Everyone searched for it everywhere. Mainly because it enabled you to just fire pucks out of your end up the boards, or lift them out, and then win the battles around the boards in the neutral zone. But that was also not everything. Injuries was a — huge — concern at this time. Toronto and Ottawa was good, but they played each other and lost half their team during one series in the POs, didn’t matter which team won because they had no personel left for the next series. 3-4 teams took out each other every year in the East in the POs. Darcy Tucker and Mike Peca destroying each other’s knees. Toronto lost 10 or 11 guys one series. If you were 6’5-6’6 230 lbs you could survive getting ran along the boards time after time. If you were 6’1 you didn’t.

Slats took over behind the bench in 2002 in a desperate attempt to get some results. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to work. We brought in Clarke and many others and beefed up the scouting department and started to change course back then already.

In 02’ we drafted 6’4 Lee Faradeau in the 2nd; 6’4 Marcus Jonasen in the 3rd; 6’4 Nate Guenin in the 4th, 6’3 Mike Walsh and 6’4 Jake Taylor in the 5th and big guys all the way almost.

The game changed and the guys that made it from those drafts were mainly 8th round pick 5’10 Prucha from 02’ and 5th round pick Dawes from 03’...

It’s a fact that we started a change of the culture of the franchise in 02-03. It’s well documented. We where by far the biggest mess in he NHL, in pro sports, but we sat down and said that we must build through the draft and do it right. The league is mega destructive, it’s going to take size, size and more size to get something done. We almost exclusively drafted size, size and more size.

The game changed and all those picks, I don’t get why Jessiman is singled out alone, became worthless. Many higher picks, Jessiman, Falardeau, Jonasen, Bruce Graham, Taylor, Walsh and so forth.

Look, if the NHL don’t do a 180’ and change the conditions completely — that strategy — surely eventually would have gotten us back on track. We would have been consistent with it and built a top 5 sized team in the NHL hat could win the neutral zone battles and make the franchise respectable again. Jessiman may or may not have been an OK, bad or horrible pick, we won’t know. We didn’t pick Jessiman because we thought that he was a better player than 5’11 Robert Nilsson whom the Islanders took or 5’11 Parise whom the Devils took or 5’11 Dustin Brown whom LAK took after us. We took him because we needed to change the culture of the organization and get size, size and more size.

Why is 60 posts made without nobody mentioning this context that is very central to judging the pick? This thread was started in the context of Jessiman being a reach and in light of our picks this year. It’s a relevant factor IMO.

 

[Edge]

It’s a very different kind of debate.

Kravtsov has his concerns, but the one thing that is certain is that he’s highly skilled.

Some questions for sure, but He’s definitely the homerun swing.

 

[Edge]

A lot of things aren’t popular at this place, don’t make it wrong.

Picking Jessiman was part of a change of culture in NY. He wasn’t alone. We picked 6’6 220 lbs center iceman Bruce Graham 51st overall in 04’. Graham wasn’t a bad player. Did fairly well as a top center in the Q before the redline was removed.

We had not adopted to the trapping era. As a concequence we didn’t make the POs for 7 straight years despite spending more than anyone, and more than twice as much than many.

At the time, teams was desperate for size. Everyone searched for it everywhere. Mainly because it enabled you to just fire pucks out of your end up the boards, or lift them out, and then win the battles around the boards in the neutral zone. But that was also not everything. Injuries was a — huge — concern at this time. Toronto and Ottawa was good, but they played each other and lost half their team during one series in the POs, didn’t matter which team won because they had no personel left for the next series. 3-4 teams took out each other every year in the East in the POs. Darcy Tucker and Mike Peca destroying each other’s knees. Toronto lost 10 or 11 guys one series. If you were 6’5-6’6 230 lbs you could survive getting ran along the boards time after time. If you were 6’1 you didn’t.

Slats took over behind the bench in 2002 in a desperate attempt to get some results. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to work. We brought in Clarke and many others and beefed up the scouting department and started to change course back then already.

In 02’ we drafted 6’4 Lee Faradeau in the 2nd; 6’4 Marcus Jonasen in the 3rd; 6’4 Nate Guenin in the 4th, 6’3 Mike Walsh and 6’4 Jake Taylor in the 5th and big guys all the way almost.

The game changed and the guys that made it from those drafts were mainly 8th round pick 5’10 Prucha from 02’ and 5th round pick Dawes from 03’...

It’s a fact that we started a change of the culture of the franchise in 02-03. It’s well documented. We where by far the biggest mess in he NHL, in pro sports, but we sat down and said that we must build through the draft and do it right. The league is mega destructive, it’s going to take size, size and more size to get something done. We almost exclusively drafted size, size and more size.

The game changed and all those picks, I don’t get why Jessiman is singled out alone, became worthless. Many higher picks, Jessiman, Falardeau, Jonasen, Bruce Graham, Taylor, Walsh and so forth.

Look, if the NHL don’t do a 180’ and change the conditions completely — that strategy — surely eventually would have gotten us back on track. We would have been consistent with it and built a top 5 sized team in the NHL hat could win the neutral zone battles and make the franchise respectable again. Jessiman may or may not have been an OK, bad or horrible pick, we won’t know.

Why is 60 posts made without nobody mentioning this context that is very central to judging the pick?

I think he primarily still comes up for three reasons on here:

1. This board was not high on him at all and he bombed hard. Very, very hard. Especially compared to his class.

2. Continuing off that, Jessiman happened to bomb hard in arguably the best draft of the 21st century thus far.

3. The picks that this board generally wanted happened to include other pretty large players, and those guys went on to have very, very good careers and we’re instrumental players on several championship teams.

So in a nutshell, Jessiman was the car crash we saw coming. That one always pisses people off more than the others.

 

[nyr2k2]

@Ola there's a lot in that post two above mine that is great, but I do want to say that we were never even remotely close to the biggest mess in professional sports, North America or otherwise.