NHL News for Former WCHA Players

[Bear55]

Wow, that is one amazing draft year. Did anyone do wrong in the first round?

NY made a blunder and St. Louis didn't do all that well with the last pick in the first round, anyone remember Shawn Belle? However the rest of the first round players all managed to play at least 150 nhl games so far. Lots of talent in the 2nd round and beyond too.

Here is a great link to check out.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html

[cbrooks]

Drew Stafford with another hat trick against the Islanders

[Bear55]

I could score a trick vs the Islanders.

[cbrooks]

I should add that Buffalo lost that game 7 to 6

[OnAFly]

I can't believe Pavelski went so late. That's was a great pick.

[Bear55]

I can't believe Pavelski went so late. That's was a great pick.

The more I look at past draft boards the more I realize how much luck is involved in this stuff. Sure you might have scouts and teams that can find the occasional diamond in the rough better than others teams but if you look at just this draft alone its funny to look at where players are picked and how pro scouts could be so far off.

Just a few examples for fun:

If Boston really knew Patrice Bergeron was going to be that good they would have taken him in the first round ahead of Mark Stuart.

Even Nashville picked Kevin Klein at 37 ahead of Shea Weber at pick 47 in the 2nd round.

The further back you go into the deep round the more ridiculous it becomes and Joe Pavelski is a great example. It was a great pick but more based on luck then San Jose knowing he was going to develop. Otherwise there is no way the Sharks would have had three poor picks ahead of Pavelski, two of which have never seen the NHL.

I will actually give the Wild some props for taking Burns way off the board in what might be the deepest draft ever. That took some balls and actually paid off for us. The teams that took Oshie and Wheeler also saw something other teams did not and took a risk with high picks.

[cbrooks]

Drafting is a gamble. Remember Joe Finely for UND. He was drafted by the Capitals like 27th overall. I don't think he even made his NHL debate yet. I have a feeling he won't.

[OnAFly]

Burns is great, but there were some talented forwards that went after him.

[Bear55]

Burns is great, but there were some talented forwards that went after him.

Very true but I think any time you can pick up a quality player in the first round you are doing a good job. No doubt a lot of teams wish they could have picked up Getzlaf or a few others with their earlier picks.

I also like to give teams a little more props when they move up to draft a guy who they really like. In 03 NJ moved up and grabbed Parise late in the 1st round, they look pretty smart right now. That little move in the 2nd round the Wild made last year might pay off too. I don't think anyone saw Jason Zucker coming into the WCHA and putting up the numbers he has been.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, not complaining about how Burns turned out. But it would be nice to have some sort of a magic drafting crystal ball.

[Bear55]

No kidding, or at least find some luck once in a while. I guess you could say Clutterbuck was a pretty nice pickup for a 3rd rounder.

Sorry for taking this off topic but what the heck one more draft post. The Red Wings managed to draft Pavel Datsyuk in the 6th round of the 98 draft. They then followed that up with Henrik Zetterberg in the 7th round of the 99 draft. That is like finding a buried treasure in your back yard and then hitting oil while digging the up the treasure.

[scsavre]

Im still complaining about Burns. We drafted him as a forward. Fine he is decent now, but it took 6 years. It is just lucky at this point. we could have got him with our 2nd pick even.

[mrklean]

Andrew Gordon played for SCSU for 2 years i think then went to Washington, i dont think he has played much in 4 years, but i had a few classes with him so i can at least say i had class with a pro athlete

[solbes]

EDIT: Never mind, didn't see the dedicated post to this trade...

Stars traded James Neal and Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski.

Goligoski's stock must be strong because James Neal was one of their better young forwards, scoring more than 20 goals in each of his first 3 seasons.

Goligoski has scored 30 points each of the last two years. He was exciting to watch in the maroon and gold.

Niskanen (came from Virginia) started out very strong as a rookie, but has really fallen off this year and last year to a lesser extent.

[cbrooks]

Blake Wheeler is now a Thrasher. Erik Johnson is now Colorado.

[scsavre]

Im thinking Johnson could use a change of scenery. 1 goal so far in 3 games. The skill is there.

[Bear55]

Phil Kessel 2 goals and 2 assists last night. Love him or hate him the kid can score. 25 goals this year and on his way to what could be 3 strait 30 goal seasons.

[Bear55]

]Im thinking Johnson could use a change of scenery. 1 goal so far in 3 games. The skill is there.

A surprising trade for sure, it will be interesting to see how this pans out for both teams. It seems like one of those moves that is going to cost a gm his job in a few years when these younger guys hit their primes.

[cbrooks]

Former UND forward Travis Zajac will match teams record for regular season consecutive games with 388. He will tie it tonight when the Devils play Atlanta.

[cbrooks]

Zach Parise who was out since having knee surgery for a torn menicus on Nov 2 played yesterday after missing 65 games. He didn't score a point. Devils lost to montreal 3-1 in that game.

[scsavre]

Paraise would look pretty good in the wild uniform next year.

[Bear55]

Vanek with a trick last night, 31 on the year.

[OnAFly]

He was a stud with Minnesota. He's still a stud with Buffalo.

[cbrooks]

That Buffalo team has a few good players that played in college. Leopold and Stafford both are having good years along with Vanek.

[SalmonSlayer]

Don't forget Hobey winner Ryan Miller.