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Re-Rack ‘em
by IwoCPO on 06/13/08 at 11:18 AM ET
Comments (10)
Some dude named Jean working for the Calgary Herald asked Matt at Battle of Alberta for his take on a 1998 NHL draft do-over.
1998, you’ll recall, was the year Pavel Datsyuk was drafted in the 6th round, 171st overall.
According to Matt, things might be a tad different today.
He lists the way the draft should have fallen out if everyone had the smarts they do today, and the benefit of crystal clear foresight. The criteria Matt worked with?
The quality of the player today is important, but not as important as his 10-year record. Broadly speaking, the player’s accomplishments to-date should probably be worth about 2/3 of his revised ranking, and his stature right now (i.e. “Who would I most like to sign to a 5-year contract today?”) about 1/3
And here’s your number 1 pick in the 1998 draft, if held in 2008.
(1) Pavel Datsyuk. There is nothing bad you can say about this guy. You could drop him onto any team in the league, with any coach running any scheme, and he would promptly make that team much better. He is (IMO) the best defensive forward in the league; probably the best two-way forward in the league, and maybe even the 2nd-best forward in the league, period. Leads his draft class in career Pts/Gm (0.96) and has two Stanleys.
It’s a good read and a few nuggets are buried in there you might find interesting. Mikael Samuelsson was drafted the same year. Ok. Not so ironic, but he looks about ten years older than Datsyuk. Ten years to refine that shot. Man. A productive decade of training.
Also, Jiri Fischer was drafted the same year. 1st round, 25th overall. Here’s what Matt had to say about where he’d fall out if he were healthy today.
I was working off a list of guys who played this past season. Probably somewhere in the high teens with those other D-men? It’s been a while and it’s hard to say how good he’d be today, and what he would have accomplished over the past couple seasons.
Man, man, man. If, if. And, no, not even mentioning what the D corps would look like if Vladdie were winding it down right about now.
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Tags: datsyuk, fellow+bloggers, fischer, konstantinov, samuelsson,
Comments
I’m starting to think flukey career ending injury every few years is starting to be a Karma thing for the success the rest of the defensive corps has had. It’s like our version of the drummer who spontaneously combusts or is injured a bizarre gardening accident.
Here’s hoping Kronners rash of injuries is all we have to go through for a while.
Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 06/13/08 at 11:43 AM ET
you’ve got to think if Konstantinov doesn’t get in that crash we never trade for Chelios, and Fischer is probably on the 2nd pairing with Kronwall and we never trade for Stuart…
but yeah..
that would be physical as hell…
Kronwall, Fischer and Konstantinov in the same core.
open ice hit city.
Posted by Pharazon from England on 06/13/08 at 11:48 AM ET
Kronwall, Fischer and Konstantinov in the same core.
The “soft European” BS sure would have ended sooner.
If Konstantinov was still around, you could also reasonably argue that the Wings never trade for Schneider and, therefore, might still have Avery and the 1st round pick (#27, I think) that became Jeff Tambellini. I think it’s a safe bet to say that both Anders Erickson and Max Kuznetsov would still be gone, though.
This game is fun!
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 06/13/08 at 12:15 PM ET
I kinda think our Career-Ending Injury Karma is covered for the next few years, after the absolutely appalling, depths-of-the-ocean low NHL career of one Igor Grigorenko, once a can’t-miss prospect predicted to be another gem in the rough unearthed in the mid-second round by the organization’s genius scouting staff. Once, perhaps. After his auto accident? Cut loose and can’t even hack it in the RSL.
That ought to satisfy the malicious appetite for cruel career-terminating flukes of circumstance that the hockey gods seem to have for Wings personnel for a little while…
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the altar, sprikling blood for the bitch goddess on 06/13/08 at 12:16 PM ET
One of my favorite Fischer moments:
Good times. I was there for that, and it made me very happy.
Posted by Matt from Tennessee on 06/13/08 at 12:24 PM ET
With Datsyuk having had the considerably shorter career, I didn’t think I’d be able to get away with putting him #1 merely because he’s the best player *now*, but Lecavalier’s career totals (surprisingly, to me at least) actually aren’t very far ahead of the likes of Tanguay and Gomez.
The clincher was this: I calculated Vinny’s pts/gm excluding his first 3 seasons (i.e. when Datsyuk was still in Russia), and he still comes out behind Datsyuk.
Posted by Matt from Alberta on 06/13/08 at 01:30 PM ET
I calculated Vinny’s pts/gm excluding his first 3 seasons
do you mean you included his first 3 seasons?
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/13/08 at 01:34 PM ET
No I don’t…
Apples to apples… including only seasons where both Vinny and Pavel were in the NHL (i.e. excluding Vinny’s 1st 3), Pavel has a higher pts/gm.
Posted by Matt from Alberta on 06/13/08 at 01:58 PM ET
The clincher was this: I calculated Vinny’s pts/gm excluding his first 3 seasons (i.e. when Datsyuk was still in Russia), and he still comes out behind Datsyuk.
Huh.
I would not have thought that. Interesting.
I think that with the incredibly serious life-threatening injuries Detroit should be in for a bit of good luck for a while. It’s one thing to have to leave hockey - it’s another thing entirely to come close to death.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/13/08 at 06:54 PM ET
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well, one things for sure…they’d all have more shiny rings on their fingers.
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/13/08 at 11:36 AM ET