Good Year to be a Bad Team 2008/09?

Let’s face it there are good years to be at the bottom of the pile and there are others which are just average. Let’s take last year for instance. Steven Stamkos, however much the Tampa Bay marketing machine crunched out their best work on ‘Seen Stamkos’ he wasn’t a viable ‘face of franchise’ type catch. Equally, 2006 was not a ‘face of franchise’ year with a number of players in the top 10 whom most teams would have been pleased to label their saviour!

I’m the first to admit that I suspect teams for absolutely collapsing in an attempt to get that top pick. I’m sure that Ray Shero was sat twiddling his thumbs and crying about Hossa back in November when he had a brain wave… ‘It’s not working out there people so we may as well completely stink with the chance of getting some gold!’ You’ve not even done a good job on that guys if that was you aim!

Ok, ok so maybe an exaggeration…

The teams we’re looking at now that are all about the losing and in contention for that draft pick are Leafs, Islanders, Thrashers, Bolts…things of course can change!

So is 2008/09 a good year to be a bad team?? I absolutely think so. In saying that though I don’t believe there would be a need for too much disappointment should you not pick up either Hedman or Tavares.


_91+61 = #1?_


I supposed media hype certainly has a lot to do with whether we can class a player as a ‘franchise messiah’. This year of course JT and Hedman have both been given that honour, and while the hype is surely valid due to their immense skill on the ice, when you look at the scouting many of these guys who fall within the top ten certainly deserve more credit. If you’ve done your homework the likes of Svensson-Pääjärvi (love this guy!), Kane, Duchene, Cowen I think you would admit that to get any of these players would certainly not be disappointing. They would not, though, bring to the table the package that JT and Hedman would.



_Svensson-Pääjärvi doing his thing at WJC_



The fact remains, however, that we would expect a team to make a sensible and balanced judgement considering the needs of the franchise. Or does it?

Which is more important, having a player on your team that will bring in the existing fans and new ones, a player that will undoubtedly bring you the coins? Or, on the other hand, a player that will make your team a much more well rounded contender? I fear that the lure of the highest touted would make you lose control of your rational plans!

I’m pretty sure myself that it’s a good year if things didn’t work out for you!