1988 NHL Entry Draft...

With Jeremy Roenick retiring today, let's look back at the 1988 NHL Entry Draft and just marvel at how amazing it has turned out.

As per usual, the New York teams did nothing exciting. The Rangers didn't have a 1st round pick (trying to track down what happened to it with no avail) but chose Troy Mallette and Murray Duval (no NHL games) with picks 22 and 26 in the 2nd round. Keep in mind, only 21 teams in the league at the time meant only 21 picks in the 1st round. The Islanders took Kevin Cheveldayoff 16th overall. He was one of only 2 players in the 1st round to not ever play a game in the NHL (Joey's cousin, Kory Kocur, went 17th to Detroit).

So, how great was the first round? Look at this top 10...

1) Mike Modano
2) Trevor Linden
3) Curtis Leschyshyn
7) Martin Gelinas
8) Jeremy Roenick
9) Rod Brind'Amour
10) Teemu Selanne

So, who would you rather have? The greatest American-born player of all-time? A born-leader who played with heart and soul? A solid defenseman? A winger who played until he was 38 and made the finals with 4 different teams (Gelinas won 1 Cup and lost 3 times in the Finals, including 2 times in Game 7)? A 500-plus goal scorer who drew fans to every building he was in, including remote locations like Phoenix and Los Angeles? The best faceoff man in league history who also is great on the power play and is still playing 21 years later? Or a guy who scored 76 goals in his rookie year, scored 48 three seasons ago, and is going to suit up one more time at age 39?

Also that year...

2nd Round
Tie Domi, 27th, Toronto
Tim Taylor, 36th, Washington

4th Round
Mark Recchi, 67th, Pittsburgh
Tony Amonte, 68th, Rangers
Rob Blake, 70th, Los Angeles
(Can you imagine how different the history of the NHL - and the Rangers - would be had they drafted Blake or had Recchi fallen to them? Maybe no '91 & '92 Cups for the Penguins. And definitely no "Matteau, Matteau, Matteau!" as he came over with Brian Noonan in '94 in a trade for Amonte.)
Keith Carney, 76th, Buffalo
Joe Juneau, 81st, Boston

5th Round
Alex Mogilny, 89th, Buffalo

6th Round
Dmitri Khristich, 120th, Washington

7th Round
Val Kamensky, 129th, Quebec

8th Round
Sean Hill, 167th, Montreal

9th Round
Tony Twist, 177th, St. Louis

10th Round
Bret Hedican, 198th, St. Louis

12th Round
Claude Lapointe, 234th, Quebec

Not a bad group of Stanley Cup winners and Olympic Gold medalists in that draft class, eh? That's got to rank up there with the best drafts of all-time, along with 1990 (Nolan, Nedved, Primeau, Ricci, Jagr, Sydor, D. Hatcher, Brodeur, Tkachuk, Smolinski all in the 1st round) and possibly, when all is said and done, 2003 (1st rounders include M.A. Fleury, Eric Staal, Horton, Zherdev, Vanek, Michalek, Suter, Coburn, Phaneuf, Jeff Carter, A. Kostitsyn, D. Brown, Seabrook, Bernier, Parise, Getzlaf, Perry, Mike Richards, and Hugh Jessiman).

And a great career by Roenick, as well. He broke 100 points 3 straight years, and was dominant until the year before the lockout, when he dropped heavily down from his status as a point-per-game player. His year in L.A. was laughable, and his return to Phoenix was horrendous as well. But he was re-energized as a Shark the last 2 years, and in the playoffs last year against Anaheim, he was one of the 3 best Sharks out there.

Should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but his lack of a Cup might be the one hinderance. It shouldn't be a real issue though; he has the numbers and the international experience to merit being in there.

(Plus, he was incredible in NHL '93 for Sega Genesis. Him, Chris Chelios, and Ed Belfour made the Chicago Blackhawks nearly unstoppable in the game!)

An Open Letter to Bryan... (updated @ 9:27 a.m.)

Bryan, I know you were born an Islander fan. I know your dad named you after Bryan Trottier. Now, I offer you this, a chance to hop on the bandwagon. This may be the only chance I get.

Let's look at your team. This is meant with as little offense as possible. I'm just stating facts.

1) Kyle Okposo is the biggest prospect the Islanders have drafted since... Roberto Luongo, Bryan McCabe, Wade Redden, JP Dumont, Cory Stillman, Todd Bertuzzi, and Brett Lindros. Okposo will not be traded. That said, he debuted to 2,500 people on the same night Sean Avery scored two goals against Pittsburgh at the Garden.

2) The best goal of the year was scored by a guy (Rob Davison) who was traded for a 7th round pick. As far as I know, they don't make 8th round picks to trade.

3) Your franchise goalie is injured in his hip for the second straight year. What's going to happen 7, 8, or 9 years from now? Hip injuries take their toll. Ask Jaromir Jagr. He hasn't been the same since injuring his hip in the 2006 Turin Olympics. Henrik won a gold medal that year. He is healthy. He is one of the top 3 goaltenders in the world.

4) The last playoff series won by the Islanders was 1993. Pierre Turgeon was their superstar then. Remember when #77 was relevant? Me neither. Since then, the Broadway Blueshirts have won a Stanley Cup, watched Mark Messier create history, watch Wayne Gretzky score a playoff hat trick, miss 7 years of playoffs, and storm back to bring President's Trophy-winning Buffalo to the brink.

5) The fan favorite on the Islander team is... ? I don't know. The Rangers have Lundqvist and Sean Avery, preceded by Jed Ortmeyer.

And this is the big one...

6) In the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, the Islanders went 6th. With the 5th selection, the Penguins took Jaromir Jagr. With the 6th pick, the Islanders took Scott Scissons. Names still available - Derian Hatcher (8th), Keith Tkachuk (19), Martin Brodeur (20), Doug Weight (34), Mikael Renberg (40), Sergei Zubov (85), Robert Lang (133), and Petr Bondra (156).

Scott Scissons played 2 NHL games and never had a point. Not that the Rangers did better that year. Picking at unlucky 13, they took Michigan State's defenseman Michael Stewart, who was one of only 2 first round picks that year to never step onto NHL ice (Edmonton's was the other).

**

I know, I know. 1980. 81. 82. 83. Those were great years. But, I wasn't even born when the Islanders won the last Cup. The one thing the Islanders have over the Rangers is the pretzel twist. That's a good snack. $9 at the Coliseum gets you a nice diet soda and a pretzel twist. You can't beat that with a cotton candy stick.

So, B, what do you say? Hop on, just for the playoffs. Who knows? Maybe you'll see something you like? I'd love to have you on my team. We agree on football and baseball. Why should we fight over hockey?