Another thing to consider, since Mike Smith had gone behind John Ferguson's back in Winnipeg (and with the Rangers many years prior!), why are we overlooking Barry Shenkarow's part in all of this? He's not exactly discouraging Mike Smith to come to him before Ferguson got the boot, why are we to assume that John Paddock wasn't doing the same thing to Smith in and around 1993 leading up to that draft?
For one thing, there are many accounts of Smith doing this, and the fact that Ferguson never spoke to him again after he was let go in 1988. There are absolutely no people on the inside that suggest Paddock ever did an underhanded thing like Smith did.
The 1992 draft year isn't a strong class (IMO), and was it Mike Smith making the final decision in all of those picks by the 1993 draft? I'm skeptical that Paddock didn't have more than enough input in the decision making by that point in time.
Smith was the GM. He called the shots until January 1994.
BTW, Fergie drafted Selanne, not Smith. The bottom line is it's the GM who calls the shots, and Fergie was GM. We can speculate all we want, but in the end it still remains speculation.
Finally, one of the knocks on Smith, is that he tended to prefer Russian players, since he thought they would be "cheaper" in the long run. This was all fine and good in 1989-91, when there was an abundance of Soviet players to choose from before Russian revolution in 1991.
However, once all the hidden gems were selected by the early 90s, it was really hit and miss. There is evidence Smith would have had a much tougher time drafting after 1992, as that was arguably the final year there was really an abundance of young and undiscovered Soviet hockey players. He did draft Khabiboulin, but why waste a 1st round pick on a 25 year old Russia, who was nothing special.
By 1993, most of the best Russian hockey players had been drafted, and Smith did not have the advantage that he once did, of getting to choose from an untapped well. His drafting of North American and Scandinavian players was not great after
