FROM THE EDITOR ...
This is a sample issue of Hockey Draft Central’s newsletter. This monthly newsletter seeks to enhance your enjoyment of the site and your appreciation for
hockey’s rich history. Like the site itself, this newsletter is an acknowledgement of the thousands of people who have made hockey
the most exciting and passionate team sport in North America.
From the beginning, HDC has paid tribute
to all the players who strove for greatness, not just ones who became
household names. Some of the most interesting profiles on the site
aren’t famous NHL players, but rather those who went on to do other
things with their lives. Nevertheless, these no-name people were once
thought to have a shot at the NHL, and that's why draft day is always so
exciting -- because it is filled with the sense of unlimited potential.
If you enjoy this monthly newsletter, you can subscribe to future
editions by clicking here. |
OFFBEAT DRAFT FACT
St. Louis Blues fans love
coach
Joel Quenneville, who turned their team into a Cup contender.
Amazingly, it seems Quenneville and
the Blues were destined for each other from the start. Because Quenneville was drafted by Toronto in 1978 with a second-round pick
obtained from St. Louis.
What did the Blues get for it? The
rights to free agent Rod Seiling, who played two less than memorable
seasons in St. Louis. |
FIRE BACK ...
Readers are encouraged to send in opinions on any topics related to this
newsletter or the HDC site. There’s not enough room here for the full
text of all e-mails received to be reprinted here, but each will be read
and summarized in future newsletters with the best excerpts being reprinted.
Only subscribers are eligible to have their work appear in the
newsletter.
Click here to send
in your Fire Back e-mail. |
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Monthly Newsletter · Issue 1 · May 2003
Many interesting profiles are in the 1978 draft. In case you missed them,
here are a few particularly good reads:
Al Secord (No. 16 overall) – Fans
remember Secord as a bruising forward for the Bruins and Blackhawks. Today
he is a successful airline pilot. Imagine the shock of realizing that your
plane is being flown by a former NHL star.
Paul Messier (No. 41 overall) –
Being the less-talented brother of one of the greatest players in NHL
history can’t be much fun. Well, Keith and Brent Gretzky and Alain Lemieux,
you guys are not alone. Mark Messier’s older brother, Paul, reached the
NHL before Mark did, but he only lasted nine games.
Dean Turner (No. 44 overall) –
This former NHL player went on to become a corporate criminal in a sad
fall from grace. He served time in a federal prison for stealing money
from a group of investors that included his own mother.
Bjorn Skaare (No. 62 overall) –
The first Norwegian ever drafted into the NHL died in a car accident at
age 30.
Bernhard Englbrecht (No. 196
overall) and
Gerd Truntschka (No. 200 overall) – The first German players ever
drafted into the NHL never came to North America, but they were legends in
their native country.
Joe Casey (No. 216 overall) – If
you’re from Minnesota, you might not know Joe, but you do know his father.
Bob Casey has been the public-address announcer for the Minnesota Twins
baseball team for more than 40 years.
It's time to review hits and
misses of a past draft. Let’s begin with the first draft in 1963. For more
on the draft, be sure to check out the
1963 Quick Facts page. Only 21 players were selected in this first
draft. Here’s a look at the top 10:
|
Rank |
Player |
Team |
Drafted |
Notes |
|
1. |
Pete Mahovlich |
Detroit |
2 |
2-time All-Star |
|
2. |
Walt McKechnie |
Toronto |
6 |
Played on 7 teams |
|
3. |
Gerry Meehan |
Toronto |
21 |
Was Sabres captain |
|
4. |
Jim McKenny |
Toronto |
17 |
12 years in NHL |
|
5. |
Garry Monahan |
Montreal |
1 |
748 NHL games |
|
6. |
Glen Shirton |
Montreal |
18 |
College star |
|
7. |
Al Osborne |
N.Y. Rangers |
4 |
Won Memorial Cup |
|
8. |
Terry Jones |
N.Y. Rangers |
10 |
Ruled Manitoba
junior |
|
9. |
Neil Clairmont |
Toronto |
12 |
Long career in
minors |
|
10. |
Roy Pugh |
Montreal |
13 |
Won IHL title |
It’s clear who won this
draft. With four of the 10 best picks, the Toronto Maple Leafs set a
standard for the years to come. Many players taken in this draft
never even reached the minor leagues, which makes Toronto’s three NHLers
truly phenomenal. On a side note, three players drafted in 1963 went on to
play major-junior hockey for the Oshawa Generals, a team which up until
that time, had been sponsored by the Boston Bruins. None of these players
reached the NHL, but because of their time in Oshawa, all can say that
they were once teammates of Hall of Famer Bobby Orr.
It’s time to make the case for why a player featured on the HDC site
deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. This month’s spotlight falls on a
player with a Hall of Fame name, Hall of Fame numbers and Hall of Fame
achievements, but he has yet to make the cut. Why has he been held back?
Because he failed to live up to the legacy of his father, thereby casting
a shadow that would not have hindered other players’ shots at the Hall.
We’re talking, of course, about
Mark Howe.
Before going into reasons why Mark Howe deserves to
be in the Hall, it’s important to think about Brett Hull. The Golden
Brett’s greatest NHL achievement is probably not his 716 career goals, his
two Stanley Cup championships or 1990-91 Hart Trophy. Hull’s greatest
achievement is that he came out of his father’s shadow and established
himself as a Hall of Famer despite the burden of his last name. Mark Howe
has not been so lucky.
Why does Mark Howe deserve a place in the Hall of
Fame? Well, he played 16 NHL seasons and was a first-team All-Star three
times. He was also selected for five All-Star Games and reached three
Stanley Cup finals. He also still holds most of Philadelphia’s scoring
records for defensemen.
But the case for Howe can also be made based on
statistics. If you rank Howe based on his average points per game, he
suddenly among an elite group of defensemen. Here is a look at how the top
10 highest-scoring defensemen (prior to this season) fare in a
points-per-game comparison:
|
Player |
PPG |
|
Ray Bourque |
0.979 |
|
Paul Coffey |
0.979 |
|
Larry Murphy |
0.753 |
|
Al MacInnis |
0.903 |
|
Phil Housley |
0.837 |
|
Denis Potvin |
0.992 |
|
Larry Robinson |
0.692 |
|
Bobby Orr |
1.393 |
|
Brian Leetch |
0.896 |
|
Brad Park |
0.805 |
Now, here’s a look at Mark Howe’s career
points-per-game average: 0.799. In points-per-game, Howe is ahead of Robinson
and Murphy, and he compares most closely to Hall of Famer
Brad Park.
Like Howe, Park never won the Stanley Cup as a
player, yet he won a spot in the Hall. While Park reached three more
All-Star Games, and made a postseason All-Star team three more times than
Howe, he did this in an era when the league had fewer teams. And unlike
Howe, who did not join the NHL until age 24, Park had the luxury of
entering as a 20-year-old and playing for a contender from the
beginning. Howe, on the other hand, spent some of his best hockey years
playing with his father in the WHA. He also spent his first three NHL
seasons on a relatively weak Hartford team.
Mark Howe scored 50 or more points in nine
consecutive NHL seasons from 1979-80 to 1987-88. Park’s longest streak of
50-point seasons was two years shorter than Howe’. In addition, Park had
his greatest statistical season with 25 goals and 82 points in 1973-74,
while Howe had his best with 24 goals and 82 points in 1985-86.
Coincidence?
In short, it is hard to argue that Brad Park should
be in the Hall of Fame without recognizing that Mark Howe also deserves to
be there. But while Park went into the Hall on the first ballot in 1988,
Howe has already missed the Hall of Fame for four consecutive seasons. The
difference is that Park never had to live up to his father’s career, and
Howe did. Gordie’s son had almost no chance to make a name for himself.
One more thing … Mark Howe won an Olympic silver
medal at age 16. Did any other Hall of Famers ever do that?
How do you feel about Mark Howe’s candidacy for the
Hall of Fame? Read the Fire Back section below and your opinion might
appear in the next issue of this newsletter.
Until next month
-- Dan David, webmaster, HockeyDraftCentral.com |
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