'96 Draft look what we missed

[Andy Pred 48 337]

I was just looking at our new D mans bio and thought I'd have a look at how he compares to the rest of his draft year. Well overall Ruslan is one of the most durable of the D men drafted that year. Derek Morris (13th) 869 Chris Phillips (1st) 863 & Zdeno Chara (56th) 847 have played more than the Belarus Capt 842. What got me looking thou was the players Detroit passed over when taking their 1st round pick that year. Hindsight is a great thing, but when the Redwings chose Jesse Wallin with their 26th overall pick they unknowingly missed some gems.

Wallin played just 49 games for the Wings before falling into minor league hockey. Cory Sarich went with the next pick after Wallin, he has played 749 games collecting 122pts. There is another 10 players that have played over 500 games with Sami Salo being a 3rd from last 239th overall pick steal. He played 665 times and ammassed 273 pts! The list is more than interesting but the 5 that stand out the most are; Chara 56th o/a 847 games 363 pts and counting. Kubina 179th o/a 822 games 348pts and counting, Kaberle 204th o/a 820 games 482pts and counting. Ponti 59th o/a 787 games and 318pts. Lastly Mitchell 199th o/a 586 games 119pts and still an FA!!

[dropkickshanahans 463]

I'm not even mad. I don't think any of those guys won a stanley cup except for Kubina in 04, while we go on winning 3 in 5 years?

Besides, it's more fun to look at who you could've had when you're using the Lions and looking at their draft history

Edited August 12, 2010 by dropkickshanahans

[MacAttack25 44]

Like you said, it's all in hindsight, but it's just a little bit hard to swallow that we took Jesse Wallin over the likes of Chara. You have to think the Wings really saw something in Wallin back then.

But it's nice to think that the Red Wings are often a team that leaves other teams wondering how they missed out on players. Think of all the players taken before Zetterberg, Datsyuk or Ericsson.

[Original-Six 254]

Like you said, it's all in hindsight, but it's just a little bit hard to swallow that we took Jesse Wallin over the likes of Chara. You have to think the Wings really saw something in Wallin back then.

The same could be said about all the teams that passed on Yzerman,Lidstrom,Fedorov,Datsyuk,Zetterberg,Franzen...etc

I dont lose any sleep over it.

[lookalive07 251]

Like you said, it's all in hindsight, but it's just a little bit hard to swallow that we took Jesse Wallin over the likes of Chara. You have to think the Wings really saw something in Wallin back then.

But it's nice to think that the Red Wings are often a team that leaves other teams wondering how they missed out on players. Think of all the players taken before Zetterberg, Datsyuk or Franzen.

Fixed.

[dobbles 252]

to me its not the picks like chara that are disappointing. there is a reason guys go lower; they are unknown guys that may or may not blossom into something. considering how successful the wings have been with low round gems, i don't fret at all.

to me, what sucks is missing on a much better player like sarich by just 1 pick. i am sure both guys were rated very close on draft boards and it could have been a coin flip type situation.

[grsbmd 0]

Scotty Bowman was just awful when it came to the draft. I'm not sure if he ever picked a first rounder who wasn't a bust.

[Jedi 1,865]

The 1993 Draft has some interesting talent that we missed out on too.

With the 22nd pick in the draft, the Red Wings selected D Anders Eriksson.

Who was picked 23rd by the New York Islanders? Todd Bertuzzi.

Also picked later on in the draft. Miroslav Satan, Tommy Salo, Eric Daze, Janne Niinimaa, Brendan Morrison, Bryan McCabe, Darcy Tucker, Patrick Lalime, Todd Marchant, Andrew Brunette, Pavol Demitra, Kimmo Timonen and Manny Legace.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Besides, it's more fun to look at who you could've had when you're using the Lions and looking at their draft history

That requires a bottle of scotch.

[RedWings Gone Wild 6]

Thing is, with the way we develop players, there's no guarantee that every pick will achieve the same amount of success inside of our system as they have outside of it; just by the nature of revising draft history... The margin or error is slim in the NHL and players get reputations that stick (and sometimes, because of it, never get a chance to shed the bad rep).. If we drafted Chara, he may have never been given the chance to succeed in Detroit, especially considering how mediocre his offensive game was early in his career and how stacked we were on D... It can be a blessing for younger players to be on a good team because they get to learn from great players.. but it can also be a curse because it can prolong or halt their development at times. Can't really separate what a player's accomplished from the system that built them.

[Blazer 0]

It seems that the Red Wings have a lot of drafts that have gone right south.

1987 and 1988 draft was pretty similar to the 1996 draft.

In 1987 only 2 of the 12 players the Wings drafted played in the NHL, Yves Racine (1st, 11th pick) and Gord Kruppke (2nd, 32nd pick -- only 23 games). Guess who went as number 15, Joe Sakic, and John Leclair as no.33. Also Eric Desjardins went as no. 38, and Mathieu Schneider as the 89th pick.

In 1988 same thing, 1 player out of 11 selected played in the NHL. Sheldon Kennedy (who?) in the 4th round, with the 80th pick. Mark Recchi, Tony Amonte, Rob Blake, Alexander Mogilny, Valeri Kamensky, Marty McInnis, Shjon Podein, Sean Hill (and Bret Hedican for that matter) were missed to name a few notables.

The thing is, I don't have a problem with missing out on some players, but when you only get three players out of 23 selections that make it to the NHL (and barely so), I can only imagine the frustrations during those years. Fortunately things changed the year after, most notably the '89 draft with Sillinger, Lidstrom, Fedorov, Drake and Konstantinov all in one year.

Allthough, taking Primeau over Jagr in 1990 was a swing and a miss (in retrospect of course).

All in all I'll have '87, '88 and '96 again in trade for another '89 draft.

[GoOzzieGo 22]

The same could be said about all the teams that passed on Yzerman,Lidstrom,Fedorov,Datsyuk,Zetterberg,Franzen...etc

I dont lose any sleep over it.

I was just looking at the '83 draft when Detroit took Yzerman 4th overall and the players taken ahead of him. Good God, how did LaFontaine fall to third in that draft? Previous season in juniors....70 games, 104 goals, 130 assists for 234 points and a whopping 10 penalty minutes.

[donfishmaster 62]

Playing "What If?" with drafts is fun, but given the Wings history, Wallin was a small, sad statistical accident.

When my friends talk about drafting we always slam MERCILESSLY on one guy who railed RELENTLESSLY how stupid the Colts were to take Manning over Ryan Leaf. We couldn't go to a bar, game, or hang out without this guy telling us how much Manning was going to SUCK.

Now, we simply never, ever grow tired of telling him, "Told You So!"

[Buppy 1,720]

I love doing the What If thing. My favorite is probably '84, where we could have done this:

1 7 Kevin Hatcher

2 28 Stephane Richer

3 49 Patrick Roy

5 91 Kjell Samuelsson

6 112 Brett Hull

7 133 Cliff Ronning

8 154 Luc Robitaille

9 175 Gary Suter

Edited August 14, 2010 by Buppy