| FROM THE STANDS (4) By Emile Lakatos, December 13th 2003 |
Well what a week we had in the WCFHL…it’s a trade, no its not a trade, yes it’s a trade, no , wait, it’s a new trade on the old trade, no its not, finally it is.. phew…… did
u keep up with all that? Ok, if you don’t know
what I am talking about then you must have just come down
from another universe! In my opinion I think the Flyers
will end up regretting the deal. One season does not make
a player a star even if he does win the rookie award.
Look who his defensive partner was in St.Louis.
Lets go back to previous winners and see how some of them
turned out! Scott Gomez won it in 1999-2000.
What has he done since then?…every season he has
dropped in points. In 1999-2000 he had 70 pts, then 63,
48, 55 and this seaosn he is on pace for 38 points. In
1976-77 Willi Plett (Atlanta Flames) won with 56
points(64 games) although he had 33 goals that rookie
season. He was only able to top his rookie stats for only
1 year when he scored 38 goals and ended up with 68
points. He never lived up to the hype and expectations of
his rookie year. Another Atlanta player, Eric
Vail(1973-74) he scored 39 goals with 62 points. He
lasted 9 season in the league, which during those 9
seasons he only topped his rookie stats in points twice
but not in goals.
The rookies who went on to become stars are a who’s
who of the award.. Frank Mahovlich, Bobby Orr, Tony
Esposito, Gilbert Perreault,Ken Dryden, Dennis Potvin,
Mike Bossy, Ray Bourque, Mario Lemieux, Luc Robitaille,
Brian Leetch, Ed Belfour, Pavel Bure, Teemu Selanne,
Martin Brodeur, just to name a few…Will Jackman turn
out to be a true superstar? Hard to say after 1 season.
But when you think of trading away your 1st
round pick, which may turn out to be the 1st
pick overall, the GM better hope that Jackman outshines
whoever that pick turns out to be or the fans in Phily
wont have any brotherly love left. This
and that…In the Eastern Conference the Devils
continue to hover in a playoff position….Bruins
are moving up despite the youth movement…New
Jersey continues to lead in the PK at 100%, Coach
Lemaire’s boys are doing it his way.. Bruins with all that youth
are the only team over 20 PIM/G with 24….In the Western
Conference the Wild continue to lead the
league in the PP with 33.3%..The Sharks are making their
move going 8-1-1 in the last 10 games..Will Keenan
survive in Vancouver as they are 3-5-2 in last 10 games…more…Eric
Lindros(Hawks) is on a 10 game point streak..Eric
Staal(Flyers) takes the lead in rookies with 10 points…Brodeur(Sabres)
has already logged over 1000 minutes of ice time.. A sign
of things to come this season perhaps, in star points the
top 4 are all goalies and of the top 10, 8 are
goalies….and whatever happened to Dirk Graham? Well that’s the way I see here
from the stands. |