Monday, August 13, 2007

 

Gagner (and Fats)

Lowetide is musing about Gagner's chances of making the Oilers' big club this fall. I can't believe this comp hadn't occurred to me previously.

Sam Gagner (draft year, reg. season + playoffs):
Other Guy who was selected 6th overall from the London Knights in the past decade:
For the record, not only did Other Guy make the team 3 months after he was drafted, but completely deserved to. It didn't really work out, but I wouldn't say making the show at 18 was the reason.

Comments:

True story - I met Rico Fata and his dad when Fata was 12.

What a couple of jerks. At 12 the kid was so full of himself it was hard to believe. And dad was right there filling his head with BS. Physically gifted but the sort of attitude that doesn't necessarily make one think of someone willing to put in hard work or effort to improve oneself.

But another example of why the draft - c'est le shoot de crap.
 


So you're saying the Oilers drafted a guy who has demonstrated he can score 50% more than Rico "63 points in 230 career NHL games" Fata?

Cheap shot.
 


The point-per-game difference is almost exactly 1.0. But then a "comparison" doesn't have to be between remotely similar items.
 


Wow... #6 picks from the same junior team don't qualify as "remotely comparable"... so was the 2007 draft that much deeper than the 1998 draft, or is the lesson of that 1pt/gm discrepancy that Fata had a better all-around game at the time?
 


Well, with facts like this I don't think it's too soon to call him a bust.
 


The lesson is obviously "Don't draft Rico Fata." Doy. That said, all you have to do is look at that draft to see how shallow it was--the Rangers took Manny Malhotra #7 and in context it's actually a pretty strong pick.
 

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