Yeah I remember lots of posters wanting him. It made sense at the time, our top defensive prospects were not good (thanks Ray!). You had your 1-2 punch at centre, it was time to draft a good prospect D.
Honestly I thought Ty Smith would, at the very least, be a bottom pair NHL D. I thought he was pretty highly rated in the OHL. But he was not, and never will be a Sanderson level LD.
I was pretty indifferent at the time. I won't lie. The world was on fire after all, my daughter was a babe in arms. Son was a snotty nosed toddler. I had other shit to deal with.
I'm glad we got Mercer out that first round. Muk helped us get Meier (not the greatest returns...YET). Holtz should have been better than what he is, oh well.
I saw a ton of mock drafts the year we drafted Ty Smith. I don’t think I read one in which he would fall to us. I really liked the pick because of the value and also thought his floor was a third pairing D man.
I was banging on the drum for either Rossi or Drysdale. Passing on Rossi really burns a hole in my bum bum as he has developed into a really good player. I recall there was a large contingent of fans that wanted him and that one of our resident draft experts,
@StevenToddIves, pumped this kid’s tires a great deal. Rossi was viewed by some of us as redundant with Nico but you can’t have enough centers and I’d gladly take more Hischiers on my team.
Was not overjoyed by the Holtz selection because to me it felt like a need pick (talked myself into liking it). Buffalo did the same thing a pick or two later with Jack Quinn and he’s also a bust. DRAFT BPA!! It’s just devastating to whiff completely and not even get a useful NHL player at 7OA. Winnipeg drafted Perfetti (another team that consistently drafts well) and while not a superstar at this point, he did score 19 goals last year and at worst is a solid contributor. I don’t fault Fitzgerald and company for not drafting Lundell or Jarvis (especially the latter) as most mocks I read had them in the 10-15 OA range. I won’t play revisionist history as I really liked the Mercer pick at the time.
If Jiricek becomes a great player on Minnesota, I’m also going to be annoyed. I liked him better than Nemec but in all fairness, it was close in my view.
My big issues with Fitzgerald related to drafting are:
1- Completely neglecting the center position in the draft year after year.
2- Being overly passive, patient and maybe stubborn to cashout on a draft pick before the asset’s value completely plummets (see Holtz, quite possibly Nemec)
3- Reaching for players (see Muk at 20OA), Stillman, instead of really working the draft. I get it takes two to tango with respect to a trade but man oh man…
