1994 NHL Draft

[Brodeur]

Stumbled on video from the first 16 picks of the 1994 Draft (thanks to the uploader who also posted the 1999 Draft). I didn't start watching the Draft until 1995, so this was a fun retroactive watch.

 

[Brodeur]

Some highlights from watching last night:

- Radek Bonk's mullet is majestic.

- The league (seemingly driven by new VP Brian Burke) instituted a change regarding trading draft picks which almost led to an NBA Draft style thing with teams drafting a guy and immediately trading him. In a nutshell, teams were allowed to trade picks for picks, but trades involving picks and players weren't permitted. This led to some confusion and seemingly got tossed out the window mid-draft.

- The rookie salary cap wouldn't exist until the January 1995 CBA. So apparently Radek Bonk's price tag was scaring some teams off. The broadcast floated that he might be seeking 5 mil AAV right off the bat. After Florida/Anaheim passed on Bonk, the broadcast wondered if Bonk might drop out of the top 4 because of the contract demands. I found a subsequent video which said that Bonk rejected 4.7 mil over 3 seasons before the lockout and eventually signed for 6.1 mil over 5 seasons.

- New ownership in Hartford gets a loud ovation from the hometown crowd....

- The broadcast spoils the #6 pick by zooming on the Edmonton table as they're filling out the form. Glen Sather writes "Ryan Smith" on the form.

- Jamie Storr was expected to be the highest goalie ever drafted, but he slipped a few spots to Los Angeles at #7. He had won gold at the WJC and was the #3 goalie at the senior World Championships when Canada got Gold as well.

- Massive speed bump with Quebec's picks at #9 and #10. The video is edited but it seems like that might have taken 30+ minutes to sort out in real time. Due to the change in policy, Quebec eventually announces that they have transferred pick #9 to the Islanders for pick #12. The eventual official trade was #9 and Ron Sutter for #12 and Uwe Krupp.

- The infamous "better Lindros" comment by Don Maloney. I was amused that Lindros/Quebec part II could have happened thanks to the rule about trading picks and players.

- The blockbuster Mats Sundin / Wendel Clark trade gets announced, sorta. It takes awhile to get processed as the 10th overall pick goes from Quebec to Toronto to Washington. Somehow David Poile looked older in 1994 than he does now.

- Interesting thing to note with Mattias Ohlund was that since he was picked in 1994, he was grandfathered into that CBA's rules regarding his rights. In 1997, Ohlund would sign a rarely used Group IV offer sheet which I think was removed in the 1995 CBA.

- It's too bad the video ends with pick #16. I would have liked to have listened to the analysis of Boston taking Evgeni Ryabchikov at #20. I think I've read stories after the fact that Boston's scouts had never been able to attend his games in person and had to rely on VHS tapes.

- I wish I could locate the video, but I remember Ken Holland being mic'd up for the 2008 Draft. He was worried that the Devils might take their target (goalie Tom McCollum). I distinctly remember Holland then saying something like "Remember when they sniped us for Souray?" Apparently Detroit was going to take Souray in 1994 with the 75th overall pick, but New Jersey traded up to #71 and got him. Just funny seeing a GM still having that scar 14 years later.

 

[Soundgarden]

Interesting to hear about Florida doing a potential #1 swap with Edmonton for 4 and 6.

A lot of interesting speculation in this one. Ottawa really wanted Tverdovsky and someone said they'd be shocked if they didn't go with Jaimee Storr.

 

[Brodeur]

I also had a good laugh when it was mentioned that Ottawa was already having contract issues with Alexei Yashin after his first season in the league.

 

[McRpro]

I vividly remember watching this draft, with the Oilers having the 4th and 6th picks. After the expected drafting of future studs Bonsignore and Storr the Oilers were going to be set to bring back the glory days!

 

[hacksaw7]

What went wrong with Bonsignore? Typical for the time teams were looking for absolute giants. Linebacker sized NHLers. Bonsignore was 6'4 220 but not really a physical presence. Not sure who/what he was compared to...but he seemed to be overmatched from the moment he stepped on NHL ice

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

What went wrong with Bonsignore? Typical for the time teams were looking for absolute giants. Linebacker sized NHLers. Bonsignore was 6'4 220 but not really a physical presence. Not sure who/what he was compared to...but he seemed to be overmatched from the moment he stepped on NHL ice

i feel like bonsignore was like a really really extreme ryan johansen? like, all the problems with young johansen (and later johansen if i'm being mean) were 100x with bonsignore, but same vibe.

 

[popo]

What went wrong with Bonsignore? Typical for the time teams were looking for absolute giants. Linebacker sized NHLers. Bonsignore was 6'4 220 but not really a physical presence. Not sure who/what he was compared to...but he seemed to be overmatched from the moment he stepped on NHL ice

Bonsignore might be more comparable to Daigle - heart wasn't into it, didn't have a love of the game. Though I also question if his size/reach gave him a man amongst boys advantage in junior that he didn't get in the NHL. He bristled at Sather's tough love, and challenges, and never amounted to anything.

The interesting thing is that coming out of the '94 draft the Oilers took Bonsignore (4th) and Ryan Smyth (6th).
Bonsignore as the higher pick with more hype, higher ceiling, more talent got all the attention.
Ryan Smyth was the anti-Bonsignore. Less talent but off the chart heart, grit, and effort level.
A couple years later Smyth is scoring 39 goals and is an immediate fan favourite. Bonsignore is already recognized as a bust.

 

[Brodeur]

Prior to the 1993 Draft starting, the league had a coin flip between expansion franchises Florida and Anaheim. The winner got to decide if they'd rather have the 4th pick in 1993 and the 2nd pick in 1994 or the 5th pick in 1993 and the 1st pick in 1994. Florida won and opted for the latter. Panthers GM Bobby Clarke was briefly interviewed afterwards and the reporter specifically asked if they were already eyeing Bonsignore.

Gare Joyce had a couple pages about Bonsignore in his book "Future Greats and Heartbreaks." Off the top of my head, I think it was mentioned that some teams were worried in the moment about his love for hockey. His dad had been a racecar driver and apparently that was Bonsignore's true passion.

So while Bonsignore was known ahead of time, it was also interesting to hear how much of a late bloomer Ed Jovanovski was. I remembered hearing stories about how he didn't start playing hockey until he was like 11, but the broadcast mentioned he wasn't even playing in the OHL in his D-1 season and was a complete unknown when the 1993-94 season began.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

to me the real story of this draft was radek bonk falling to 3, which at one time was unimaginable, and then in the long run his career justifying that.

my take at the time, having never seen him play (he wasn’t at the world juniors), was he had getzlaf potential. he was compared to lindros, which of course was silly, and vladimir ruzicka, who came over to the NHL and scored almost 40 goals on a line with stephen leach and andy brickley.

bonk was such a can’t miss, it felt silly at the time that he was passed over for a guy (jovo) nobody had ever heard of, and tverdovsky, who iirc shot up the rankings after an excellent underage performance at the world juniors. i didn’t know about the salary wrinkle though.

at the same age as those two, bonk dominated the IHL, which at the time was considered to mean he was the surest of sure things lol.

 

[Brodeur]

After hearing the worries about Bonk's contract demands, it made more sense that Florida/Anaheim passed on him. Shades of the MLB Draft where teams have to take signability as a factor.

Broadcast mentioned that Anaheim was having issues signing Paul Kariya (listed as a center which I didn't remember) so they figured Tverdovsky would be cheaper. Kariya would get a nearly 5 mil signing bonus late August 1994 right before the CBA expired.

Jovanovski was #1 on THN's ranking, so it seems like he was at least in the conversation. In the broadcast, the analysts noted that Jovanovski was raw.

THN's first round ranking:

1. Ed Jovanovski
2. Radek Bonk
3. Oleg Tverdovsky
4. Jamie Storr
5. Jeff O'Neill
6. Jason Bonsignore
7. Jason Wiemer
8. Ryan Smyth
9. Mattias Ohlund
10. Brad Brown
11. Brett Lindros
12. Jeff Friesen
13. Nolan Baumgartner
14. Ethan Moreau
15. Eric Fichaud
16. Alexander Kharlamov
17. Wayne Primeau
18. Wade Belak
19. Deron Quint
20. Josef Marha
21. Jason Botteril
22. Vadim Sharifijanov
23. Dan Cloutier
24. Yan Golubovsky
25. Stanislav Neckar
26. Chris Wells

 

[GJB]

This would be Quebec's last draft and they managed to pull Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk in the 3rd and 4th rounds!

They would go on to finish 4th and 6th in points for 1994 draftees, not bad, not bad at all....

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

another memory from that draft is it was supposed to be a generational draft for goalies. storr especially was said to be have been arguably as good as any goalie prospect ever and if the right team had held the top pick (and definitely not the two expansion teams, who were gifted great goaltending in the expansion draft) he could have gone first overall.

storr at the top, eric fichaud, then later dan cloutier (plus evgeni ryabchikov, about whom i remember nothing other than him being described as this weird boom or bust mystery goalie from russia after he was picked).

of course, all three of those top prospect goalies were stunningly high profile disappointments. within a few years, jose theodore, who was taken in the second round, had passed them all.

but man, look at the ninth round —

Overall	Team	Player	Nat.	Pos	Age	To	Amateur Team	GP	W	L	T/O	SV%	GAA
209	New York Rangers	Vitali Yeremeyev	KZ	G	18	2001	Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk (Russia-2)	4	0	4	0	.846	4.52
210	Ottawa Senators	Frederic Cassivi	CA	G	19	2007	St. Hyacinthe (QMJHL)	13	3	6	1	.892	3.64
211	Ottawa Senators	Danny Dupont	CA	D			Laval (QMJHL)
212	Winnipeg Jets	Henrik Smangs	SE	G			Leksand (Sweden)
213	Hartford Whalers	Ashlin Halfnight	CA	D			Harvard (ECAC)
214	Edmonton Oilers	Jeremy Jablonski	CA	G			Victoria (WHL)
215	Los Angeles Kings	Jan Nemecek	CZ	D	18	2000	Ceske Budejovice (Czech-2)
216	Tampa Bay Lightning	Yuri Smirnov	RU	C			Spartak Moscow (KHL)
217	Quebec Nordiques	Tim Thomas	US	G	20	2014	Vermont (ECAC)	426	214	145	49	.920	2.52
218	Philadelphia Flyers	Johan Hedberg	SE	G	21	2013	Leksand (Sweden)	373	161	143	36	.901	2.82
219	San Jose Sharks	Evgeni Nabokov	KZ	G	19	2015	Ust-Kamenogorsk (Russia-3)	697	353	227	86	.911	2.44
220	New York Islanders	Gord Walsh	CA	LW			Kingston (OHL)
221	Vancouver Canucks	Bill Muckalt	CA	RW	20	2003	Kelowna (BCHL)
222	Chicago Blackhawks	Lubomir Jandera	CZ	D			Chemopetrol Litvinov Jrs. (Czech)
223	Washington Capitals	John Tuohy	US	D			Kent School (High-CT)
224	St. Louis Blues	Marc Stephan	CA	C			Tri-City (WHL)
225	Buffalo Sabres	Craig Millar	CA	D	18	2001	Swift Current (WHL)
226	Montreal Canadiens	Tomas Vokoun	CZ	G	18	2013	Kladno (Czech-2)	700	300	288	78	.917	2.56
227	Calgary Flames	Jorgen Jonsson	SE	LW	21	2000	Rogle Angelholm (Sweden)
228	Dallas Stars	Marty Flichel	CA	RW			Tacoma (WHL)
229	Boston Bruins	John Grahame	US	G	19	2008	Sioux City (USHL)	224	97	86	18	.898	2.78
230	Hartford Whalers	Matt Ball	CA	RW			Detroit (OHL)
231	Detroit Red Wings	Jeff Mikesch	US	C			Michigan Tech (WCHA)
232	Pittsburgh Penguins	Jason Godbout	US	D			Hill-Murray (High-MN)
233	New Jersey Devils	Steve Sullivan	CA	RW	20	2013	Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
234	New York Rangers	Eric Boulton	CA	LW	18	2016	Oshawa (OHL)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

seven goalies that played in the NHL. tim thomas, johan hedberg, and evgeni nabokov back-to-back-to-back at picks 217-219. then tomas vokoun slightly later. in 2013, twenty years after the draft, all four of them were still in the NHL.

john grahame also started in the league, and yeremayev and cassivi had cups of coffee.

i guess it really was a generational goalie draft, just not for the high cards. a hart winner, a conn smythe winner (with three vezinas between the two of them), two other guys who are top 30 all time in games played, and a very solid and consistently useful journeyman backup who played almost til he was 40 (his last game was literally eight days from his 40th birthday), who in his rookie year won one less playoff game than dan cloutier did in his entire career, and who should have started for us in the 2004 playoffs (and actually all year before that too) but marc crawford had his head up his ass and fed the first three starts to cloutier before he broke his ankle, then gave the last three games to alex auld.

 

[kaiser matias]

another memory from that draft is it was supposed to be a generational draft for goalies. storr especially was said to be have been arguably as good as any goalie prospect ever and if the right team had held the top pick (and definitely not the two expansion teams, who were gifted great goaltending in the expansion draft) he could have gone first overall.

To Storr's credit, he was named to the All-Rookie team in consecutive years (1998 and 1999). Not many players get to do that (I don't think anyone else has), and it may be one of his biggest legacies.

 

[The Panther]

I really don't know what the Oilers' drafters were smoking when they drafted players from about 1983 to the late-90s. After the epic disaster of the 1990 draft, the entire scouting/drafting staff of the Oilers should have been fired.

So, now in the 90s, the Oilers fluke out with Arnott and Smyth. But Jason Bonsignore? Really? If you've got an American-born forward (two time zones away) whose passion is car-racing, it's already a long-shot that he's got the motivation and interest to go to Edmonton. So, right there, that's a "don't draft" red flag. (And his OHL move from Newmarket to Niagara Falls looks like he wanted to play closer to home.)

It's not like his OHL numbers were that great. He got about a point per game over two seasons, and he scored 15 goals in 41 games right before the draft. For the US national team and at the World Juniors, he failed to score a goal in 12 games.

Then, the Oilers drafted him....

 

[alko]

What was the story with Brett Lindros? Was he truly so talented (for a 1. round pick) or it was mostly because of his name?

 

[Dread Clawz]

to me the real story of this draft was radek bonk falling to 3, which at one time was unimaginable, and then in the long run his career justifying that.

my take at the time, having never seen him play (he wasn’t at the world juniors), was he had getzlaf potential. he was compared to lindros, which of course was silly, and vladimir ruzicka, who came over to the NHL and scored almost 40 goals on a line with stephen leach and andy brickley.

bonk was such a can’t miss, it felt silly at the time that he was passed over for a guy (jovo) nobody had ever heard of, and tverdovsky, who iirc shot up the rankings after an excellent underage performance at the world juniors. i didn’t know about the salary wrinkle though.

at the same age as those two, bonk dominated the IHL, which at the time was considered to mean he was the surest of sure things lol.

Jovo was considered to have more long term potential though. That was when i first really started following the draft, but how I understood it was Bonk was gonna be a really good player, but Jovo had Norris potential. Neither of them hit those heights, but they both had long respectable careers and at one point it did look like both of them were gonna break through and become superstars. You can't really blame the Panthers for taking the player with more raw upside, especially after Leetch had just dominated the playoffs. It did work out for them in their '96 run, and he was later the centerpiece to acquire Bure. Tverdovsky was more of a reach, but again, I think that was the Leetch effect at work.

 

[Dissonance Jr]

the same age as those two, bonk dominated the IHL, which at the time was considered to mean he was the surest of sure things lol.

Ha, I also remember this being totally ingrained draft wisdom throughout the '90s — if an 18-year-old could succeed against men in the IHL, he was sure to dominate the NHL!

Looking back, it's hard to say how sound this theory was because so few first rounders played in the IHL in their draft year. But..... Petr Sykora, Ruslan Salei, and Sergei Samsonov were all excellent picks. Robert Dome and of course Patrik Stefan were busts. Dmitri Kvartlonov was basically a bust, though he had a memorably high-scoring rookie year alongside Oates and Juneau. And then there's Bonk, who obviously never lived up to his draft position but turned into a solid NHL scoring line player for a few years in the late '90s/early 2000s.

But that's pretty much it. I guess with the exception of Stefan, that's a decent hit rate.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

What was the story with Brett Lindros? Was he truly so talented (for a 1. round pick) or it was mostly because of his name?

A combination of name (which was a big factor) and the fact that enforcers who could (kind of) skate were drafted high at the time including Wade Belak in the same draft.

 

[The Panther]

Brett Lindros had two things:
1) "Lindros" name (ultra cachet in mid-90s)
2) size

A few years later, NHL scouts were, like, "Oh yeah... I guess we should have considered if he could play hockey or not...".

 

[gotyournose]

Brett Lindros had two things:
1) "Lindros" name (ultra cachet in mid-90s)
2) size

A few years later, NHL scouts were, like, "Oh yeah... I guess we should have considered if he could play hockey or not...".

Were the Lindros parents control freaks with Brett also?

 

[Dread Clawz]

Brett Lindros had two things:
1) "Lindros" name (ultra cachet in mid-90s)
2) size

A few years later, NHL scouts were, like, "Oh yeah... I guess we should have considered if he could play hockey or not...".

Lol yeah I remember in the late 90's even announcers insinuating that he never should have been a first round pick.

 

[Soundgarden]

Were the Lindros parents control freaks with Brett also?

In the video there's talk of his dad refusing to let him play in LA.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Were the Lindros parents control freaks with Brett also?

in the sense that they bullied all of his minor league coaches and pulled strings with league higher ups threatening to pull access to eric if brett didn't get the best icetime, best linemates, etc.? yes

i mean, 17 year old brett lindros had zero business making the canada olympic team under any other circumstances. (he would have just turned 18 when the games started, but he got injured and didn't play.)

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Not many players get to do that (I don't think anyone else has)

Not consecutive years but Jake Allen was named to the All Rookie Team in 2013 and 2015.