Why Was Brian Lawton A First Overall Pick?

[BraveCanadian]

High schoolers hitting the ground running was a thing at the time and you can’t teach size.

In other words, NHL GMs are often pretty dumb.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

High schoolers hitting the ground running was a thing at the time and you can’t teach size.

In other words, NHL GMs are often pretty dumb.

It wasnt that wild of a pick when you look at it.

He put up 95-86-171 in 49 games over 2 seasons at Mount St Charles. Mount St Charles is a hockey machine and arguably one of the best US high school hockey programs in history. It's not like was on some random HS team playing kids more worried about their Algebra test.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i don’t have much to contribute but in the 1983 WJC he scored 3 goals and 4 pts. of players we’ve heard of on his team, kelly miller was two years older (1 assist), tony granato (4 pts, all goals) and vanbiesbrouck (starter) were a year older, and barrasso (backup, 2 starts, both losses) was his age.

in the same tournament, turgeon had 4 goals, 6 pts and yzerman had 2 goals, 5 pts. mario had 10 pts as a 16 year old.

 

[Staniowski]

If you watch Lawton play back then, in '83 or '84, you can see the attraction....but you can also see that he didn't deserve to be drafted that high.

LaFontaine and Yzerman were very good prospects, but not super prospects, so you can also understand it in this context. LaFontaine was small, Yzerman not really a superstar scorer.

But the interesting issue, perhaps, is the high school hockey that was popular in the States at the time. These were exciting times for USA hockey, with an increasing number of top American prospects, but with not yet a good development system. Most of these guys who played high school would be playing in the USNTDP today, obviously. I think the relatively low-level of high school hockey caused problems in scouting, overrating some and underrating others. It's difficult to say how it affected individual players, but I suspect Lawton was overrated, and Leetch the opposite.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

but also, i mean jesus christ, the top four of that draft was like the cast of the outsiders

 

[The Panther]

I'd like to know what the Whalers' org was thinking with that beefcake photo of Sylvain Turgeon...

 

[MS]

If you watch Lawton play back then, in '83 or '84, you can see the attraction....but you can also see that he didn't deserve to be drafted that high.

LaFontaine and Yzerman were very good prospects, but not super prospects, so you can also understand it in this context. LaFontaine was small, Yzerman not really a superstar scorer.

But the interesting issue, perhaps, is the high school hockey that was popular in the States at the time. These were exciting times for USA hockey, with an increasing number of top American prospects, but with not yet a good development system. Most of these guys who played high school would be playing in the USNTDP today, obviously. I think the relatively low-level of high school hockey caused problems in scouting, overrating some and underrating others. It's difficult to say how it affected individual players, but I suspect Lawton was overrated, and Leetch the opposite.

Yeah, USA Hockey was on a roll following the 1980 Olympics and then Bobby Carpenter in 1981 and Phil Housley in 1982 blew straight to the NHL as impact players at age 18. Housley went 6th in 1982 but probably would have been #1 in a re-draft at the time of the 1983 Lawton draft, so you had an obvious recent example of an HS player that the scouts underrated somewhat.

So it was the 'big trend' and a perfect storm to make drafting mistakes given the actual low level of competition.

Lawton did score at a 45 point/80 GP pace in the NHL at age 18 so it's not like he was 'bad' even. He was probably a guy who should have gone in the 6-12 range that hype carried to #1 overall. There's probably some alternate universe where he gets selected in the correct range, goes to the CHL for a year or two and develops properly without pressure, and has a solid 800-game career as a good two-way #2C.

 

[Jumptheshark]

This is where me being old kicks in. Lawton real showed some things at some key times in his draft year. Lawton was going top 5 that year. Starting in 83 was one of the dawn of the era where pre draft interviews and phych exams were suddenly all the rage and Lawton was reportedly the smartest guy on the block. Lawton also suffered a lot of injuries. If he does not get rushed by the North Stars he could have had a different career. He is still considered a pretty smart cookie. But being rushed and getting injured killed his chances.

There are some people using the ever famous hindsight approach with asking why a guy like Neely was over looked. While Neely looked good in Vancouver--no one thought he would become what he did. He was viewed as a crash and bang guy and that was it. It was when to Boston that he went boom

 

[MadLuke]

There are some people using the ever famous hindsight approach with asking why a guy like Neely was over looked. While Neely looked good in Vancouver--no one thought he would become what he did. He was viewed as a crash and bang guy and that was it. It was when to Boston that he went boom

If you are talking about me, just 2 message below:

Why Was Brian Lawton A First Overall Pick?

What was the appeal? I'm not going to pretend I know much about his junior career, but it looks like he didn't even have much of one outside of high school. He was drafted ahead of Pat LaFontaine (who was a great junior player) and Steve Yzerman (who is a top 35 to 50 player all-time). He had a...

forums.hfboards.com

Hard to blame the scouts considering it took time for him to be special in the nhl and it was a very strong draft (outside McBain they ended up were all strong pick), that almost scouting a pitcher in baseball timeline....

It was just a jist about size-grit being a big factor in their choice if they drafted Smith and the ironie that Neely was there, not that someone that went 8th should have been someone else number 1, that never make sense as a critic.

 

[Jumptheshark]

If you are talking about me, just 2 message below:

Why Was Brian Lawton A First Overall Pick?

What was the appeal? I'm not going to pretend I know much about his junior career, but it looks like he didn't even have much of one outside of high school. He was drafted ahead of Pat LaFontaine (who was a great junior player) and Steve Yzerman (who is a top 35 to 50 player all-time). He had a...

forums.hfboards.com

Hard to blame the scouts considering it took time for him to be special in the nhl and it was a very strong draft (outside McBain they ended up were all strong pick), that almost scouting a pitcher in baseball timeline....

It was just a jist about size-grit being a big factor in their choice if they drafted Smith and the ironie that Neely was there, not that someone that went 8th should have been someone else number 1, that never make sense as a critic.

not you..someone else