Quote:
Originally Posted by Hatter
D Viacheslav Fetisov for me!
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I knew that was coming right quick there.
That is a very solid pick and easily the best defenseman left on the board (and better than a few selected before him as well). The best defenseman that Russia has ever produced.
To add a bit more discussion to this I will give my opinions on who I think are the steals and the reaches of each round (excluding my own team)
First round - Steal: Messier. Reach: Clarke/Crosby. - Nothing against either player (I do question Crosby's durability) but I think that there were either better players with a higher peak in the case of Clarke or a better overall career in the case of Crosby, although it is impossible to judge the future. I think that Messier was a good pick, I think that the latter 1/3rd of his career does put a bit of a bad taste in many people's mouths though.
Second Round - Steal: Stan Mikita. Reach: Eric Lindros. I think that Lindros was a fine player but the durability aspect rears it's head once again. There were also questions that continually floated around regarding personality conflicts... however that could be forgiven to a certain degree knowing how big of a dick Bobby Clarke could be. I think that Lindros gets a bit of a free pass due to the what could have been questions.
Third Round - Steal: Red Kelly. Reach: Jonathan Toews/Larry Murphy. I think that Toews gets slightly overrated at times, a really good young player but has never been the best in the league and there are better players from the same era (Datsyuk comes to mind). Larry Murphy is pretty meh and while a good offensive defenseman, he benefited greatly from playing on stacked teams and in an offensive era.