pretty much, this one is stupid. How can we judge him? Maybe give him a few years? And even then, he started with gold. Vegas was already a contender when he came in.
- deadpoulet
Nobody felt that way after Vegas’ initial draft. They were chosen to finish dead last. This has become such revisionist history. Please, go back and read some of those articles before their 1st season began. Find me one where they were gifted a 100 point season after the expansion draft, but before a puck dropped.
None of those guys were proven outside of MAF, Perron, and Neal and people believed them to be pretty far along the back 9. MAF was the only one of them with a little panache still left to his name. Let’s just take a look at a couple of the guys who made their inaugural season special.
Pittsburgh said “Here. Take this old fart MAF from us and you can have our 2nd. Just don’t touch these guys over here.”
Marchessault was an up and coming 3rd liner Who was believed by some to be a
possible diamond in the rough, but even Florida wasn’t sold. In fact, in exchange for them picking Marchessault instead of someone else, they basically GAVE them Reilly Smith (another guy who showed some talent, but who didn’t seem to be panning out as initially hoped). Both of them went on to career years. They were
nothing special at the time. March was just developing his knack for scoring goals, but defensively was atrocious. Believe it or not, this was the ONE GUY they were hanging their hat on after the expansion draft. Their big star acquisition. Wheee! He really wasn’t rockin anyone’s world in 2007. Few knew him other than Fantasy owners who were pickin him up off the scrap heap that year as a shiny new piece they hadn’t heard of prior because they were riding a hot hand.
Haula had like 26 points the season before. Nobody expected what Vegas juiced from him. In fact, the Wild wanted him gone so bad that they said “please! Take Haula instead of some of our more valuable talent, and we’ll GIVE you Tuch all for your 3rd rounder”. Oof.
Columbus basically paid Vegas off in draft picks to take their underachieving William Karlsson away. He was coming off of a career best 25 points with 6 goals in Ohio. He scored 43 on his way to compiling 78 points in the desert. NOBODY saw this coming.
Nathan Schmidt I actually happened to like because I saw him here in DC, but he was a 7th defenseman looking for a chance. 99% of hockey fans had never heard of him. Hell, most Caps fans other than their die hards wouldn’t have known he came from their team.
Trevor vanReimsdyk? Are you kidding? Did he have 20 points in a year before that? That would be fine if he was a defensive wunderkind, but he wasn’t.
Anaheim BEGGED VGK to take Stoner’s cap hit so badly that they threw in Shea Theodore. D’oh! Totally unknown commodity by everyone in the league in 2017.
Up and down that draft we’re misfits, has beens, and ‘never will be’s. They were never picked to win anything. A finish above cellar dwelling was considered an achievement before the 1st puck dropped.
So yeah, the AGM deserves a LOT of credit when it comes to their success.