NHL teams just say nyet to drafting Russians
Gee, guess we can toss the Russian dictionary and the map of the greater metropolitan Moscow area, huh? Not a single Russian was selected in the opening round of the NHL draft yesterday in Ottawa. In fact, the land that Herb Brooks cut down to size a quarter-century ago got blanked in the second round, too.
Man, oh man, picture the long faces and empty dreams hovering around the block party last night in Voskresensk (with apologies and a shout out here to Voskresensk's own Dmitri Kvartalnov, ex of the Bruins' Bonanza Line).
Imagine, Russia going 0 for 30 right off the hop in North America? That sure will make for curious times come the next NHL lockout, because who in the name of Vladimir Cantskaterov will be able to race back over there to fill up the Dynamo, CSKA and Novokuznetsk rosters and skate for pennies on the ruble -- or is it rubles on the penny? But I digress.
No need to point fingers at the Russians for bolting NHL frigid firma during the lockout, because there were plenty of Americans and Canadians who likewise bolted the Frozen 30 for the chance to play for a new set of luggage and drive a leased Lada in the lost 2004-05 season.
The lack of ready-to-suit-and-shoot Russians makes yesterday neither a good nor a bad day in NHL draft history. It's just what it is, a down cycle for the former CCCP.
The reasons for the great Russian dip? Who knows, but you can bet ex-NHL star Slava Fetisov, now the Russian Sports Minister, will have a busy week explaining why all those Russian kids are going soft on playing what has long been the country's hallmark sport. No doubt some of the blame will fall to the plethora of
Just admit it, Slava, you guys messed up, big time. You thought eating all that real Yankee food would make your kids like our kids. Well, you know, looks like it did.
The last time a Russian didn't get selected in the opening round of the NHL draft was 1990. That was just a very short time before Bob Goodenow took over as executive director of the NHL players' union. Now it has happened again, and it came less than 48 hours after Goodenow was booted, a healthy severance package in hand, out of the Players Association's office.
Coincidence? I think not, Mr. Goodenov.
Everything goes in cycles, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman often spoke of a ''pendulum swing" when he tried to assess the impact the old collective bargaining agreement was having on the game's strained economics. The pendulum ultimately knocked the owners to their knees, and then swung back again and chopped their blocks off. Some cycles are absolutely devastating.
Now what we have here, in terms of a talent cycle, is a decided and impressive swing back for high-end North American talent. Oh, happy day in Thunder Bay and Sioux City, too.
Canadian names were scribbled into 14 of the first-round slots, virtually 50 percent of the teenaged motherlode. More than 25 million Canadians went to sleep last night, no doubt feeling their game is back where it belongs -- even if they did lose Sidney Crosby, of the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Crosbys to them southerners and moonshiners in Pittsburgh.
As for the Yanks, holy Toledo, Fred 'n Ethel. No fewer than eight Americans went in the first round, including the East Greenbush, N.Y.-born Matt Lashoff, selected by the Bruins.
Eight Yanks! For the record, that's a record.
America twice before, in 1986 and 2003, saw seven of its lads go in the first round. Around these parts, the first round of the '86 draft designated real bragging rights, because it included New Englanders Brian Leetch (Texas-born, but considered one of us as of his high school days in Connecticut), Craig Janney, Scott Young, and Tom Fitzgerald (to be seen next when the Bruins open training camp Sept. 13 in Wilmington). Young grew up in Clinton and Fitzgerald in Billerica. That '86 draft was a true Bay State bonanza.
The Russians finally found their stride when the Senators, who once shaped their franchise around highly skilled Russian Alexei Yashin (nowadays an overpriced hood ornament on Long Island), made 6-foot-3-inch Yaroslavl forward Vitaly Anikeyenko a third-round pick, No. 70 overall.
Anikeyenko offered quite a contrast to, say, 1994, when five Russians went in the top 25 picks -- including Boston's regrettable selection of netminder Evgeni Ryabchikov at No. 21. Ryabchikov was a clunker, but that's part and parcel of the NHL draft, sport's version of trying to pick Luciano Pavarotti out of a pack of rappers. Once beyond the top 5-6 picks, it can be a maddening exercise.
Consider some of the brilliant gemstones who came much later in the '94 draft: Patrik Elias (No. 51, N.J.), Milan Hejduk (87, Quebec) and Daniel Alfredsson (133, Ottawa). That trio has played 1,657 NHL games and collected 1,443 points. Elias has his name on a pair of Stanley Cups with the Devils, Hejduk one with the Avalanche.
Messrs. Elias, Hejduk, and Alfredsson are three more reasons the medical dossiers of club scouting directors dot the footboards of psychiatric wards around the world. No doubt a couple more were placed bedside this morning at a ward wall not far from Red Square.
But, hey, we've got our own problems here in the Hub of Hockey. Guess what, puck lovers? That glut of eight Yanks in the first round did not include a single Bay Stater. How's them oystahs?
Jonathan Quick, an Avon Old Farms netminder, born in Milford, Conn., got on the board at No. 72, picked by the Kings, nailing down highest honors for the New England-born in the draft.
Finally, one of our own, Boston-born Keith Yandle -- who played with Christopher Bourque at Cushing Academy -- was the first true Bay Stater to be selected. Yandle went No. 105, fourth round, to Phoenix.
Yessir, all in all, a pretty bad day for the Russians. But at 105, you know, we're sort of crying in our own borscht, aren't we?
Hey, it's just a cycle . . . just a cycle . . . just a cycle . . .
