Who was Doug Zmolek?

[vadim sharifijanov]

okay can anybody tell me about this guy? high pick (7th overall, 1989) but in a not so great draft, big guy (6'2, 220 lbs) and presumably a physical stay at home guy though i have no actual memory of ever watching him on the ice.

but man, why was this guy so highly rated?

i understand why he was drafted high. he was a big strong defenseman, which minnesota was on the lookout for. in the next two drafts, they took derian hatcher and richard matvichuk with top ten picks. and he was a native minnesotan, which was always a thing for that franchise (and also now is for the wild). and like everyone else who makes the NHL, he was great offensively as a teenager, scoring two points a game in high school.

but after san jose takes him in the expansion draft, dallas (no longer minnesota, so the nativist thing doesn't really make sense as a factor) trades to get him back. they sent ulf dahlen away. objectively, ulf dahlen seems like an extremely valuable player. in 1990, he was traded for mike gartner. in '97, he was traded for belfour. his other trade... doug zmolek?

then dallas trades him to LA for darryl sydor. sydor was also a 7th overall pick, but from the much better 1990 draft. he'd had a highly decorated junior career on the memorial cup blazers, was WHL defenseman of the year over his teammate scott niedermayer, played a regular shift on the '93 cup finalist kings, was on the '94 gold medal world championships team, and obviously became a borderline mid-season all-star/fringe norris-vote getting player who won two cups and made five finals over an eighteen year 1,300 game career.

so what don't i know about doug zmolek? as far as i can tell his only discernible career accomplishment is being a second team all-star in his NCAA division in his draft+3. he played a respectable eight seasons in the league but seems to have been a career #5-7 on the depth charts.

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[GMR]

I remember him as a fighter. He was a bit of a punching bag, but not afraid to throw the gloves down with anyone. Don't know much about him as a player.

 

[tarheelhockey]

You could also look at it as, there were 9 defensemen taken in the first round that year and Zmolek ended up with the 3rd-longest career among them (after Kevin Haller and Jason Marshall). The guy taken ahead of him at #6 was a total bust. As was the forward taken at #2. So not that awful of a pick, in the context of a weak first round.

Six defensemen taken after the 1st round, including Nicklas Lidstrom, ended up having longer careers than any of the first round guys.

 

[Brodeur]

That Sydor for Zmolek/Churla trade was one of the dominoes that stopped me from staying a Kings fan as a kid: Kings Trade Sydor for Two Tough Guys

Looking for elements of toughness, the Kings traded defenseman Darryl Sydor and a fifth-round draft pick in 1996 to the Dallas Stars on Saturday for defenseman Doug Zmolek, 25, and right wing Shane Churla, 30.

Sydor, who had been the subject of trade rumors recently, had been wildly inconsistent since his promising rookie year when the Kings went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1992-93. King Coach Larry Robinson quickly grew frustrated with him this season, calling him a “time bomb.”

Sydor was struggling but most seemed to know that they were selling low on him at that point. Unfortunately don't have much recollection of Zmolek on the Kings.

 

[Hobnobs]

That Sydor for Zmolek/Churla trade was one of the dominoes that stopped me from staying a Kings fan as a kid: Kings Trade Sydor for Two Tough Guys



Sydor was struggling but most seemed to know that they were selling low on him at that point. Unfortunately don't have much recollection of Zmolek on the Kings.

Funny enough trading skill for toughness was pretty common and always just as stupid....

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i guess what confuses me is any random stiff can be overvalued and traded for a much better skill player once. john kordic for russ courtnall, alek stojanov for markus naslund, cory cross for freddy modin... but if a guy is traded in lopsided deals for skill players multiple times, there must be a story there.

 

[tony d]

Was a depth defenseman as I recall. Nothing overly special.

 

[JianYang]

You could also look at it as, there were 9 defensemen taken in the first round that year and Zmolek ended up with the 3rd-longest career among them (after Kevin Haller and Jason Marshall). The guy taken ahead of him at #6 was a total bust. As was the forward taken at #2. So not that awful of a pick, in the context of a weak first round.

Six defensemen taken after the 1st round, including Nicklas Lidstrom, ended up having longer careers than any of the first round guys.

Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I seem to remember Marshall as a forward in the NHL. Edit: I was thinking of Grant Marshall.

I'm, also surprised to hear that haller played longer. I barely remember hearing that name after his 93 cup win.

 

[The Pale King]

It's odd, looking at his NHL games played numbers I assumed he spent a bunch of time in the minors but it looks like he was a consistent 6 or 7 defenseman and/or injured a lot. He didn't suit up in the minors until 00-01, twelve years after he was drafted, and even then only for two games with the Chicago Wolves. And speaking of which, the North Stars took him the year after they took Modano first overall, and the year before they took Hatcher in the first round. How did that Meatloaf song go again, the one with the fractions?

But I was disappointed to learn Doug Zmolek never fought Doug Houda. Perhaps a mutual respect of the dark water... the dwellers by the dark stream. Dougs passing in the night. A Houda-Zmolek bout would have been legendary... as well as sounding like an eastern-European breakfast food.

In fact if anyone can point an instance of a Doug fighting another Doug, I'm all ears. A cursory glance on hockeyfights.com of the main dirty Dougs turned up nothing. And I don't think Doug Bentley fought Doug Harvey at any point. Who knows though.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

In fact if anyone can point an instance of a Doug fighting another Doug, I'm all ears. A cursory glance on hockeyfights.com of the main dirty Dougs turned up nothing. And I don't think Doug Bentley fought Doug Harvey at any point. Who knows though.

found one

Doug Lidster vs. Doug Crossman, October 18, 1984 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Philadelphia Flyers

 

[Sanf]

My own memories as hardcore Sharks fan at the time is that Zmolek was expected to bring solid defence to the team. Had a decent rookie season playing with Doug Wilson (IIRC). He did fight quite a lot, but at the end he really wasn´t good at it. Really not an enforcer type either. He really was pretty meh overall. That Dahlen trade was a steal. Lalor and Zmolek both were pretty much spare parts for Sharks. And that Sharks defence really wasn¨t something special (Ozolins, Norton, Kroupa, Rathje, More, Pederson and Cronin) Maybe there was still someone in Stars organization who still thought he has potential. In honesty I have no idea how he did after leaving Sharks. That Kings trade seems even weirder.

What I have researched later is that Zmolek was a huge reach in that draft. He was expected to be something of a third rounder. Minnesota roots weighted heavily on that choice. Zmolek never signed with North Stars. In spring of 1990 it was an odd situation where Jack Ferreira and other future Sharks (Lombardi, Grillo and Jackson) still worked with North Stars even though it was known that they would be building the future "Bay area team". Apparently Ferreira told Zmolek that he would take him to Bay Area (atleast according to papers). There was certain amount of unsigned draftees that Sharks could take from North Stars in 1991 dispersal draft and Zmolek was one of them.

edit. Wrong term