Remember this from the 06 draft???
Looking back at the draft it makes you wonder why the Bruins wanted " The Swede" at the draft. Phil Kessel is a fan favorite of many Bruins and has tremendous upside, but he almost wasn't a Bruin.
On draft day in 2006, there is video of Jeff Gorton, former assistant GM and acting GM at the time, speaking with Washington's GM offering the 5th and the 37th picks overall to move up one spot. Washington then asked who they wanted to pick with the 4th pick and Gorton responded "the Swede". The Capitals declined the trade proposal and took Backstrom while the Bruins took Kessel. The 37th pick for the Bruins was defenseman Yuri Alexandrov. Here is the video http://youtube.com/watch?v=LocFS04sG4c
Backstrom may win the Calder trophy as the rookie of the year this season . However, Kessel has obviously not reached his potential yet and will continue to get better. Who would you rather have Kessel and Alexandrov or Backstrom?
Here are their stats:
Kessel: 2006 11 goals 18 assists, -12
2007-08:15 goals 16 assists, -7
Yuri Alexandrov 2006-2007(Russia): 1 goal 1 assist, +1
2007-08 (Russia): 5 goals, 5 assists
Backstrom:2006 (Sweden)- 12 goals 28 assists, -1
2007-08: 10 goals 43 assists, +/- 0
On draft day in 2006, there is video of Jeff Gorton, former assistant GM and acting GM at the time, speaking with Washington's GM offering the 5th and the 37th picks overall to move up one spot. Washington then asked who they wanted to pick with the 4th pick and Gorton responded "the Swede". The Capitals declined the trade proposal and took Backstrom while the Bruins took Kessel. The 37th pick for the Bruins was defenseman Yuri Alexandrov. Here is the video http://youtube.com/watch?v=LocFS04sG4c
Backstrom may win the Calder trophy as the rookie of the year this season . However, Kessel has obviously not reached his potential yet and will continue to get better. Who would you rather have Kessel and Alexandrov or Backstrom?
Here are their stats:
Kessel: 2006 11 goals 18 assists, -12
2007-08:15 goals 16 assists, -7
Yuri Alexandrov 2006-2007(Russia): 1 goal 1 assist, +1
2007-08 (Russia): 5 goals, 5 assists
Backstrom:2006 (Sweden)- 12 goals 28 assists, -1
2007-08: 10 goals 43 assists, +/- 0
posted by Pekese at 11:13 PM
4 Comments:
Backstrom is an awesome player, but he's more of a playmaker and Marc Savard does enough of that. Patrice Bergeron When he's healthy is a Backstromish type player also. Phil Kessel is going to be unreal in a few years. He just needs some development time. He's unreal on the puck and even though he's not getting a lot of goals, I do love the fact that he shoots the puck a lot. I'd take Kessel.
Backstrom is a great player but with more muscle and experience Kessel will turn out the better player in the long run. We just have to be patience. His skill was rated highest in that draft but his maturity was in question. That is why he skipped in the draft.
When it was rumourd (falsly) that the Bruins were shopping Kessel, GMs around the league had opinions ranging from, "trading Kessel would be the worst thing PC could do right now no matter who he gets in return," to " he can shop him all he wants, he won't get a thing from me." Kessel is a very interesting player right now, blinding speed, no finish. We can't expect too much from him, I hope he becomes a 50goal man, but I expect him to be a 30g 30a guy. A nice 2nd line centre.
kessel cant play center he has the worst faceoff skills in the league. next i see him as a sergei samasonov type player when he was here but samsonov is more dynamic and would make much more out of nothing. kessel is going to be a career 15-20 goal scorer.
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