Your First Prospect

[Lou is God]

Who was the prospect that got you going about hockey prospects?

For me it was during the 1990-91 season when Toronto's GM Floyd Smith inexplicably traded Toronto's #1 pick for a average offensive defensiveman in Tom Kurvers. That year the prize in the draft was Eric Lindros and the Leafs ended up finishing with the third worst record (23-46-11) and the Devils were awarded the third overall pick in the draft. In fact the outcome of who would get the #1 overall pick was not none till the end of the season when the Leafs had a nice little run that took them out of the running.

But despite that we still made out like bandits and after Quebec selected Lindros overall #1 and the Sharks took Pat Fallon with the second pick, we had the third and I remember that the talk was that Lou had narrowed his choice to two defensemen, Scott Niedermeyer and Scott LaChance. And this was the first time that I got involved in following the NHL draft and praying that Lou would take Nieder, mostly because of the exaggrated comparisons to Paul Coffey.

And Lou did select my boy Neider and I started to follow his progress in the WHL and thus lead me to being a complete fool when it comes to hockey and their prospects.


Who was the one prospect that really got it going for you?

Click to read more...

 

[hfboardsuser]

Jani Rita. THN had him pegged as a can't-miss star for a couple years before... well... I think they still do.

Other beauty THN predictions:

-Zubrus would for sure break out in 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04.
-Somervouri would win the Calder in 2003-04.

 

[Fighter]

It was in 2001.
The first part of the draft was rich of talent and the Ducks had the fifth pick. Reading scouts opinions I focused on Stanislav Chistov hoping that the Ducks would take him and that happened.
From that time, I start to follow juniors and became a prospect addict

 

[Oilers1*]

Jani Rita. THN had him pegged as a can't-miss star for a couple years before... well... I think they still do.

Other beauty THN predictions:

-Zubrus would for sure break out in 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04.
-Somervouri would win the Calder in 2003-04.

Yeah, I always used to chuckle at how they'd never give up on Zubrus. Another great one was when they compared Sami Pahlsson (back when he was in the Colorado system) to Peter Forsberg.

The prospect who did it for me was Eric Brewer. I liked his write-up in the THN draft preview and then was intrigued when he went a little higher than expected. The following year, THN ranked him as the second-best propect in the world behind Luongo. He had a promising rookie year on Long Island and then a godawful sophmore season. I was then elated when he got traded to Edmonton and trumpeted it as a steal to anyone who'd listen.

Been a big fan ever since.

 

[Blind Gardien]

1984... it was a fun year in the OHL, with Tim Salmon and Conway leading the scoring charge in Kingston, but a lot of prospects around... led by Kirk Muller! Shawn Burr was probably my Habs choice, Shayne Corson and Gary Roberts were in the picture, the Habs were going to have a couple of chances at these guys with the #5 and #8 picks overall. It was great. Strangely enough, I didn't really know much about Mario Lemieux heading in, other than to remember all the fuss about him sitting in the stands and the commentary and everything. But Muller, Corson, Roberts, Burr... that was the big buzz for me.

Watching Serge Savard do his big magical unveiling of this skinny little Czech mystery boy Petr Svoboda at #5 was like a punch in the gut, though... and watching Burr go #7, ouch. But at least we still grabbed Corson #8.

There were a lot of other players I was following in the '84 draft, Trevor Steinberg and Roger Belanger, who most people will never remember I guess, Chris Clifford, Jeff Chychrun, Craig Billington and Kirk McLean... I remember not knowing much about Al Iafrate or Kevin Hatcher for some reason, instead Terry Carkner and Jeff Brown were D I had in mind. Of course, it turned out to be a great draft for the Habs, with Patrick Roy and Stephane Richer coming later, although I never knew them at the time. Graeme Bonar became a new name to watch in the future in the OHL, though.

That was the draft that really hooked me on following the event. I have vague recollections of the Wickenheiser-Savard draft and bits and pieces of other drafts before '84, but I can't remember actually following any of them live or putting remotely as much into any of them until '84 came along. When did televised coverage start? Could '84 have been the first? I have no idea. But it was the first time for me, and I've been hooked ever since. No single prospect, but Muller/Corson/Burr/Roberts as a group. I never lost my grudge against Svoboda either.

 

[BROADSTREETBULLY]

....for some reason i was a big Kimbi Daniels fan in 1990..i guess when the Flyers picked him in the draft (round 3,44th)...i thought he was gonna be a scoring threat for years in Philly..what did i know,huh?..anyway..he was only given about 25 games between his first 2 years and nothing after that,,hes been banished to ALASKA the last 5 years

 

[Hyped]

1984... it was a fun year in the OHL, with Tim Salmon and Conway leading the scoring charge in Kingston, but a lot of prospects around... led by Kirk Muller! Shawn Burr was probably my Habs choice, Shayne Corson and Gary Roberts were in the picture, the Habs were going to have a couple of chances at these guys with the #5 and #8 picks overall. It was great. Strangely enough, I didn't really know much about Mario Lemieux heading in, other than to remember all the fuss about him sitting in the stands and the commentary and everything. But Muller, Corson, Roberts, Burr... that was the big buzz for me.

Watching Serge Savard do his big magical unveiling of this skinny little Czech mystery boy Petr Svoboda at #5 was like a punch in the gut, though... and watching Burr go #7, ouch. But at least we still grabbed Corson #8.

There were a lot of other players I was following in the '84 draft, Trevor Steinberg and Roger Belanger, who most people will never remember I guess, Chris Clifford, Jeff Chychrun, Craig Billington and Kirk McLean... I remember not knowing much about Al Iafrate or Kevin Hatcher for some reason, instead Terry Carkner and Jeff Brown were D I had in mind. Of course, it turned out to be a great draft for the Habs, with Patrick Roy and Stephane Richer coming later, although I never knew them at the time. Graeme Bonar became a new name to watch in the future in the OHL, though.

That was the draft that really hooked me on following the event. I have vague recollections of the Wickenheiser-Savard draft and bits and pieces of other drafts before '84, but I can't remember actually following any of them live or putting remotely as much into any of them until '84 came along. When did televised coverage start? Could '84 have been the first? I have no idea. But it was the first time for me, and I've been hooked ever since. No single prospect, but Muller/Corson/Burr/Roberts as a group. I never lost my grudge against Svoboda either.

That was also the year that a guy by the name of Duncan MacPherson was drafted by the Islanders from the Saskatoon Blades. He later went missing while skiing in Europe. I remember all of Saskatchewan (well, the Star Phoenix anyways) talking about it non-stop. He had been missing for 14 years. Then a couple years ago, they actually found his body and it was all over the papers again there. Quite a tragedy...

 

[LoudmouthHemskyFan#2]

2001...Ales Hemsky...The Oilers drafted him and I was a happy man...They didn't disappoint in 2004 either...Now aside from christmas the draft is almost the next best day

 

[Big McLargehuge]

1998- Milan Kraft

I remember reading alot of stuff about him before the draft and really hoping the Penguins would take him...and we did. That's probably a big reason why I've been such an adamant supporter of Kraft through the years. Nice to see him finally start to play to his potential in 2003-04.

 

[eddy]

I think for me it was back in 2000 when the Habs drafted Hainsey and Hossa in the first round.

 

[RandomCanuckFan]

when the Thrashers took Ilya Kovalchuk first overall in 2001.

Pavel Bure was my favourite player and I heard the comparisons and was really excited about Ilya. I had followed the NHL before then but not the prospects.

 

[hbk]

Who was the prospect that got you going about hockey prospects?

For me it was during the 1990-91 season when Toronto's GM Floyd Smith inexplicably traded Toronto's #1 pick for a average offensive defensiveman in Tom Kurvers. That year the prize in the draft was Eric Lindros and the Leafs ended up finishing with the third worst record (23-46-11) and the Devils were awarded the third overall pick in the draft. In fact the outcome of who would get the #1 overall pick was not none till the end of the season when the Leafs had a nice little run that took them out of the running.

But despite that we still made out like bandits and after Quebec selected Lindros overall #1 and the Sharks took Pat Fallon with the second pick, we had the third and I remember that the talk was that Lou had narrowed his choice to two defensemen, Scott Niedermeyer and Scott LaChance. And this was the first time that I got involved in following the NHL draft and praying that Lou would take Nieder, mostly because of the exaggrated comparisons to Paul Coffey.

And Lou did select my boy Neider and I started to follow his progress in the WHL and thus lead me to being a complete fool when it comes to hockey and their prospects.


Who was the one prospect that really got it going for you?

for me it wasn't as much a prospect as it was a hockey magazine. I knew of the draft back in 90-91 but paid little attention to it; however, while in Vancouver on vacation I found THN's Draft Preview and on a whim I picked it up.

Back in 90-91 the Draft Preview wasn't the watered down version that we get today from THN. It was its own seperate news with huge bios and great hype (beyond Lindros who received much of the attention). On a whim I decided to watch the draft with a couple of buddies that I showed the magazine to and when Lou said "The New Jersey Devils are proud to select... from the Kamloops Blazers.... Scott Niedermayer" with his New York accent I was hooked on the event.

 

[UvBnDatsyuked]

I have always been a fan of the pre-NHL stories (ie Brett Hull breaking aluminum sticks while at Minn Duluth - Pat Lafontaine 234 pts at Verdun - obviously the Crosby and Spezza stories )

Never really was a big follower of the overall draft potentials until just recently 2003.

 

[kmad]

The first NHL player I knew about before he played in the NHL was Eric Lindros. I had a lot of Lindros hockey cards before he even hit the big time. I wouldn't say he drew me into the prospects scene though.

 

[misfit]

Shane Doan. Watching the 1995 draft on TV, and hearing the Northlands crowd chanting his name as the Oilers were about to make their pick. I didn't really know who he was, since at that time I didn't follow any hockey that wasn't NHL, but I figured there must've been something special about him for the whole crowd to demand his selection. I followed his career and cursed the Oilers for not taking him ever since.

 

[Twist and Shout]

Brad Stuart, Nik Antropov and Dmitri Kalinin in 1998.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

For me, it was the 1988 draft in Montreal (the first draft I attended) in general, and more specifically Alexander Mogilny. The '88 draft was pretty good, with several great players going in Round 1 (Modano, Roenick, Brind'Amour, Selanne, Linden et al), and I was also attached to that draft class because most of the guys were my age. There was also the Quebec Nordiques debacle of selecting Daniel Dore 5th overall that provided a lot of intrigue.

But there was a buzz in the Forum that day because of the possibility that Mogilny was going to be selected fairly early, which was shocking because of the fact the Soviets didn't come over to North America at that time. Basically, whomever would draft Mogilny would be praying that the kid would defect, which was a real reach at the time. I stayed into the fourth round that day, just hoping to hear Mogilny's name selected and with the 89th pick overall, the Sabres made the historic announcement. There was a lot of ooohs and ahhhs in the crowd. It was pretty cool.

Ironically, I never really cared that much about Mogilny's career once he made it over. I thought it was pretty neat at first, but once he started playing in the NHL the floodgates started to open and we suddenly had the pick of the litter of awesome Eastern European players. It also didn't help that Mogilny played for teams I didn't especially care for (especially the Devils and Leafs).

But I'll never forget the day he was drafted. It is hard to compare it to anything we would likely see on draft day today. Perhaps if a team selected a guy that nobody has ever heard of, from a country that doesn't produce hockey talent, it would create a similar buzz. Back then, seeing a Soviet player get drafted in the fourth round (it was a 12-round draft that year I believe) was quite amazing.

Good times.

 

[Debrincat93]

some reports had hudler at top10 pick, his size was the only thing keeping him from being a in there. He slipped past the 2nd round and i get home from going into work, telling them im sick and leaving to come home and see we drafted hudler in the 2nd round and he was my favorite pick reading about him throughout the entire draft issue. I was thrilled beyond thrilled to hear we had him, couldnt believe it. Another one that made me happy this last year was McGrath, read a ton about him and would have loved him too... something about these centers i read about i like....

bad part, i hated us drafting howard cuz i thought liv was gonna be THE GUY, boy im happier then possible to have howard around, and whose Liv? lol... yea

i was bashed in a fantasy league a few years ago when i traded jani rita for niklas kronwall. I was patient and waited, now, offers are comming up all over for kronny and rita i think hit waivers once, ouchy!

 

[Hasbro]

I followed Kevin Dineen from DU up into the NHL.

In terms of the Avs it was Cris Drury. College kid I got to see play with the Terriers.

Following the various spin offs of the Lindros trade got me interested as well.

 

[BobMarleyNYR]

For me, it was indirectly Thomas Vanek... the NYR website had a draft preview and Vanek was the featured profile. I only got into this with the '03 draft... actually '04 would've been my draft year, but I wouldn't have been drafted, because I no longer play... if I had continued and carried my game well, I could've been a 6th-9th rounder... hows that for a projection?

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

Not sure, never used to pay attention to prospects. Brooks Orpik is probably the guy I wanted to see in Pittsburgh after hearing about his hitting.

 

[West19]

Boyd Devereaux in 96

 

[X-SHARKIE]

I used to just listen to the pro's...Tim Burke, Lombardi ect. for the Sharks.

The first prospect i've seen drafted by the Sharks live was Kozlov. Although I have Pat Falloon stuff and remember reading up on him.

But in 2003 I was torn between Thomas Vanek vs Milan Michalek for the sixth overall pick. So I began to do my own investigating and that's really when I began to form my own opinion from what I saw my self on prospects, instead of just reading THN preview ect. Frozen Four Vanek vs WJC Michalek.

I was a friend of Joe Pavelski when I met him durring a team Wisconsin try out, at the time he was playing in Stevens Point Wisconsin, and we lost touch when he went to the USHL for the Waterloo Blackhawks, and I called his name out as a possible steal for any team, so when the Sharks plucked him in the seventh I was very excited.

I love home grown talent, I played vs Kessel and Skille so i'll ruit for them,especially Skille because that kid just worked hard in the youth system in Verona and played High School hockey here (knocked us out of the state playoffs)...where as Kessel was always a rich kid with every tool at his disposal (parents own appartments in Madison$$$$$) and he was coached and groomed since he was 4 playing in the Madison Capitols system.

 

[Habsfan 32]

I think for me it's Jason Ward.

 

[FlyersFan10*]

1990 got me hooked. Philadelphia had a bad year and was going to miss the playoffs. The reward was a pick in the top 4. I thought we would end up with Jagr or Nedved. Needless to say, I was absolutely flabbergasted when the consensus number 1 that year ended up in Philadelphia. I've been a big Mike Ricci fan ever since and that was what got me going with regards to NHL prospects and the draft.