Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
I love it when people disagree with me by telling me "I didn't really look".
His high draft picks were rarely skilled based- there is no way someone like Pelech should have been drafted in the 1st. He seemed more willing to draft skilled guys later on - and some of those paid off.
He traded away guys like Lydman and Stralman for nothing.
Yes he acquired some skilled guys, but it seems overall he had a certain type of player he valued and a certain type of player he didn't.
We are more than welcome to agree to disagree, but don't assume I don't know the Sutter era well or that I "didn't look".
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What I meant by that comment "You didn't look" didn't come out right.
People remember Pelech, Nemisz, Chucko - bigger and less talented players, and they point out that this is how Sutter drafts, preferring the rugged, less skilled players, and it gets passed around quite a lot. Hey, I myself thought this way, and it wasn't until I REALLY went back through his drafts and looked that it wasn't that.
Backlund and Erixon were 1st rounders that were not of the 'big and tough' demeanour. Later in the rounds you certainly see Brodie and other skilled and 'softer' players, but you also see the 'meatheads' so to speak like Watt, Ferland, Arnold...
Like I said, I myself held your viewpoint until I really looked through his drafting, read an interview with Todd Button in the Herald a few years ago, and again went back through is drafting to see if I could spot the difference in philosophy that Button was talking about.
Sure, he let Stralman and Lydman go, but again he brought in Tanguay, Cammalleri, Huselius and Bouwmeester - none of which fought, hit hard or had much in the way of any physicality. Year-to-year you could see the shift in his drafting and trades away from 'toughness' to 'skill'.
I also think the WHL bias was also at least partially a product of guys like Drury not being happy to be in Calgary. I remember him saying that he wants players that want to be in Western Canada in general, and Calgary in particular. That at least partially explains his WHL bias.