One of my all-time faves...both because he's the same age as me and because i distinctly remember all the hoopla over the '98 draft and the picks PL stocked up on (4 first rounders) in an attempt to get Vinny. Even falling short - for at least a few years, 3 of those 4 picks looked great. Tangs obviously but puck-poise jokes aside - people forget how awesome a very, very young Marty Skoula looked next to Bourque on the blueline and what a terrific, rugged young stay-at-home defender Robyn Regehr was. Scott Parker was WTF from the beginning but he was a crazy man who added a few moments of extreme enjoyment during his tenure with the Avs.
Numbers would be even better if he wasn't robbed of one of his absolute peak years by the lockout. In 2003-04, he produced 79 points in 69 games and then in 2005-06, after the lost year, he had 78 points in 71 games. Got traded to Calgary and next year put up 81 points in 81 games.
I know a lot of his production gets credited to the high-powered offense he was on but in 03-04, he had a higher PPG than Sakic and much higher than Hejduk while Forsberg was ridiculous but played in only 39 games (scoring 55 points). That was a 93-94 points season had he not missed 13 games and would have put him neck-and-neck with MSL for the NHL scoring lead.
And then after losing a year to the lockout, he basically duplicates that level of production and then for good measure, after getting dealt from the Avs, still puts up 81 points for his new club. It was 3 (should have been 4) years of some of the best production by anybody in the league at the time.
I still remember all the arguments I got into with the debates over him, Gomez and Gagne as they developed from that '98 draft - all three were exceptional in their prime and very, very historically underrated IMO but Alex would prove to have the longest shelf life as well.
