That's fair, but I had no idea what a disaster of a season Damphousse had in his draft year. We picked a goalie in the 1st rnd who had a 6-25 record with a 5.53 gaa? How is that possible? He's season was so bad Hockey DB did him the courtesy of not posting his save %.
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That's fair, but I had no idea what a disaster of a season Damphousse had in his draft year. We picked a goalie in the 1st rnd who had a 6-25 record with a 5.53 gaa? How is that possible? He's season was so bad Hockey DB did him the courtesy of not posting his save %.
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Thanks for posting this.Damphousse was a scrawny project who just came off a season with these stats:
6-25-2, 5.53GAA
Horrific!
Our 8th round draft pick that season was also a goalie, Clemmer.
I'm sure Conte quickly realized how awful the Damphousse pick was since they doubled down & picked Ahonen 2 years later.
When you posted the horrific JF Damphousse statline, it reminded me of a conversation with my friend from the year he was picked. Quite a few conversations actually. And while I did acknowledge that this was one of the worst first round picks for us in the last 20 years, I didn't even remember that season he was coming off of.
This is something my friend pointed out to me at the time. He was saying how the pick was awful and how he said this guy would never amount to anything, even from the day he was drafted. He was a nerd about draft picks and prospects, more than me and anyone else I knew. He told me back in 97 that the ''Goalie we took in the 8th round has a better chance of seeing more NHL success than the guy we took at 24th overall''. So I just called him up to discuss it with him, he remembered the conversations like they were yesterday haha.
I understand taking a goalie at the time because like I said, Marty's loyalty was not yet confirmed. But that one was terrible. To be fair, he wound up having some AHL years better than Ahonen and Clemmensen though.
The mid-to-late 90's was a graveyard for goalies in the first round.
1995 was at least decent with Giguere, Biron, Boucher, and Denis.
1996 had some guy named Hillier (and no, I didn't just spell Hiller wrong). 1997 was Luongo, who obviously worked out, but after that you had Noronen and Damphousse. 1998 had DesRochers and Chouinard (both top 15 picks). 1999 had Brian Finley 6th overall, then Ouellet and Ahonen. 2000 was obviously DiPietro 1st overall and Krahn at 9th overall. 2001 you had Leclaire and Blackburn at top 10 picks, then Bacashuia and Munro. 2002 had Lehtonen 2nd overall, then Bleed's favorite Ward and Toivonen.
And GMs vote on the Vezina.
1995 was at least decent with Giguere, Biron, Boucher, and Denis.
1996 had some guy named Hillier (and no, I didn't just spell Hiller wrong). 1997 was Luongo, who obviously worked out, but after that you had Noronen and Damphousse. 1998 had DesRochers and Chouinard (both top 15 picks). 1999 had Brian Finley 6th overall, then Ouellet and Ahonen. 2000 was obviously DiPietro 1st overall and Krahn at 9th overall. 2001 you had Leclaire and Blackburn at top 10 picks, then Bacashuia and Munro. 2002 had Lehtonen 2nd overall, then Bleed's favorite Ward and Toivonen.
And GMs vote on the Vezina.
Moncton was awful - they were 16-52-2 - and I feel pretty comfortable saying that shot quality is going to be a thing in the QMJHL in 1997. J.S. Aubin, who did go on to be an NHL backup for several years, was 9-13 with a 3.3 GAA. It looks like Moncton sold everything worth anything, including Aubin, and was just horrendous from then on.
Damphousse did go on to be a decent pro goaltender so the Devils' scouting staff was not entirely wrong on him. This isn't Evgeni Ryabchikov, who the Bruins drafted on the strength of a single WJC only to see him be a total flop as a professional goalie - Damphousse was okay, just not NHL quality. If the Devils had thought he was bad in 1999, they would've opted not to sign him and gotten a 2nd round pick.
No not entirely, but he was a 1st rnd pick that played a grand total of 6 NHL games. I wonder where he was ranked on draft boards at that time, but that looks to me like a "look how smart we are" type of pick.
Emperoreddy
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glenwo2
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AfroThunder396
[citation needed]
The mid-to-late 90's was a graveyard for goalies in the first round.
1995 was at least decent with Giguere, Biron, Boucher, and Denis.
1996 had some guy named Hillier (and no, I didn't just spell Hiller wrong). 1997 was Luongo, who obviously worked out, but after that you had Noronen and Damphousse. 1998 had DesRochers and Chouinard (both top 15 picks). 1999 had Brian Finley 6th overall, then Ouellet and Ahonen. 2000 was obviously DiPietro 1st overall and Krahn at 9th overall. 2001 you had Leclaire and Blackburn at top 10 picks, then Bacashuia and Munro. 2002 had Lehtonen 2nd overall, then Bleed's favorite Ward and Toivonen.
And GMs vote on the Vezina.
This is probably why we rarely see goalies taken in the top-10 anymore, aside from freakishly good prospects like Price.
Goaltending in the league is better than it's ever been, and less goalies are getting taken with high picks than ever before. I think it's obvious, most teams have figured out you take a few goalies with later round picks and pray that one of them turns into something. Unless there's a guy with a great pedigree it's not worth it.
In 1997, the Devils had seen Brodeur, Schwab, and Dunham - all taken in the 90 draft - all go on to become NHL goalies. They had also already opted not to sign Chris Mason, so their goalie depth in the minors was about nil - they had Shulmistra, who was 26, and Peter Sidorkiewicz who was in his 30s, and also a younger goalie, Frederic Henry, who would start for Albany for several years. The Devils had also seen just about all of their star players either refuse to sign RFA contracts or hold out (technically a holdout is when you are signed but do not show up), so thinking that Brodeur was a lock to be on the team for the next almost two decades was quite naive. On the other hand, they had all sorts of good young players who weren't even in the NHL yet like Elias and Morrison, and there were not a lot of players who went on to become good taken after where NJ picked. I don't think it's a good pick, but it's justifiable - and certainly done with a lot of confidence.
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That's why I'm saying in 97 and 99, we couldn't take it for granted yet that we'd have Marty for the next 10 or 15 years. So taking a goalie in the first round wasn't necessarily as bad as it looked at the time. And we never again took a goalie in the first or second round again from 99 with Ahonen until Jeff Frazee in round 2 in 2005.
I'm sure Lou already figured Marty was definitely a Devil for the remainder of his career, by 2005 or so. Even though he technically wasn't. I'm thinking the thought behind that was that Marty was probably going to retire sometime between 2010 and 2012. And sometimes goalies are taken regardless, in the case of something unforeseen and catastrophic happening.
I don't think Marty was a lock to be a career Devil until around the time he signed an extension during the season in 97-98. He was supposed to be an RFA after that season and Stevens was supposed to be UFA, but both signed in like the same week. And then Marty signed another extension in 01, about a year before becoming an RFA again. I think at that point in 01, it was sealed that he absolutely would be a Devil for life.
And yes, I know he technically wasn't a Devil for life. But I also think they were operating under the assumption that Marty would not play until the year 2015 either.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
Well except for Bleed's old buddy from LI. Always in top 5 worst 1st round picks ever lists
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I have a hockey news from 2000 or 2001, or at least I think I still have it. I haven't seen it in 5 years since I moved here, but it's gotta be in here somewhere.
But it touts DiPietro as the best goaltender drafted into the league since Martin Brodeur 10 years before him.
I always thought he was overhyped between 05-07. The general consensus was that he was the second best goaltender in the division after Marty. Even better than Lundqvist. This was between 05 and 08. I never really considered him better than Lundqvist.
Though he was not bad, up until 2008. When he couldn't get out of bed without hurting this or pulling that.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
That is precious. Best goalie drafted since Marty, to one of the biggest busts in history. WOMP WOMP.
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Even in his early years, I always thought of him as a rich man's Marty Turco. A great puck handler, that was above average or just good as a puck stopper. Better goaltender/puck stopper than Marty Turco.
I don't have the 2000 draft order in front of me, but even if he didn't hurt himself so many times. Lundqvist (in the 5th or 6th round or whatever it was) would have been the best goaltender drafted that year. Except for maybe 05-06 when I wasn't convinced that Lundqvist was anything special, I probably wouldn't have ever said Rick was better. But Lundqvist's emergence 2 years into the league did just happen to coincide with Rick's complete collapse.
AfroThunder396
[citation needed]
Lundqvist was ranked #5 on the European goalies list that year. Bryzgalov was ranked #1.
To be fair, Bryz actually has a Cup
JimEIV
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Dipietro's career was pretty unfortunate. Between a very bad team, a poorly ran organization and health issues he really never had much of a chance. I think his raw talent and potential to be an elite goalkeeper in the NHL was totally there. Sometimes things just don't go as planned.
Ripshot 43
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Awwwww....NEW JEEERRSEEEEY!!
DON'T YOU DARE BE SOWAH!! CLAP FOR YOUR WORLD FAMOUS NJ DEVILS AND FEEL THE DSP...POWAAHH!!
(It's a New Day, Yes it is!!)
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
It might be time to shut this thread down when even Mods aren't discussing things on topic
Honestly I'm tempted to start a draft bust thread but I guess that is an offseason thing.
More fun then going in circles about Matts and DSP
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Only thing better is to photoshop DSP's head on BIG E's head and we'd have :
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