Worst Jets GM

[jokesondee]

Bautin was a bad pick because he was picked 17th overall when he would have been available in the 10th round. It was a complete waste of a pick. Just cause a player doesn't pan out doesn't mean he is a bad pick. I'm too young to know who Ryan Stewart is but he was ranked 12th overall by central scouting.

How can you claim pciking a guy ranked 12th overall at 18th is a worse pick than picking a guy no one has ever heard of at 17th

Yeah, if i recall correctly Bautin wasnt even ranked. Like NOBODY knew who this guy was, let along picking him in the 1st round.

 

[Jets4Life]

Yeah, if i recall correctly Bautin wasnt even ranked. Like NOBODY knew who this guy was, let along picking him in the 1st round.

Has it ever been explained as to why Smith picked 25 year old Bautin in the first round? It was very odd, and IIRC, took the TSN crew completely by surprise.

Worse yet, the next two picks ended up having stellar careers. Fellow defenseman Jason Smith was chosen by the Devils, and played over 1,000 games in the NHL. Martin Straka was next, and would play a key role for Pittsburgh in the post-Lenieux years.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Has it ever been explained as to why Smith picked 25 year old Bautin in the first round? It was very odd, and IIRC, took the TSN crew completely by surprise.

Worse yet, the next two picks ended up having stellar careers. Fellow defenseman Jason Smith was chosen by the Devils, and played over 1,000 games in the NHL. Martin Straka was next, and would play a key role for Pittsburgh in the post-Lenieux years.

I don't recall ever hearing any rational explanation of any kind.

 

[cbcwpg]

Yeah, if i recall correctly Bautin wasnt even ranked. Like NOBODY knew who this guy was, let along picking him in the 1st round.

From 5 years ago....

Hockey Blog In Canada: McKenzie's Tweet (hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.com)



***

Condition-wise, he was at the bottom of our organization. He's got no quickness and no strength, John Paddock 1994

A two-pack-a-day smoker, Bautin, a defenseman, could not bench-press his own weight - 185, Chicago Tribune 1994

 

[Gm0ney]

In fairness to Paddock, he really had no say in the trade. The new American owners made it clear that they didn't want to pay out two huge contract, and chose to keep Tkachuk. Their reasoning at the time was that Tkachuk was an easier sell to the Phoenix market as the face of the franchise, considering he was an American from Boston, and spoke perfect English. There also were concerns about Selanne's knees, and if they would hold up. There was a feeling that he would be out of hockey by his early 30's (just like Pavel Bure).



I'll play devil's advocate here, and say there was not realistically anything Chevy could have done. He was a relatively low man on a totem pole, and was new in his role as the Blackhawks Assistant GM. Chevy could have voiced his displeasure with the Aldrich situation and demanded an internal investigation, but he probably would have been overruled by the higher ups, and it may hindered his career.

The new owners didn't want to be paying 3 guys over a million and directed Paddock to trade one of Tkachuk, Zhamnov or Selanne. Tkachuk had signed an offer sheet from Chicago that fall and the Jets matched - and you can't trade a guy you just matched, so he was never eligible to be traded. That left Selanne and Zhamnov - and I guess the going rate for Zhamnov was somehow worse than Tverdovsky and Kilger. Although the Jets at that point we're probably not spending any money on pro scouting, so when Anaheim offered two guys drafted in the Top 5, they probably thought that was pretty fair.

 

[Al Camino]

I don't recall ever hearing any rational explanation of any kind.

I do remember Smith or someone comparing him to a Jack Lambert on skates. Which is accurate because Jack Lambert couldn't play hockey either.

 

[cheswick]

Yeah, if i recall correctly Bautin wasnt even ranked. Like NOBODY knew who this guy was, let along picking him in the 1st round.

TSN actually put up a picture of Sergei Brylin and they were like we think the jets picked him, we didn’t expect him to go til late in the second round. FWIW Brylin would have been a much better pick, had a pretty decent nhl career.

 

[rymr66]

Mike Smith liked to draft his Russians. One of my friends in high school was Russian, and his dad was friends with Igor Kuperman, who worked for the Jets as a scout. I remember my friend telling me there was this great defenceman in Russia that the Jets really wanted to draft. I remember calling him after the draft, and he was so excited. O well.

As for the Selanne trade, I'm a bit of a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist on this one. I remember the papers had pictures of Michael Eisner at a Jets game. Eisner was of course CEO of Walt Disney at the time, who owned the Ducks. After Selanne was traded to the Ducks, I wondered if Eisner's visit to the old Winnipeg Arena was because he was scouting the player he wanted to sell seats for the Ducks in Anaheim.

Now, I read earlier someone saying that the new Jets' owners forced Paddock to trade one of Tkachuk, Selanne and Zhamnov. Well, before the Jets became the Coyotes, Zhamnov was also traded, but not for a cheap contract, for Jeremy Roenick.

Does anyone think Zhamnov was worth Jeremy Roenick? What team did this trade? The Chicago Blackhawks, whose old owner at the time was still holding on to a grudge with this team for signing Bobby Hull in 1972.

Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if the Roenick trade to the Coyotes was a reward for trading Selanne to the Ducks.

 

[Jets4Life]

The new owners didn't want to be paying 3 guys over a million and directed Paddock to trade one of Tkachuk, Zhamnov or Selanne. Tkachuk had signed an offer sheet from Chicago that fall and the Jets matched - and you can't trade a guy you just matched, so he was never eligible to be traded. That left Selanne and Zhamnov - and I guess the going rate for Zhamnov was somehow worse than Tverdovsky and Kilger. Although the Jets at that point we're probably not spending any money on pro scouting, so when Anaheim offered two guys drafted in the Top 5, they probably thought that was pretty fair.

Well bottom line, is that Selanne was not voluntarily traded by the Jets. He was traded by the Phoneix ownership. Why would Paddock trade arguably the most popular man to ever put on a Jets jersey? If the Spirit of Manitoba group had been successful, trading Selanne was absurd.