Around the NHL 11 - 2023/24

[robertocarlos]

I freaking loved Freddie.

Also, I saw Teppos penis.

I'm not saying it made me gay but it didn't help.

Toby has a big stick.

 

[Jet]

Olausson was a hell of a lot better than Sergei Bautin (RIP), whom the Jets drafted 17th overall...

The OG Stanley

 

[Jet]

I think the best part about being a kid and a fan of Jets 1.0 is that I loved every single jet no matter how good or bad, and I didn't have a bunch of people constantly trashing them.

That's probably why to this day I defend players who are whipping boys around here.

I want to love every guy who throws on the Jets kit.

 

[Buffdog]

I think the best part about being a kid and a fan of Jets 1.0 is that I loved every single jet no matter how good or bad, and I didn't have a bunch of people constantly trashing them.

That's probably why to this day I defend players who are whipping boys around here.

I want to love every guy who throws on the Jets kit.

We called Ray Neufeld "Stonehands" forever

And since we called Phil Housley "Flying Phil", we started calling Phil Sykes "Falling Phil" becaue he fell down so much

That was the extent of it though lol

 

[jokesondee]

We called Ray Neufeld "Stonehands" forever

And since we called Phil Housley "Flying Phil", we started calling Phil Sykes "Falling Phil" becaue he fell down so much

That was the extent of it though lol

Neuf the goof!

 

[Jet]

We called Ray Neufeld "Stonehands" forever

And since we called Phil Housley "Flying Phil", we started calling Phil Sykes "Falling Phil" becaue he fell down so much

That was the extent of it though lol

Cronin the barbarian
Good night Jim Kyte
Kitty Carlyle
Pokey and the Bandit

 

[jokesondee]

Cronin the barbarian
Good night Jim Kyte
Kitty Carlyle
Pokey and the Bandit

That guy was just useless.

 

[jokesondee]

We called Ray Neufeld "Stonehands" forever

And since we called Phil Housley "Flying Phil", we started calling Phil Sykes "Falling Phil" becaue he fell down so much

That was the extent of it though lol

All kidding aside Neuf is a good guy. Manitoba boy and Winnipegger. Was a guest coach this spring at my daughters First Shift hockey skills program.

 

[ps241]

All kidding aside Neuf is a good guy. Manitoba boy and Winnipegger. Was a guest coach this spring at my daughters First Shift hockey skills program.

He also clearly beat Behn Wilson in a fight and almost nobody did that.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I don't think a team like that ultimately does more than a round or two in the playoffs. There's something to be said for playoff experience. There's also the varying value of what those RFAs are. They may not have trade protection but in a situation like Trouba, he essentially limited the return because he wouldn't re-sign in most markets. For every Vilardi return there's a Pionk.

To use that model you would need to make strategic exceptions. Use bridge deals to gauge which players to commit to and which ones to cash in on.

KC and Ehlers both skipped the bridge deals. They are now nearing the end of their 2nd contracts. They are both still young enough and good enough to bring strong returns. They are both wingers, not playing the premium positions.

Even though we have moved some 1sts and generally drafted later we probably have pretty good replacements in the system now. These replacements would be low cost for a few years.

 

[BarnabyJones PI]

I'd say Olausson was more like he'd turn his brain off like pionk - stupid hard shot but just a handful of wtf plays each game

No one would have said that about Housley ' what a crime that we were too cheap to keep him and selanne together

And yes Carlyle was washed up in 1992 there's no argument there

That team was a couple players away from being really good... instead mike Smith just torpedoed the franchise

I agree with you about needing to keep Housley with Selanne.

Mike Smith gets way too much flack for the 1.0 Jets. It's a safe narrative, to blame it on Smith. He drafted Tkachuk. Zhamnov, Khabibulin (in the late round), and was influential in convincing the Jets to draft Selanne. Outside of the Red Wings, and the Nordiques drafting 1st overall all of those years, only (maybe) the Rangers drafted as well as the Jets from 1988-93.

Four big things working against him were his lack of grooming and people skills, the Housley incident, and drafting Bautin. Also worth mentioning, John Ferguson not trusting him going back to their time with the Rangers, yet there he with the Jets all of those years later (for some reason).

Interestingly, it was really the Jets and the Red Wings going heavy on draft picks overseas, more than other teams at the time. My theory with Bautin, was that the Red Wings were also very interested in him as well, which is why they got him in a trade later on. I'm not agreeing with the pick, but I can understand why Smith grabbed him when he did. The Jets weren't doing well financially, there were rumors of the team moving going back to the late '80s (weekly articles about it in The Sun and The Free Press), Moncton wasn't exactly great at developing players, and the team needed to make a quick turnaround. Bautin was already "established" (yes, I know he was a dud in the end), and the Jets already had a surplus on young talent on the way.

Not to mention the Barnes, Draper, Russ Romaniuk timeline that got overshadowed the following year. I'm also skeptical that trading Barnes for Gilhen was a Smith move, or if it was Paddock going directly to ownership, wanting a vet who could win face offs.

It also wasn't Mike Smith's wallet, it was Barry Shenkarow's. Smith is the scapegoat, and to me, I think ownership changed course when it came to Housley.

Paddock should get more of the blame. He went with too many guys with toughness, but who also conversely took stupid penalties. The Manson trade was the right idea, but he needed a leash. The team had high skill, a lot of toughness, but not enough high IQ guys to bridge the two; smoothening-out.

I love Numminen, but he was no leader, and not a #1 defenseman. Lots of mediocre Jets/Coyotes' teams on his watch.

 

[WolfHouse]

I agree with you about needing to keep Housley with Selanne.

Mike Smith gets way too much flack for the 1.0 Jets. It's a safe narrative, to blame it on Smith. He drafted Tkachuk. Zhamnov, Khabibulin (in the late rounds), and was influential in convincing the Jets to draft Selanne. Outside of the Red Wings, and the Nordiques drafting 1st overall all of those years, only (maybe) the Rangers drafted as well as the Jets from 1988-93.

Four big things working against him were his lack of grooming and people skills, the Housley incident, and drafting Bautin. Also woth mentioning, John Ferguson not trusting him going back to their time with the Rangers, yet there he with the Jets all of those years later (for some reason).

Interestingly, it was really the Jets and the Red Wings going heavy on draft picks overseas, more than other teams at the time. My theory with Bautin, was that the Red Wings were also very interested in him as well, which is why they got him in a trade later on. I'm not agreeing with the pick, but I can understand why Smith grabbed him when he did. The Jets weren't doing well financially, there were rumors of the team moving going back to the late '80s (weekly articles about it in The Sun and The Free Press), Moncton wasn't exactly great at developing players, and the team needed to make a quick turnaround. Bautin was already "established" (yes, I know he was a dud in the end), and the Jets already had a surplus on young talent on the way.

Not to mention the Barnes, Draper, Russ Romaniuk timeline that got overshadowed the following year. I'm also skeptical that trading Barnes for Gilhen was a Smith move, or if it was Paddock going directly to ownership, wanting a vet who could win face offs.

It also wasn't Mike Smith's wallet, it was Barry Shenkarow's. Smith is the scapegoat, and to me, I think ownership changed course when it came to Housley.

Paddock should get more of the blame. He went with too many guys with toughness, but who also conversely took stupid penalties. The Manson trade was the right idea, but he needed a leash. The team had high skill, a lot of toughness, but not enough high IQ guys to bridge the two; smoothening-out.

I love Numminen, but he was no leader, and not a #1 defenseman. Lots of mediocre Jets/Coyotes' teams on his watch.

Not arguing that Shenkarow was the real force that torpedoed the jets. Along with Winnipeg Enterprises. Stupid small town greed.

Smith had SO many draft picks that of course he hit on some of them... and sure Tkachuk was a good pick - except Martin Brodeur went next...

You he hit on Selanne... and passed on Peter Forsberg

Bautin wasn't a horrible pick in a shit draft - but it was just endlessly adding crap Russian defencemen that killed us

Im more of the belief that he was finally over-ruled on the Manson trade as opposed to anything else...

 

[Stumbledore]

I'll save post #9351 for the next time I get piled onto for being "creepy".

 

[BarnabyJones PI]

Not arguing that Shenkarow was the real force that torpedoed the jets. Along with Winnipeg Enterprises. Stupid small town greed.

Smith had SO many draft picks that of course he hit on some of them... and sure Tkachuk was a good pick - except Martin Brodeur went next...

You he hit on Selanne... and passed on Peter Forsberg

Bautin wasn't a horrible pick in a shit draft - but it was just endlessly adding crap Russian defencemen that killed us

Im more of the belief that he was finally over-ruled on the Manson trade as opposed to anything else...

Smith had the same amount of draft picks that other teams had. It's not like OKC (NBA) stockpiling draft picks.

For a 5-to-6 year window, he drafted great, relative to the rest of the league, also with consideration to where the Jets were drafting. Even guys like Aaron Ward, Barnes, Draper, Ulanov, Mironov, etc, had pretty good careers. Go look at everyone else's draft, pick by pick for comparison, and Smith's thing is drafting well; especially in the later rounds.

The Jets firing Smith in the middle of the 1993-94 campaign, didn't make sense to me at the time, considering that they had so many young assets; the future was still looking bright despite the team's record. Why wasn't Paddock getting some of that blame? The team was rudderless from '93-'95. They don't keep Housley, okay, but then Paddock won't play Olausson, then they practically give him away, and less than a week later after the trade, Paddock says to the media thar he wants the Jets to acquire a defenseman who can move the puck?

All of the indicators to me, show that Paddock had been in Shenkarow's ear while Smith was the GM, similar to how Smith was in Shenkarow's ear in the '80s. Smith probably was on the outs, before the 1993-94 season had even started.

I even talked - at length - with Igor Kuperman at a Jets open house in the summer of '94. He was an open book! All I had to do, was point out that he had helped out with one of the earliest EA NHL games. He appreciated that.

 

[WolfHouse]

Smith had the same amount of draft picks that other teams had. It's not like OKC (NBA) stockpiling draft picks.

For a 5-to-6 year window, he drafted great, relative to the rest of the league, also with consideration to where the Jets were drafting. Even guys like Aaron Ward, Barnes, Draper, Ulanov, Mironov, etc, had pretty good careers. Go look at everyone else's draft, pick by pick for comparison, and Smith's thing is drafting well; especially in the later rounds.

The Jets firing Smith in the middle of the 1993-94 campaign, didn't make sense to me at the time, considering that they had so many young assets; the future was still looking bright despite the team's record. Why wasn't Paddock getting some of that blame? The team was rudderless from '93-'95. They don't keep Housley, okay, but then Paddock won't play Olausson, then they practically give him away, and less tha a week later after the trade, Paddock says to the media thar he wants the Jets to acquire a defenseman who can move the puck?

All of the indicators to me, show that Paddock had been in Shenkarow's ear while Smith was the GM, similar to how Smith was in Shenkarow's ear in the '80s. Smith probably was on the outs, before the 1993-94 season had even started.

I even talked - at length - with Igor Kuperman at a Jets open house in the summer of '94. He was an open book! All I had to do, was point out that he had helped out with one of the earliest EA NHL games. He appreciated that.

For a GM to be so utterly offensive to first force Hawerchuk out of town and then ALSO force Housley - his trade replacement - out... that alone is enough to hand him the title of garbage GM

Zhamnov and Draper were really his only real mid-round hit as a GM - he had multiple picks in that round - Zhamnov was not his first choice... Hard to count Khabibulin and Davydov as hits when they were 9th+ round picks

I mean how are you a Russian talent specialist and miss out on Fedorov and Bure...

He was handed a very very good team and decided that Bob Murdoch was the coach to lead them... and that cost us the series against Edmonton... and then his drafting/personality just finished the job

 

[MardyBum]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1809318078699958415

 

[Hobble]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1809318078699958415

Savoie? Did Oilers GM just commit larceny, or is this actually fair?

Shame Chevy slept on this if Savoie was available.

 

[puck stoppa]

Savoie? Did Oilers GM just commit larceny, or is this actually fair?

Shame Chevy slept on this if Savoie was available.

What are the Sabres doing? Awful.

 

[jetsforever]

How did Edmonton grab Matt Savoie for basically nothing?!

 

[snowkiddin]

Savoie? Did Oilers GM just commit larceny, or is this actually fair?

Shame Chevy slept on this if Savoie was available.

I think the league actually needs to look into this. The Sabres are pretty overtly compromising the integrity of the game by openly tanking for Hagens.

That was sarcasm. But what the f*** is Buffalo doing?! What makes it worse is Edmonton gets hooked up with a good, young forward for only two things (f*** and all), when they're already stacked at forward.

 

[Gm0ney]

How did Edmonton grab Matt Savoie for basically nothing?!

This is like if the Jets traded Appleton and Lundmark for Savoie. Jesus H!

 

[hockeyarena]

How did Edmonton grab Matt Savoie for basically nothing?!

No kidding. That's ridiculous

 

[BarnabyJones PI]

For a GM to be so utterly offensive to first force Hawerchuk out of town and then ALSO force Housley - his trade replacement - out... that alone is enough to hand him the title of garbage GM

Zhamnov and Draper were really his only real mid-round hit as a GM - he had multiple picks in that round - Zhamnov was not his first choice... Hard to count Khabibulin and Davydov as hits when they were 9th+ round picks

I mean how are you a Russian talent specialist and miss out on Fedorov and Bure...

He was handed a very very good team and decided that Bob Murdoch was the coach to lead them... and that cost us the series against Edmonton... and then his drafting/personality just finished the job

Well, I agree with you on the Hawerchuk move; as he's my favorite player of All-Time.

There a couple things to consider though, with that move. Hawerchuk had a degenative hip problem, sometimes cited going as far back as the 1987-88 season (around the time of the Canada Cup). People think it was when he was with Buffalo ('94-'95), but I believe that to be false. So, internally, they knew that he had this problem that was going to get worse. Hawerchuk's trade value dropped significantly too, because I'm sure word got out about his hip problem. If the Hawks can get Chelios for Savard, the Jets shouldn't only be able to get Phil Housley.

I think the team tried to help a bit, with the hiring of Bob Murdoch and his 4-line (socialistic) strategy. It could have potentially helped save Hawerchuk in the long run, prolong his career. While he's also very unpopular with the people of Winnipeg, I sort of liked the Murdoch era. I love that 1989-90 team. And maybe, one day, I'll forgive Scott Arniel vs the Canucks in the 2nd last game of the 1990-91 season, with the playoffs on the line. No one will forgive Murdoch's goalie rotation in the 1990 playoffs though. It's funny, but everyone knew that Essensa was better, yet if you look at the box scores/stats, Beauregard did a little better by comparison than people seem to remember.

Secondly, Hawerchuk really was in no man's land with the Jets and probably wanted out anyway. They had the greatest turnaround in league history, in his rookie season, and they were almost always good enough to make the playoffs. Even the other great centers, who've vaulted ahead of him (Yzerman, Sakic, etc), didn't turn their team's fortunes around like he had, and he had a pretty lousy team to start off with. They could never get those high draft picks, to give him another star/superstar to work with. I love all of those Jets' players from then, but he needed another great player on that team (on the wing or on defense).

He was also really close to Fergie, both owning Grapes (as I understand), so there's that too.

Back to Smith, I know that they had a "situation" at some team function, where Smith apparently reneged on some agreement that they had, I guess I have a hard time believing that it's Smith that wanted to move off of Housley and not ownership calling an audible to save money. If you suddenly have an influx of all of these talented players (Selanne, Tkachuk, Zhamnov), not to mention (at the time), another wave of guys you think might be really good/great (Lindgren, Mironov, Kaminsky, etc), maybe you want to put your key money (that you barely have) into gambling on the younger wave who are on a similar timeline. Housley then, is about to turn 30 at some point the following season.

BTW, I'm not painting Smith as some sweet-angel, who REALLY wanted to much sure that Housley got his big payday (or whatever), I just don't think that it was his call. No one really likes Smith, so it's easy for him to take pretty much all of the blame there based off of his perception mostly stemming from his hairdo. It's not like Smith was playing around with Ted Turner's money (and I like Easy-E and there's a thing called the AOL & Time Warner Merger that people love to ignore).

As far as his picks are concerned, why would we ignore players from the lower rounds? Why won't they count? Khabibulin, Davydov (for a brief period of time), Ulanov, in the later rounds, is great!

There was quite a bit of buzz with Dan Ratushny, Sorokin, Jeremy Stevenson, Kaminsky, Langkow, and Courville, though none of them had a career. But they all had pretty decent trade value while Smith was at the helm.

Guys who had careers, not necessarily much of it to do with the Jets, were guys like Barnes (1136), Draper (1157 GP), Ward (839 GP), Ulanov (739), Mironov (716 GP), Grosek (526 GP), Bylsma (429 GP), Ylonen (341 GP), and Lindgren (387 GP), though I think most people thought that Lindgren was going to have a much better career than he had. Ward was once cited as being the next Scott Stevens (sigh).

Then we have Selanne (Smith's influence to draft him), Tkachuk, Zhamnov, and Khabibulin.

As far as the other Russians go, Vancouver getting Bure had some controversy around it. Most teams believed that Bure was ineligible to be selected beyond the first three rounds.

5 most dramatic NHL Draft Day falls of all-time ft. Pavel Bure.

Personally, I don't care for the "We could have drafted this guy instead" logic. Look, it's often said that the Jets bombed in the 1979 draft, because we took Jimmy Mann instead of Michel Goulet (or insert another player selected after).

This bothers me, because that draft needs context.

It's not like the Jets had the 1st overall pick, because some people act as though we did. Mann went 19th.

This wasn't a usual draft, it was also loaded with guys who played 1-year in the WHA (Ramage, Vaive, Messier, etc), so when you miss, it's going to look much worse. By the logic that we f'ed up taking Mann, 21 teams DIDN'T select Mark Messier in the 2nd round. You could even say, the Oilers were way off for taking Kevin Lowe over Messier, even though they got their guy.

Jimmy Mann was a pretty good prospect. Maybe he goes to Montreal, goes through their system, he's a different player. Not everyone is Hawerchuk.

The Jets HAD a good draft in 1979. There were only 6 rounds. They got Dave Christian, Thomas Steen, and Tim Waters. Yes, Edmonton and Quebec (for example), both did better. The Jets still did well, especially considering that they didn't draft until the end of each round.

I'd rather have Forsberg over Ward, or Fedorov over Zhamnov too. If you just look at the Jets draft, you'll see guys who didn't pan out, but I can't stress this enough, isolate almost any other team from the 1989-93 drafts, do a side-by-side comparison, and Mike Smith did a great job drafting; especially without there being a 1st overall pick. If you took away the Nordiques 1st overall picks, they actually didn't draft very well; and they hadn't drafted well since that 1979 draft frankly (not including Sakic)!

 

[WolfHouse]

Well, I agree with you on the Hawerchuk move; as he's my favorite player of All-Time.

There a couple things to consider though, with that move. Hawerchuk had a degenative hip problem, sometimes cited going as far back as the 1987-88 season (around the time of the Canada Cup). People think it was when he was with Buffalo ('94-'95), but I believe that to be false. So, internally, they knew that he had this problem that was going to get worse. Hawerchuk's trade value dropped significantly too, because I'm sure word got out about his hip problem. If the Hawks can get Chelios for Savard, the Jets shouldn't only be able to get Phil Housley.

I think the team tried to help a bit, with the hiring of Bob Murdoch and his 4-line (socialistic) strategy. It could have potentially helped save Hawerchuk in the long run, prolong his career. While he's also very unpopular with the people of Winnipeg, I sort of liked the Murdoch era. I love that 1989-90 team. And maybe, one day, I'll forgive Scott Arniel vs the Canucks in the 2nd last game of the 1990-91 season, with the playoffs on the line. No one will forgive Murdoch's goalie rotation in the 1990 playoffs though. It's funny, but everyone knew that Essensa was better, yet if you look at the box scores/stats, Beauregard did a little better by comparison than people seem to remember.

View attachment 892645

Secondly, Hawerchuk really was in no man's land with the Jets and probably wanted out anyway. They had the greatest turnaround in league history, in his rookie season, and they were almost always good enough to make the playoffs. Even the other great centers, who've vaulted ahead of him (Yzerman, Sakic, etc), didn't turn their team's fortunes around like he had, and he had a pretty lousy team to start off with. They could never get those high draft picks, to give him another star/superstar to work with. I love all of those Jets' players from then, but he needed another great player on that team (on the wing or on defense).

He was also really close to Fergie, both owning Grapes (as I understand), so there's that too.

Back to Smith, I know that they had a "situation" at some team function, where Smith apparently reneged on some agreement that they had, I guess I have a hard time believing that it's Smith that wanted to move off of Housley and not ownership calling an audible to save money. If you suddenly have an influx of all of these talented players (Selanne, Tkachuk, Zhamnov), not to mention (at the time), another wave of guys you think might be really good/great (Lindgren, Mironov, Kaminsky, etc), maybe you want to put your key money (that you barely have) into gambling on the younger wave who are on a similar timeline. Housley then, is about to turn 30 at some point the following season.

BTW, I'm not painting Smith as some sweet-angel, who REALLY wanted to much sure that Housley got his big payday (or whatever), I just don't think that it was his call. No one really likes Smith, so it's easy for him to take pretty much all of the blame there based off of his perception and his, mostly stemming from his hairdo. It's not like Smith was playing around with Ted Turner's money (and I like Easy-E and there's a thing called the AOL & Time Warner Merger that people love to ignore).

As far as his picks are concerned, why would we ignore players from the lower rounds? Why won't they count? Khabibulin, Davydov (for a brief period of time), Ulanov, in the later rounds, is great!

There was quite a bit of buzz with Dan Ratushny, Sorokin, Jeremy Stevenson, Kaminsky, Langkow, and Courville, though none of them had a career. But they all had pretty decent trade value while Smith was at the helm.

Guys who had careers, not necessarily much of it to do with the Jets, were guys like Barnes (1136), Draper (1157 GP), Ward (839 GP), Ulanov (739), Mironov (716 GP), Grosek (526 GP), Bylsma (429 GP), Ylonen (341 GP), and Lindgren (387 GP), though I think most people thought that Lindgren was going to have a much better career than he had. Ward was once cited as being the next Scott Stevens (sigh).

Then we have Selanne (Smith's influence to draft him), Tkachuk, Zhamnov, and Khabibulin.

As far as the other Russians go, Vancouver getting Bure had some controversy around it. Most teams believed that Bure was ineligible to be selected beyond the first three rounds.

5 most dramatic NHL Draft Day falls of all-time ft. Pavel Bure.

Personally, I don't care for the "We could have drafted this guy instead" logic. Look, it's often said that the Jets bombed in the 1979 draft, because we took Jimmy Mann instead of Michel Goulet (or insert another player selected after).

This bothers me, because that draft needs context.

It's not like the Jets had the 1st overall pick, because some people act as though we did. Mann went 19th.

This wasn't a usual draft, it was also loaded with guys who played 1-year in the WHA (Ramage, Vaive, Messier, etc), so when you miss, it's going to look much worse. By the logic that we f'ed up taking Mann, 21 teams DIDN'T select Mark Messier in the 2nd round. You could even say, the Oilers were way off for taking Kevin Lowe over Messier, even though they guy their guy.

Jimmy Mann was a pretty good prospect. Maybe he goes to Montreal, goes through their system, he's a different player. Not everyone is Hawerchuk.

The Jets HAD a good draft in 1979. There were only 6 rounds. They got Dave Christian, Thomas Steen, and Tim Waters. Yes, Edmonton and Quebec (for example), both did better. The Jets still did well, especially considering that they didn't draft until the end of each round.

I'd rather have Forsberg over Ward, or Fedorov over Zhamnov too. If you just look at the Jets draft, you'll see guys who didn't pan out, but I can't stress this enough, isolate almost any other team from the 1989-93 drafts, do a side-by-side comparison, and Mike Smith did a great job drafting; especially without there being a 1st overall pick. If you took away the Nordiques 1st overall picks, they actually didn't draft very well; and they hadn't drafted well since that 1979 draft frankly (not including Sakic)!

Most of the guys you cite really only had careers because they were jets ... they were not talented players

Beauregard was a good goalie except he could be relied on for 2-3 flubs a game. Usually resulting in a 5 hole goal which is exactly what happened in the playoffs

 

[BarnabyJones PI]

Most of the guys you cite really only had careers because they were jets ... they were not talented players

Beauregard was a good goalie except he could be relied on for 2-3 flubs a game. Usually resulting in a 5 hole goal which is exactly what happened in the playoffs

You're 100% right on Beauregard most glaring weakness.

Most of the guys I cited, barely played with the Jets.

Just to highlight again, Barnes (1136), Draper (1157 GP), Ward (839 GP), Ulanov (739), Mironov (716 GP), Grosek (526 GP), Bylsma (429 GP), Ylonen (341 GP), and Lindgren (387 GP).

As far as the 1st crop that I'd mentioned, Dan Ratushny, Sorokin, Jeremy Stevenson, Kaminsky, Langkow, and Courville, each one of them had some buzz about them after they were drafted. I know that Larry Courville, not long after being drafted, was wanted by other teams for his "leadership" qualities. That "hype" was short-lived, but it was a thing for the better part of a year.

The Dan Ratushny thing, went on seemingly, for ages. I think Sorokin was the one who ate his way off the team, in that '93 camp (hot dogs and stocking up on bread perhaps).

I'd argue that the Jets problem, was that they had too many prospects (around '92, '93), that you can't give everyone ice time, and you can only develop so many players. And I don't think that the infrastructure was in place (like the Habs pre-1990s), but that's not necessarily Mike Smith's fault, that's pretty much everything to do with ownership.

I think that Smith was promoted, because the team needed a quick turnaround, and he could find ways to help save the team the money it didn't have. This is probably why he went so hard, scouting overseas, specifically the Eastern Bloc. I don't think the Jets had much interest in developing players either. I know that Barnes and Draper spent time in Moncton, but they were both really good coming out of juniors any way. Borsato was born in 1966, and didn't start playing regularly until the 1991-92 season, so I guess you could argue, they had been "developing" him all of those years.