For this third portion, I’ll focus on a player that, I’m sure, everybody is excepting me to write about.
Yes, you got it—Patrik Stefan.
I honestly don’t know whether he deserved to be a first-round choice. Stefan had barely completed a full season in America when he started playing. He got 15 points in 25 games in '97-98, and 35 points in 33 games in '98-99. I guess the second half of that season was enough to impress scouts around the NHL.
The 1999 draft was thought to be exceptionally deep. But even at this point, lots of its first-round picks have yet to make an impact. A few notable names from 1999 are Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Henrik Zetterberg, and Martin Havlat. They are pretty much the only ones that had an impact, if any, on their respective teams.
So basically, scouts were wrong about the entire draft. Apart from a few players, if you compare the 1999 draft with the 2003 draft, it’s easy to notice that depth was practically nonexistent in 1999.
There is also an entire story around the 1999 draft—the Sedin twins. The twins were both regarded as "can’t miss" first-round picks, and rightly so. But the problem with the twins was that they were twins. Henrik and Daniel always played together, forming an incredible duo on the ice. They were so used to playing with each other, and complete each other so well, that nobody knew what would happen if you split them up. So obviously, nobody wanted to.
It took a very smart general manager (and another stupid one) to pull off huge trades before draft day in order to secure two of the first three picks. The first general manager was Brian Burke—yes, the very same that saved Anaheim’s franchise. The other one, in Atlanta, was Don Wadell, who by now he has made many more mistakes.
After trading superstar Pavel Bure, Burke was able to get both the second and third draft choices, and made sure that Atlanta would pick Stefan with their first pick. That way, he would be able to land both the Sedin twins and build the team around them.
I’m sure drafting Patrik Stefan first sounded like a great idea back then—but Don Wadell would probably prefer to have both Sedins on his team as we speak.
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about 1 month ago
Nice piece. I'm liking this series. Only error is that Dallas ended up winning that game against Edmonton in a shootout.
from about 1 month ago
Oh! ur right! I meant Dallas!
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