Did-You-Know Drafting

[BTH]

Keep in mind that I know that it is impossible to know how a player will develop and the post below is only for a fun and informative read. Here are some drafting blunders the Habs have done in the 90s. Pretty much I'm listing players better than our pick that were lower down in the draft:o

1989: The Habs wasted their 13 overall pick on Lindsay Vallis rather than Olaf Kolzig(19), Adam Foote(22), Travis Green(23), Kent Manderville(24) and Byron Dafoe(35).

In 90, the Habs embarassingly chose Turner Stevenson 12th overall over Keith Tkachuk(19), Martin Brodeur(20), Bryan Smolinski(21), Jiri Slegr(23), Chris Simon(25), Felix Potvin(31), Doug Weight(34) and Mikael Renberg(40).

In 1991, the Habs thought it would be funny to take Brent Bilodeau(17) instead of Glen Murray(18), Martin Rucinsky(20), Dean McAmmond(22), Ray Whitney(23) and Ziggy Palffy(26).

Then, Montreal chose Jim Campbell with the 28th pick when Jassen Cullimore(29), Sandis Ozolinch(30) and Jozef Stumpel(40) were waiting for a team.

1992 was a slightly better year. The Habs screwed themselves over but didn't miss out on quite as much.

Montreal(20): David Wilkie (33)Valeri Bure (good choice)

Winnepeg(27): Boris Mironov

St. Louis(38): Igor Korolev

Vancouver(40): Mike Peca

NJ(42): Sergei Brylin

Hartford(47): Andrei Nikolishin

NY Rangers(48): Mattias Norstrom

The Canadiens made a strong choice in Saku Koivu(21) in '93 but they did have some other options. Todd Bertuzzi(23), Jamie Langenbrunner(35), Janne Niinimaa(36) and Brenden Morrison were the best choices but Bryan McCabe and Kevin Weekes were also available.

In 1994, the Habs made a big step closer to becoming a great team by selecting Brad Brown(18) and Jose Theodore(44).

Chris Dingman, Dan Cloutier, Rhett Warrener and Dave Scatchard could have been received instead of Brown. NHLers chosen after Theodore include Mathieu Dandenault(49), Richard Park(50) and Patrik Elias(51).

1995 was probably the worst year in CH draft history. I flinch at just the thought of writing down all the names and ranks.

Montreal selected Terry Ryan with the 8th overall pick. The NHLers chosen after him in the first 2 rounds alone are Kyle McLaren(9), Radek Dvorak(10), Jarome Iginla(11), JS Giguere(13), Jay McKee(14), Martin Biron(16), Petr Sykora(18), Brian Boucher(22), Miika Elomo(23), Alexei Morozov(24), Marc Denis(25), Jan Hlavac(28), Georges Laracques(31), Jason Doig(34), Nathan Perrott(44), Christian Laflamme(45), Jochen Hecht(49 and Pavel Rosa(50).

Alongside Montreal only San Jose, Toronto, Calgary and Detroit missed out on an NHL player in the first 2 rounds. The Habs selected Stephan Robidas 164 overall. Calgary chose Clarke Wilme(150). San Jose went on to pick Vesa Toskala(90) and Miika Kiprusoff(116). Toronto stole Danny Markov with the 223 pick overall. The CH chose the worst in the whole league.

1996: Matt Higgins(18) over Marcus Nilson(20), Marco Sturm(21), Daniel Brière(24), Matt Cullen 35), Steve Bégin(40), Pierre Dagenais(47) and Colin White(51). Luckily, the Habs chose Mathieu Garon 44th overall.

1997: The Habs looked like they had a great player in Jason Ward(11) but he was chosen right before Marian Hossa(12) and others; Mika Noronen(21), Scott Hannan(23), Brendan Morrow(25), Kristian Huselius(47) and Yuri Butsayev(49).

1998 was a great year for the Habs despite passing on Robyn Regehr(19), Mathieu Biron(21), Simon Gagné(22), Milan Kraft(23), Jiri Fischer(25), Scott Gomez(27), Ramzi Abid(28), Jonathan Cheechoo(29), Petr Svoboda(35), Mike Fisher(44) and Steve Moore(53) and Jarko Ruutu(68).

The Habs chose some current stars in Mike Ribiero(45), Andrei Markov(162) and Michael Ryder(216). The Bleu-blanc-rouge also drafted Eric Chouinard(16), Francois Beauchemin(75), Andrei Bashkirov(132), Gordie Dwyer(152), Andrei Kruchinin(189), Craig Muray(201) and Darcy Harris(247).

The Habs disappeared in 99' with Vadim Tarasov(196) their best pick. The Habs made the horrible mistake of trading their only 1st round pick. There weren't many top players after our would-have-been 10th overall (Branislav Mezei). Some are Oleg Saprykin(11), David Tanabe(16), Maxime Ouellet(22), Martin Havlat(26), Ari Ahonen(27), Alexei Semenov(36), Mike Commodore(42), Jordan Leopold(44), Michael Zigomanis(64) and Jan Lasak(65).

In 2000, the Habs used their 2 first round choices on Ron Hainsey(13) and Marcel Hossa(16) while ignoring Brooks Orpik(18), Krystofer Kolanos(19), Alexander Frolov(20), Anton Volchencov(21), Brad Boyes(24), Steve Ott(25), Brian Sutherby(26), Justin Williams(28), Niklas Kronwall(29), Ivan Huml(59), Dan Ellis(60), Mikael Tellqvist(70), Ramzi Abid(85) and John-Michael Liles(159).

The Habs used their 78th pick overall on Jozef Balej, the prospect who won Montreal Alexei Kovalev.

[Edited on 2005/9/4 by Bulis_the_Habbie]

[Capt.Crunch]

Depressing.

Another thing to consider though would be the Habs rough treatement of their rookies.

I remember an event in (2002-2003) in which an opposing coach made a young Mike Ribeiro part of their "New dangerous player to watch" pre-game speech. Mike had an outstanding game the previous match.

Well, the "new dangerous player to watch" wasn't even part of the line up!

Hainsey really made a good showing in 2003-2004's pre-season matches before blundering in the regular. The games I listened on the radio made mention of a young player who made good playmaking decisions at the blue line and that had an increadible shot.

The player I saw in the regular season seemed to be out of his game, overtly worried of his positional game (at the point of making mistakes) and generally making a fool out of himself.

Jason Ward had a couple of season where he was amongst the best of his team in scoring (he was at least named the AHL's MVP). I wonder what would have been his potential if he only would have played with decent forwards instead of checking 4th liners. I guess we'll see what happens for him in NY.

I know you cannot be too carefull with the rookies and that the pre-season matches are usually testing grounds for prospects and line up modification (they can be easier to play in that regard).

The only thing is that I feel we are really missing out on some of these players we are casting off.

[Uwey]

Certainly one the Habs downfalls over the past 15 years. Now with the likes of Trevor Timmons, Andre Savard(back doing what he does best, scouting) & Pierre Gauthier we should soon start to see a huge up turn in this area!!

[daspin]

FANTASTIC Post! great read.. Although depressing, we werent the only team to miss out on star players.. Every team could in fact make a list like this, but its very interesting to see it all in print and plain as day... If only teams could draft in hindsight..We'd be perrenial cup winners..

[shortcat1]

At the risk of being calous and a devil's advocate , all I can say is: "So?"

:ghg::ghg::ghg:

[Leafs Suck]

I know what you're sayin Bulis but alot of the guys Montreal drafted were great juniors and were good moves at the time.

The only ones I remember hearing debate about were the Wickenhesier pick instead of Savard, and Chouincard instead of Gagne.

[~moeman]

Best example of a junior star that went bust is Alexandre Daigle.

I live in the Ottawa area nd could see the reason why a bilingual star in the making kid got picked. The bigger mistake was the contract offered and signed. The Sens had a freakin' real estate broker as a GM at the time. Anyways, part of the problem is when do you bail on a kid. Ribs has huge talent and in my books he's a lock. He needs his cage rattled and Gainey will do that. Example #1 of letting go of talent was John LeClair. (Don't get me started on Patrick Roy's departure).

I have no issues with the Habs dropping potential like Chouinard and Balej.

We is deep in prospects. I can't wait to see Chipchura in his first pro game.

[Uwey]

On another note, from the highly touted group known as The Red Line, the Habs were ranked 7th in overall draft performance last month.

7. Montreal Canadiens

Quietly had a very solid day at the draft table joining Anaheim as the only clubs able to nab two of Red Line's top 10 prospects. Overall, they had only two picks in the top 120, yet came away with five of our top 115. Shored up their long-term depth in nets with mature and mentally strong Carey Price, then couldn't believe their good fortune when they were able to trade up and grab homegrown power forward Guillaume Latendresse, a top 10 talent, at #45. Got Andrei Kastsitsyn's younger brother, Siarhei, in the 6th round, and homegrown sleeper Philippe Paquet in the 7th. In between, forwards Juraj Mikus and Mathieu Aubin were solid values.

&

This was their ranking of our second round pick :

7. Guillaume Latendresse

An absolute horse who has ultra strong legs, keeps low centre of gravity, and knows how to drive the net. Physically dominant below the circles; can camp out in crease all day and no d-man can move him. Throws thunderous clean hits and is so freakishly strong that he hurts opponents without trying. Impossible to knock off puck. We love his no-nonsense style ‹ he's going straight to net every time and doesn't care if he has to carry two d-men on his back the whole way. Also has soft hands and touch around net, slick moves, sees the ice quite well, and can make nice touch passes. Has deadly shot from slot with quick release. Big problem is he lacks both first step quickness and lateral agility. With great size and all the other attributes we can overlook the skating deficiencies as long as he shows passion on a consistent basis.

Projection: Classic scorng line power winger.

Style compares to: Tim Kerr

Infact they ranked him one position ahead of the guy taken second overall, Bobby Ryan!!!

[Uwey]

BTW, the Habs were tied only with the Devils for have the largest amount of draft picks play thru the '90's. Though it seems they were bad drafting early on in a draft, they seem to be head & shoulders above the majority when it came to finding NHL players in the latter rounds.

[~moeman]

Habs have done well recently with forwards and they did very well this year starting with Carey Price (no matter what Habs hater pierre gaguire says) and the edgy pick of Latendresse. Based on team history (pre-Houle) the Habs need to pick/find some stellar stay at home Dmen and a Gaineyesque forward. I'm willing to listen to Babs and his plan/goal of #25 by 2009, the Habs 100th anniversary (which hopefully won't be covered by hnic and dats a good thing).

BTW, if any of you diehards have kids, the upcoming 100th is a perfect occasion to educate them about the glorious history of a spectacular sports franchise. Get them jerseys, hats, stickers, posters, tattoos, whatever. Spread the great story of our fabUloUs Montreal Canadiens. They'll thank you for it.

[Leafs Suck]

Habs were the best drafting team in the 80's, NO DOUBT about it. Ludwig, McPhee, Chelios, Dahlin, Claude Lemieux, Momesso, Tretiak (hehe), Svoboda, Corson, Richer, Roy, Gilchrest, John Ferguson Jr (hahaha), Brunet, Lumme, Odelein, Cassels, LeClair, Desjardins, Schneider, Popovic, Hill, Briesbois...

The 90's were rocky yes but alot of good players came out of the system. Conroy, Theodore, Petrov, Savage, Bure, Rivet, Koivu, Stevenson, Vokoun, Garon, Asham and in 98 we drafted Ribeiro, Markov and Ryder.

[~moeman]

From LS's 90s list I miss Vokoun the most. Garon may yet be proven a true #1 but Vokoun had Thibault and Theodore to compete with whilst a rookie. He's just another example of the Habs history of drafting amazing goalie prospects (not including Dryden whom they literally stole from the sleeping bears in Beantown). For you youngsters Tony Esposito was once a habs.

Side note, I find it funny>hilarious that the leaf kept picking up withered old Habs Gmen like Plante (in his biography he talks about his total embarrassment for having played in toronto), Plasse and Wayne Thomas.

[Leafs Suck]

I always liked Stevenson. Great leader, great PKer. If I had billions, TS could play on my team anyday.

[Howie_Morenz]

Bulis_the_Habbie good post. :/) If we let the management team off the hook for the travesty that happened in the 90's I would say shame on us.

That '95 draft is a pathetic showing for our scouting and management staff at the time. Bob Gainey I hope will make people responsible for their work.

[johnnyhasbeen]

Wickenheiser over Savard 1980 1st overall, ever since then....

[The Saint]

Cool post.

And thank Sweet Jésus we have our current scouts, Timmins, Savard & BG running the show. We may not always agree with the picks that are made, but i think we can at least feel secure in the fact that this executive team actually has a vision for this team as well as a keen sense of team needs. Both in the short to medium and long term.

[BTH]

I know that every team can make this list, and that you can't blame the Habs scouts and that some of those players looked good in juniors but ended up becoming busts. I mentioned something about that in the title post ot prevent those types of comments.

It's just to list some players that we (and almost every team in the league) could have gotten but missed out on.

A few palm-readers would do the Habs some good.

[Leafs Suck]

Originally posted by Bulis_the_Habbie

you can't blame the Habs scouts and that some of those players looked good in juniors

Terry Ryan is a perfect example.

Any one of us would have picked him at #8.

Big, tough, and a 50-100 point man in junior.

Sure you could say "We should have picked Iginla" but Iginla (who's the same age as Ryan) had 30 something less point then Ryan in that draft year. It wasn't until the next season that Iginla's game bloosmed.

[Uwey]

Quite honestly, I wanted to pick Petr Sykora in the first round that season & I figured they would take Gigger in the second round!!

If I'm not mistaken, Sykora had been touted as a top five, until he suffered a serious injury that season!!

[Leafs Suck]

Ah U, if you'd been the GM all this time we'd definitely have that 25th Cup... plus several more.