Mock Draft: 2003...

Ah, the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, arguably the deepest since 1990, when the top 5 were Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau, Mike Ricci, and Jaromir Jagr (also in the 1st round: Darryl Sydor at 7, Derian Hatcher at 8, Brad May at 14, Keith Tkachuk at 19, Martin Brodeur at 20, Bryan Smolinksi at 21).

And of course, we know what the Rangers and Islanders did. Hugh Jessiman at 12th overall, the only player in the ’03 Draft to never play an NHL game. Robert Nilsson at 15th overall, who wasn’t even a great player before he was drafted, and certainly isn’t now in Edmonton.

Let’s take a look back at that draft and see the spots players should have gone in hindsight, and who was actually taken there.

I pretended that Draft Day trades never happened. For instance, Pittsburgh actually traded up to #1 (from #3) because they wanted to draft the same goalie that Carolina wanted to draft. In my world, Florida still picked 1st, and the Penguins went 3rd overall.

Consider this a Mock Draft, 6 and a half years later...

#1, Florida, Dion Phaneuf
(Went 9th to Calgary)
Actual Selection: Marc-Andre Fleury, by Pittsburgh
The Penguins and Hurricanes both wanted Fleury, so Pittsburgh traded with Florida, who was set in the goalie position with Roberto Luongo. They took Fleury, and won their Stanley Cup 6 seasons later, so you can’t fault them, but Phaneuf is the biggest difference-maker in the whole 2003 NHL Draft.

#2, Carolina, Zach Parise
(17, New Jersey)
Actual Selection: Eric Staal
Carolina also won a Stanley Cup during Staal’s incredible rookie year, and he is going to be good for a decade, but Parise is more of a game-breaker, just a notch under Phaneuf in terms of being able to decide a game.

#3, Pittsburgh, Ryan Getzlaf
(19, Anaheim)
Actual Selection: Nathan Horton by Florida
Florida saw huge things in Horton, who had good numbers in the OHL along with a mean streak. Getzlaf’s numbers were slightly less than Horton’s, but he has proven to be a solid NHL player while Horton is constantly rumored to be traded.

#4, Columbus, Eric Staal
(2, Carolina)
Actual Selection: Nikolai Zherdev
You can’t blame Columbus for picking Zherdev. He had - and still has - incredible talent, but no one in North America has been able to tap into it, and he’s now home in Russia.


#5, Buffalo, Marc-Andre Fleury
(1, Pittsburgh)
Actual Selection: Thomas Vanek
Vanek is a very good player who has been wildly inconsistent, but if he can play every year like he did in 2006-07 (43-41-84) he can live up to his 5th overall selection.

#6, San Jose, Thomas Vanek
(5, Buffalo)
Actual Selection: Milan Michalek
It’s hard to see what the Sharks saw in Michalek, a player who scored a total of 9 goals in two seasons before being drafted ahead of Parise and Getzlaf. In a perfect world, they would have gotten Vanek instead.

#7, Nashville, Corey Perry
(28, Anaheim)
Actual Selection: Ryan Suter
Suter is good, for sure. At the time, Nashville needed defensive help, but to be honest, they needed all the help they could’ve gotten. Perry satisfies a lot of needs - great offensive skill and a lot of grit, both of which make him invaluable on the power play.

#8, Atlanta, Shea Weber
(49, Nashville)
Actual Selection: Bradyon Coburn
Coburn is good and has great potential - not that Atlanta would know, seeing as he was traded straight up for aging Alexei Zhitnik in 2007. Fact is though, after Phaneuf, Weber was the best defenseman in this draft. Nashville did great in selecting both him and Suter, though they drafted Suter first.

#9, Calgary, Nikolai Zherdev
(4, Columbus)
Actual Selection: Phaneuf
The Flames stole Phaneuf here. Think Columbus would have liked that pick back? Zherdev, though, is still an immense talent, like I said 5 spots earlier. He has incredible skill, and it’s a shame it never got put to use in the NHL.

#10, Montreal, Mike Richards
(24, Philadelphia)
Actual Selection: Andrei Kostitsyn
Kostitsyn will never warrant being a Top 10 pick, while Richards quickly went from unknown player to captain of the Flyers. As with Nashville and Shea Weber, Richards wasn’t even Philadelphia’s first pick of the Draft.

#11, Philadelphia, Brent Seabrook
(14, Chicago)
Actual Selection: Jeff Carter
Philadelphia had previously received Phoenix’s 1st round pick during the season, and took Carter. Can you imagine how dangerous the Flyers would be on the blueline if they had Seabrook back there? Carter is a good player, no doubt, and he scored 46 goals last year and might hit 40 this year, but Seabrook is still improving while it seems Carter might have already hit his peak.


#12, New York Rangers, Braydon Coburn
(8, Atlanta)
Actual Selection: Hugh Jessiman
A note to future GMs: Don’t pick a player because he’s from nearby and grew up a fan of your team. Hugh Freakin’ Jessiman? This guy is the laughingstock of this draft, while Coburn is quickly becoming a great defenseman. Plus, with Coburn, the Rangers wouldn’t have needed to sign Wade Redden, right?

In actuality, the Rangers over-drafted Jessiman. He was supposed to be a power forward in the John LeClair mold who was predicted to go in the late 1st round. The Rangers drafted him this high because they wanted a local guy, but it just never panned out.

#13, Brent Burns, LA
(20, Minnesota)
Actual Selection: Dustin Brown
I can’t possibly blame LA for drafting Brown, a hard-hitting, American-born RW who is one of my favorite non-Ranger players in the league. And people might tell me that Burns is overrated, but I’m very high on him and I think given the right team (a.k.a., not Minnesota), Burns can light this league up.

#14, Chicago, Jaroslav Halak
(271, Montreal)
Actual Selection: Seabrook
Chicago lucked out by still having Seabrook on board. In fact, they had a very good draft. But who let Halak slip to the 9th round?

#15, New York Islanders, Patrice Bergeron
(45, Boston)
Actual Selection: Robert Nilsson
Nilsson had a half-decent year the year he was drafted, yet stunk the next year, and the next, and the next. His biggest contribution to the Islanders was being traded away as part of the Ryan Smyth deal in ’07. Bergeron’s biggest contribution to Boston: 73 points in ‘05-’06 and 70 the next year before almost breaking his neck the next season. He would look good centering the 2nd line for the Islanders, no?

#16, Boston, Dustin Brown
(13, LA)
Actual Selection: Steve Bernier, San Jose
San Jose traded up to take Bernier, who had lit up the junior leagues. His transition to the NHL hasn’t been smooth though, and he is now on the 3rd line on his 3rd team, nowhere near a first-round pick.

#17, Edmonton, Joe Pavelski
(205, San Jose)
Actual Selection: Zach Parise, New Jersey
The Devils jumped at the opportunity to draft Parise after the Rangers, Islanders, and everyone else skipped by him. Funny thing is, Pavelski actually had better numbers in the season prior to being drafted than Parise did, yet he was in the obscure USHL (Parise played in the NCAA) and fell to #205. Looking back, both Pavelski and Parise were great steals.

#18, Washington, Dustin Byfuglien
(245, Chicago)
Actual Selection: Eric Fehr
Byfuglien was an offensive-defenseman in juniors who transitioned very nicely to the NHL game and now plays both D and RW. Fehr was a low-scoring playing in juniors who actually had 2 great years after he was drafted, 50 and 59 goals. He’s been on the back burner in Washington though, and it’s clear he won’t ever be a Top 6 forward on a team that features Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, and Nick Backstrom.

#19, Anaheim, Nathan Horton
(3, Florida)
Actual Selection: Ryan Getzlaf
A great late pick by Anaheim, getting someone who was Top 5 in this draft. Horton played in Oshawa in the OHL and scored 68 points in his draft year, 3rd on the team (oddly enough, #1 was never drafted and #2 went in the 4th round). Makes you wonder what stood out about Horton, who has turned into a good player but nowhere close to a 3rd overall selection.

#20, Minnesota, David Backes
(62, St. Louis
Actual Selection: Brent Burns
A good selection by Burns, though he is probably not fit for the way the Wild play. The Blues saw something in Backes and traded up to 62 to get him, and he’s worked out well. He’s a talented player who can hit, score, and fight. What more can you want?

#21, San Jose, Tobias Enstrom
(239, Atlanta)
Actual Selection: Mark Stuart, Boston
San Jose traded up with Boston to take Steve Bernier while Boston took Stuart here, who wasn’t extremely talented in the USHL or NCAA, and still isn’t in the NHL. He has played 2 full seasons as a Bruin, scoring a total of 25 points in those games. He’ll never be worthy of a 1st round pick, especially when Sweden’s Enstrom was available, though Enstrom didn’t blossom until a few years later.

#22, New Jersey, Jeff Carter
(11, Philadelphia)
Actual Selection: Marc-Antoine Pouliot
Carter went 11th and has had a few good seasons and can definitely score. The Oilers traded down (New Jersey leapt up to take Parise) and took Pouliot, who had a great couple of years in the QMJHL, but has never done it on a professional level. He lights up the AHL when he is down there, but can’t keep up in the NHL.

#23, Vancouver, Ryan Suter
(7, Nashville)
Actual Selection: Ryan Kesler
Kesler is a hard-working player but he probably will never play top-line minutes or score top-line points. Suter is a very good defenseman for Nashville, but he could have been drafted lower than 7th.

#24, Philadelphia, Loui Eriksson
(33, Dallas)
Actual Selection: Mike Richards
The Flyers stole Richards here. He quickly became a force for them - and their captain. Eriksson fell to the 2nd round, though he had better numbers than Horton, Jessiman, and Nilsson.

#25, Tampa Bay, Bernier
(16, San Jose)
Actual Selection: Anthony Stewart, Florida
Florida traded two 2nd round picks and a 6th to Tampa to take Stewart before anyone else did. After all, he was a hard-hitting RW with good offensive skill who was highly-touted. It just hasn’t worked for him in the NHL, as he has 12 points in 105 games and seems destined for a career in the minors.

#26, Maxim Lapierre, LA
(61, Montreal)
Actual Selection: Brian Boyle
LA had 3 picks in the 1st round here, and Boyle was their 2nd. A Ranger now, he was a great high school player when he was drafted. Lapierre was drafted by his hometown Canadiens and adds grit as a 4th liner with great potential should he ever be moved to the 2nd line. He is a Sean Avery type player, and while Boyle is a decent player who is a good penalty killer, Lapierre is a better choice here.

#27, Kyle Quincey, LA
(132, Detroit)
Actual Selection: Jeff Tambellini
Funny enough, the Kings had Quincey for 1 season, he played great, and was traded in part of the Ryan Smyth deal. He’s a solid defenseman with good upside, while Tambellini, well, Islander fans know. He’s a good player who can’t connect in the NHL but puts up great numbers in the AHL.

#28, Dallas, Brian Elliot
(291, Ottawa)
Actual Selection: Corey Perry, Anaheim
Seeing Perry still on the board, the Ducks jumped up and took him, and he rewarded them handsomely. Elliot was the 2nd to last pick in the draft, and while it has taken him a while to find himself, he has a good future as a starter in the NHL.

#29, Nigel Dawes, Ottawa
(149, Rangers)
Actual Selection: Patrick Eaves
Dawes is a speedy forward with a good shot, who, if given the chance, can be a Top 6 forward. He never got that chance in New York. Eaves was offensive at Boston College, but has found a spot on NHL rosters as a 3rd/4th liner. He’ll chip in 5-10 goals a year but you can never say that he was worth going 29th overall.

#30, St. Louis, Patrick O’Sullivan
(56, Minnesota)
Actual Selection: Shawn Belle
Belle was a curious selection - he was a stay-at-home defenseman who could have been picked later in the draft. He has played 11 career games in the NHL and now is in Montreal’s farm system. O’Sullivan could have been a Top 10 pick but his well-documented family troubles (a very abusive father who he filed a restraining order against) steered teams away from him. The Wild took him 56th overall, a value selection at that point. He had one good year with LA and now is in Edmonton, where he is struggling, but so is the team. Given the right situation, O’Sullivan can still do damage in this league.

Nashville...

One of my favorite things in life - besides Americanized Mexican food, Internet pastimes not including this blog, and TV shows on DVD - is going to Ranger games outside of New York. I go to enough Ranger games at MSG (I have a half-season package) and I go to a few at the Coliseum every year (although this year I've only been to one, the January 13 2-1 win).

In 2006-07, I went to Boston. The Rangers killed them, 6-1, on a Monday night. Petr Prucha had 2 goals, and the Prucha-Jed Ortmeyer-Matt Cullen line all had 3 points. I also would have gone to both playoff games in Atlanta that year, but I owned a business at the time and couldn't just up and leave, although I was tempted to (and good seats were available in that hockey hotbed the day of both games).

In 2007-08, I planned a 3 in 4 Extravaganza. Three games, 4 nights. The Rangers were playing Wednesday in New Jersey, Thursday in Philadelphia, and Saturday in Pittsburgh. We ended up just going to the first 2, because Pittsburgh is 5 hours from Philadelphia and 7 from NY.

So me and 3 others went to the game in Jersey, which I believe was the 3rd at the Rock ever. Nice place, though it was unfinished then (I have since returned for a Metallica concert, and while the drinks are crazy expensive, it is a nice place... but $10 for a shot of Jameson is nuts). The Devils scored 35 seconds in, Nigel Dawes scored 50 seconds later, the crazy fans behind us shouted "Die, Scotty, Die!" the whole night, two of us moved to very nice seats to see Marc Staal score his first ever NHL goal, and the Rangers won 4-2.

Then, the next day, we went to Philadelphia. Prucha scored on a great shot to make it 3-2 in the 3rd, but the Flyers tied it and the Rangers won in a shootout on a Brendan Shanahan goal.

We didn't go to the Penguins game, but they won 4-3 in overtime on a Jason Strudwick goal. The weird thing about this game was that all 4 goals were by defensemen. Michal Rozsival scored 2 within 4 minutes (one shorthanded), Dan Girardi had one, and then Struds got the winner.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the day the Giants beat the Patriots, I was in Montreal for the NBC game - along with 35 other Ranger fans. The Habs were up 3-0, and then the Rangers scored 5 straight for the great win. I'm pretty sure you could hear the Ranger fans on TV that day. Ryan Hollweg got crushed by Alex Kovalev at one point, then boarded (of course) one of the Flying Kostitsyn Brothers (Sergei?) and got tossed from the game, and I think suspended.

Great city, that Montreal.

* * *

Point being, Thursday is a jumping off point for me. I haven't been to many games this season, for a few reasons. 1) The economy stinks, so if I'm supposed to work a day when I have a game, I sell the tickets to friends so I can work and make money. 2) The team has been mediocre, which I can watch, but for a while the team wasn't even likable, so I didn't want to spend the money (train, bar, food, tickets, etc.) to go.

Thursday, though, I'll be at the game, then I'll be at Sunday's game vs. Philly, then a game March 24th vs. Minnesota, and finally April 7 vs. Montreal.

Thursday's game is in Nashville, Tennessee, marking my 2nd foray into Music City, and first for a Predators game. We got very good seats, and I'm jazzed. Okay, to be honest, I'm not sure if the seats are good. It's a goofy system they have, with row A, then row AA somewhere. I think I'm in row CC, which is either 3rd row or like 14th row or something. Couldn't make sense of floor plans there, and I'm not an idiot either. Hockey hotbed, it is not.

Nashville is a great city though, and I'm very curious to how their fanbase is. I think they have a good core of fans, somewhere around 12,000 season subscribers, but they only sell a little over 13,000 tickets per game, so the city isn't rabid about the Predators. I do also hear people from Nashville calling the XM Home Ice channel (channel 204) once in a while.

They also have a good team who is hot. They've won 6th straight although they didn't get any help at the trade deadline.

Please answer the poll question on which jersey I should wear to the game.

If I'm lucky, I'll get to see Hugh Jessiman's first NHL game! (No, that's not true, he won't be there.)

* * *

By the way, 78 goals were scored in the NHL tonight! Not one of them was a shootout goal, either! The Islanders beat the Devils 7-3; Carolina won 9-3 over Tampa Bay; Columbus beat the Wings 8-2. Crazy night. There was also only one 1-goal game (LA over Minnesota, 4-3).

Glen Sather Should Read This Blog...

Here's what I wrote about Wade Redden in June 2008, when he technically was still under contract to the Ottawa Senators...

June 27 - "Don't be duped by him."

June 30 - "Wade Redden was bad at 31. How bad is he going to be at 35?"

And in July...

July 1 - "A history of injury? A poor work ethic? Oh but don't worry, he had one point in the playoffs last year. This is disgusting. It's an insult to the fans. You know ticket prices are going up again this year. This is why. So a player who doesn't want to work can make his guaranteed money."

"I declare this the worst day to be a Ranger fan since Brian Leetch was traded."

Before and during the free agent period, me and my Islanders-counterpart Bryan spoke about how bad Redden was. Yes, I also lamented the Michal Rozsival signing as well, but 1) he isn't making as much money as Redden and 2) we all knew Rozsival was bad, but some fans (and apparently Sather) thought Redden was good based on past performances.

When bloggers and beat reporters are begging for a 24-year-old rookie (Corey Potter) to stay in the lineup so that Redden can take a seat, I think it's fair to say he is a bust, and he will never be a good player in New York. People can tell me that it's only half-of-a-season, but really, do you want to see how bad he can become in the next 5 and a half seasons?

Of course, that would mean Sather would have to admit to making a mistake. However, as past examples Jamie Lundmark and Hugh Jessiman taught us, it takes him a minimum of four years for Sather to admit he erred.

Draft Day Blunders In New York

Looking for a laugh today?

Well, here you go. Today, the Rangers traded away former first round pick Hugh Jessiman to the Nashville Predators. What do the Rangers get in return, you ask? That would be the classic "future considerations", which can be anything from a crappy overpaid player to a bucket of hockey pucks to a nice meal the next time the Rangers go down to Nashville. Apparently, Jessiman struggled with a high ankle sprain for much of his career. Now, those of us who play fantasy football know that a high ankle sprain is one of those injuries that affects you for a long, long time. That said, Jessiman was drafted five years ago, and you can only blame injuries for so long.

There will be no stones thrown from this glass house. We all know Jessiman never played an NHL game, the only first-rounder chosen in 2003 with that distinction. Of course, that same year, the Islanders passed up the obvious choice of Zach Parise in favor of Robert Nilsson, he of the nineteen career goals. While the link above makes light of the Rangers' awful first-round draft record, the Islanders don't exactly have anything to brag about. Remember the 1999 draft, when the Islanders had four first-round picks? Taylor Pyatt, Tim Connolly, Branislav Mezei, and Mike Rupp barely combine to form one above-average player, let alone the four star players the Islanders thought they drafted. Let's not forget about Raffi Torres with the #5 pick in 2000, the Jason Spezza debacle in 2001, and of course, the selling off of 2004, 2006, and 2007 first-round picks for Ryan Smyth and two playoff home games. Hell, aside from Kyle Okposo, the best player the Islanders picked in the first round was Petteri Nokelainen in 2004, and he got dumped off to Boston for Ben Walter. Walter and Jeff Tambellini, point-a-game players in the AHL but horrendous players in the NHL, will combine to provide an extremely capable scoring line for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers for many years to come.

So, having said all that, let's just agree that neither of our teams can draft well in the first round and leave it at that. Okay? Okay.

Breathe Easy...

Breath easy, Ranger fans. Perennial difference-maker Hugh Jessiman has re-signed with the team.

Sarcasm is tough to do when you're typing a blog. Truth is, Jessiman was a waste of a draft pick. Hopefully the Rangers learned their lesson here. Never draft an Ivy League collegiate player in the first round. When the teams your playing including Princeton, Harvard, and Yale (does Yale have a team?), competition isn't tough. 

Had had 47 points in 34 games in his first year at Dartmouth. Then, he was drafted. His production fell to 33 points in 34 games his second year, then he scored 2 points in 12 games his third year. Who does he think he is, Jason Strudwick? 

Truth be told, me and Jessiman are both 24, and we both will never play in the NHL as a Ranger. The Rangers should have drafted me. I'd request less money.

Al Montoya...

The Rangers made two deadline deals this year. One of them recently turned into either Nikolai Zherdev or Dan Fritsche (depending on how you look at it) and the other now is this...

Marcel Hossa + Al Montoya = Fred Sjostrom

The night before the deadline, GM Glen Sather and Coyotes GM Don Maloney had a player-for-player deal on the table, Hossa for Sjostrom. It would have been a steal for the Rangers. Hossa was an underachiever who fans expected more from because of his last name (See: Fedorov, Fedor). Along with his 8 points, he had 24 penalty minutes, most probably from hooking. Sjostrom had 19 points (he played 15 more games than Hossa) and 14 penalty minutes. On top of the stats (Sjostrom had 2 points in the regular season as a Ranger), Sjostrom is a much more complete player who is actually going to be in the NHL this upcoming season, while Hossa skates against Ray Emery and Jaromir Jagr in Russia. 

However, the deal was delayed for some reason, and when it got faxed to NHL headquarters, Al Montoya was sent with Hossa for Sjostrom, goalie David LeNeveu and enforcer Josh Gratton.  

On Monday, LeNeveu was signed as a free agent by Anaheim, and yesterday, the Predators signed Gratton, presumably to replace Darcy Hordichuk. 

Now, LeNeveu and Gratton were never, ever in the Rangers plans, as if the signings of Steve Valiquette and Aaron Voros didn't tell you that already.

My beef here is with Sather throwing in Montoya to get these people with expiring contracts to play in Hartford for three months before they sign elsewhere.

Montoya was a first round pick, 6th overall, in 2004. This isn't one of those blogs like when I write about Hugh Jessiman and tell you that they could have drafted 30 other proven NHL players instead of him. But, for the record, just so you know, Drew Stafford, Alex Radulov (a future Hall of Famer, I called it here first!), Wojtek Wolski, Andrej Meszaros, Mike Green, Johan Franzen, Mark Streit (he of the $4.1M/year deal), and Daniel Winnick were all chosen after him. A weak draft, yes, but still.

Montoya was supposed to be incredible. He went 30-10-3 one year in college, 30-7-3 another year. However, he was a bust and deemed expendable when Henrik Lundqvist burst onto the scene after the lock-out. He never quite developed like he was supposed to (See: Tyutin, Fedor). No longer was he the Future. Instead, he was Money in the Bank, albeit money with a bad back.

Personally, I think Sather held onto him too long. He did do well in the AHL, so he wasn't a total bust. He went 66-34-4, completely respectable (although his save % was very poor sometimes). This past season, he lost his starting job, and other GMs knew this. Sather should have traded him at the 2007 deadline when he was a developing goaltender with a solid record who started for his AHL team. As a former first round pick, he could have fetched atleast a 2nd round pick.

Now, he seems like he was just thrown in the deal to get him out of Sather's hair, like he was a nuisance and he would take anything to get rid of him.

He might in fact go the way of Jessiman and never see action in an NHL game. He could be a late bloomer (ran out of people whose first names are "Fedor," so I can't give an example) and become starting goaltender of the Las Vegas Panthers in the 2012-13 season.

My point is that he seems like a throw in. Sather knew LeNeveu and Gratton would never, ever put a Rangers jersey on. He knew Maloney just wanted more for Sjostrom so it didn't look like a fix, and so he offered up someone Maloney wanted to draft in the first place.