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Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751
What they meant was that according to the one scout (was it David Conte?), McDavid was the most impressive player he'd ever seen in his draft year.
Of course, I don't know how what McDavid did ends up being more impressive than Lemieux's 133 goals and 282 points in 70 games.
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Yeah, that was bizarre. Also somehow more impressive than 6'4" Eric Lindros's 71 goals and 149 points in 57 games. Better than Jaromir Jagr and his team leading 50 points in 51 games in a European pro league as an 18-year old; better than Bure's 18-year-old season with CSKA Moscow. And this is to say nothing of the incredible pre-NHL achievements of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Teemu Selanne, and Scott Niedermeyer.
This was David Conte's list, and I personally think it is bullocks. For those who don't remember far enough back, the reason why none of Jagr (#4 overall in 1990), Bure (#113 in 1989), and Selanne (#10 in 1988) were drafted with the first or second pick overall is because the European leagues at the time were not well scouted by ANYONE.
Jagr was drafted behind Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, and Kieth Primeau. Bure wasn't even picked up until the sixth round when the Canucks took a flier on the wide-outside possibility that he might make the move to North America from Russia. Selanne was drafted 10th, behind some great players like Mike Modano, and Jeremy Roenick; but he was also drafted well back of Trever Linden, Derrin Shannon, Scott Pearson, and Martin Gelinas. Yes, the draft is an imperfect science, but the point here is that there was very little known about the Eastern European leagues at the time these players were selected; so much so that I seriously doubt Conte nor anyone else had a good read at all on even one of these players.
He has proved to be a very good scout in years past, but this sort of proclamation is flat out ludicrous.