Why was Brett Lindros drafted 9th overall?

[The Panther]

So, two possibliities comes to mind:
1) He was Eric's brother.
2) The 1994 draft kind of sucked.

But, even given these factors, I don't really see it. Sure, he was big, and he had a very productive partial season in the OHL in 1994-95, with 47 points in 26 games... but this was on a club where Keli Corpse (great name!) and David Ling scored over 2 points per game.

I dunno, was this a nepotism thing? Was it only the Islanders that had a big crush on Jr. Lindros?

Click to read more...

 

[The Pale King]

Islanders were hoping to assemble a Lindros-Gretzky-Bure line and pitch the team to a new owner who didn't do their research.

(This isn't fair to Val Bure at all but Steve Kariya was too young for this speculative timeline to exist).

 

[frisco]

Ironically, due to Eric, the league became of obsessed with only drafting guys that were at least 6'4, 220 pounds in the first round. Skating and hockey talent be damned. Seriously, 12/14 forwards out of the first round of that draft were 205 pounds or heavier and over 6'1. Chris Wells (first round pick of the Penguins) could fit any two current Hughes brothers into his body.

My Best-Carey

 

[Terry Yake]

probably the same reason scott thornton was drafted 3rd overall

he was big

 

[alko]

His name was Lindros...

 

[Voight]

In those days if you were a decent prospect with size, you were in for a payday.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Big forward trend of the day

 

[MadLuke]

To give that GM a bit of a fair shake on taken that chance, nepotism drafting in sport seem to be a good strategy (they tend to overperform regular no family link drafted at the same spot I think, despite the higher attention and impression to get overvalued)

He is a Staal, just pick him did not turn out terrible in average, a 49th pick on 6 foot 4 Jared, make sense, those pick are already noisy, who knows, that a never been fired because you bought a Xerox type of affair.

 

[Michael Farkas]

If his name was Jared NimblyBimbly instead of Staal he likely doesn't get picked at all. 5th to 7th round guy for some.

 

[Brodeur]

I didn't watch the draft until the following year, but here's the THN blurb on Lindros.

 

[JJ18Sniper]

Because GM Don Maloney claimed 'He was the better Lindros'.

 

[MS]

I actually don’t think the draft position here was really out-of-whack at all. Brett Lindros was a good player who probably would have had a Tom Wilson sort of career without the injury issues.

1994 was actually just before the draft got really stupid for size in the late 1990s and guys like Mike Rupp started going #9 overall. A few years later and Brett would have gone even higher.

 

[sr edler]

If you look at some of the skater gems going in later round – Patrik Elias, Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk, Daniel Alfredsson – they were all either European or smallish. And conversely, there were a number of big Canadian meathead-ish type of players going in the first round (including said Brett Lindros).

So, bad scouting.

 

[GMR]

GMs were size queens in those days.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

He seemed to justify being taken that high with 24-23-47 in 26 OHL games the next season. Honestly who's to say he doesn't live up to the hype without the concussions ending his career so soon

 

[Staniowski]

To give that GM a bit of a fair shake on taken that chance, nepotism drafting in sport seem to be a good strategy (they tend to overperform regular no family link drafted at the same spot I think, despite the higher attention and impression to get overvalued)

He is a Staal, just pick him did not turn out terrible in average, a 49th pick on 6 foot 4 Jared, make sense, those pick are already noisy, who knows, that a never been fired because you bought a Xerox type of affair.

Yeah, scouts and GMs are looking for as much information about players as they can get. Genetics and other family similarities are information that you have about these players that you don't have about other players. It can turn out either good or bad (sometimes really bad), but maybe good more often. But I've never analyzed it, so I'm not sure.

 

[Staniowski]

He seemed to justify being taken that high with 24-23-47 in 26 OHL games the next season. Honestly who's to say he doesn't live up to the hype without the concussions ending his career so soon

I agree on both of your points.

 

[MadLuke]

But I've never analyzed it, so I'm not sure.

Study in basketball show large overperformance of nepotism linked draftee I think, but that a sport where player are less pro ready young, peak later usually and maybe genetic is a greater variable....

 

[Johnny Engine]

View attachment 979495

I didn't watch the draft until the following year, but here's the THN blurb on Lindros.

This scouting report was brought to you by the countries of Albania, China, Morocco, Turkey and Vietnam.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Study in basketball show large overperformance of nepotism linked draftee I think, but that a sport where player are less pro ready young, peak later usually and maybe genetic is a greater variable....

Hard to figure genetics playing too much of the role when it's based on overperformance of draft position, where you'd figure the genetic advantage would have other materialized to that point.

It's interesting when you see cases like Gary Payton II and Scotty Pippen Jr. where the fathers are Hall of Fame players and the son goes undrafted but then grinds their way into the League and look like really solid players. Then you compare it to Bronny James lol.

There is obviously a lot of noise to something like that (Steph Curry wildly overperforms for instance to drag it up, Klay Thompson, Domantas Sabonis... when we're only talking 68 players). Blanket speculation though is that if your father was a Pro Player, having someone who was there before to keep you guided, the whole idea of staying focused, knowing how it's an everyday grind, avoiding the mentality of "I got drafted high, I made it" mentality, etc.

 

[njdevils1982]

I actually don’t think the draft position here was really out-of-whack at all. Brett Lindros was a good player who probably would have had a Tom Wilson sort of career without the injury issues.

1994 was actually just before the draft got really stupid for size in the late 1990s and guys like Mike Rupp started going #9 overall. A few years later and Brett would have gone even higher.

ya, rupp went 9th in the '98 draft and went unsigned. he re-entered for the '00 draft and was taken at the more reasonable slot of 76th overall in the third round

 

[MadLuke]

where you'd figure the genetic advantage would have other materialized to that point.

In hockey yes, but those very tall athlete in basketball growth into becoming a player later on (think Chara type being more common), they peak at 28 instead of 24, making drafting young more a crap shoot.

Could be just better trainers-resource outside what the teams provide, when you have a rich father with a lot of contact in the sports, which would transfer a lot for hockey when you big brother is a nhler or father. But that also would have been true all their life and should have materialized at the point... more than at any other, post NBA draft the gap in resource and support must get way smaller, not larger.

Then you compare it to Bronny James lol.

Perfect example, look like he is having a really solid season and likely to overperform is draft position, but a lot of people could have missed that pick and underrated the son of James factor.

Maybe there is simply an anti-nepotism bias, scout think, they had great advantage over the field for the last 19 years, that make them look better than they are, once the others get our nba teams-support if they are close to be has good now, they will pass them that overrate the effect or just fear a bit the accusation.