OffThePost.org

Hm, interesting theory... let's have a look with hockey (ignoring the original 12 and the WHA merger teams):

Anaheim: Paul Kariya - did become a star, a few hundred-point seasons, and eventually led the team to respectability, including a Finals appearance

Atlanta/Calgary: the late Jacques Richard - I have a 1982 hockey card of this guy on the Nordiques. He hilariously had a 50-goal, 100-point season (playing with the Stastnys) toward the end of an otherwise mediocre career marred by substance abuse. His next-best season was 27 goals and 43 points -- and that was his only 20-goal season. He lasted three years in Atlanta, anyway, and the team made the playoffs once.

Atlanta (Thrashers): Patrik Stefan - the origin of this discussion, so yeah

Buffalo: Gilbert Perreault - as mentioned by Luvah, remains the gold standard for first ever picks, playing his whole career with the Sabres and leading them to a Finals appearance

Cleveland: Mike Crombeen - the Barons only ever had one draft as they quickly disappeared, but Crombeen was never more than a role-player in the NHL. It wasn't a star-studded first round in 1977, though.

Columbus: Rostislav Klesla - Well, he's still there and solid if not spectacular. Yeah, he followed Heatley and Gaborik in the 2000 draft, but there was also a very noticeable dropoff after him.

Florida: Rob Niedermayer - looked early like he'd be a core part of the team, but petered out early into a role player. His second season (61 pts.) is still his best ever.

Kansas City/Colorado/New Jersey: Wilf Paiement - he would lead the Rockies in scoring for 3 of their first 4 years in existence, but only had one playoff appearance

Minnesota (Wild): Marian Gaborik - best player they've had to date

Nashville: David Legwand - well he's still there (I often forget this) so I guess he's done OK, although he's never really been a model of spectacularity. The dropoff after Lecavalier was inevitable in that draft, though.

NY Islanders: Billy Harris - put up some OK numbers for the Isles in almost 8 seasons, but was gone by the time they hit their dynasty. (In the same draft, the Isles took Lorne Henning, Bobby Nyström and Richard Brodeur).

Ottawa: Alexei Yashin - personality aside, he was a pretty good player for them, and one of the reasons Ottawa went from horrific expansion team to Northeast power almost overnight

San Jose: Pat Falloon - he was well on his way to being a good player (59 points in his rookie year on an expansion team) and then just fell into mediocrity

Tampa Bay: Roman Hamrlik - a solid defender for 6 seasons with Tampa, but only with them for one playoff appearance

Vancouver: Dale Tallon - contrary to a lot of the historical revisionism, Tallon was never a bust, he just wasn't Gilbert Perreault. He only lasted three seasons in Vancouver, though.

Washington: Greg Joly - played most of his career in Detroit after parts of two seasons with the Caps. An aside, the Caps had 25 (!) draft picks that year.

It looks pretty hit-and-miss, but I guess it's common sense that top prospects would have trouble developing on an expansion team relative to an established one. Either way, it inevitably makes their stats worse, skewing the data a little bit.

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Kariya was good. Up until 1998 Yashin was good too , the guy built himself up to a Hart trophy finalist , top 4 scorer , city loved him , he donated a million bucks for a theatre ... then his contract situation blew up and everything went to hell including taking back his million bucks lol

Ironically Billy Harris was traded for Bob Nystrom for the infamous trade was he not? despite Billy Harris , Islanders are still in my opinion the best team ever built from scratch... often forgotten in their history was before their 5 straight Cup appearances ,they had 3 final four appearances in the 70s... from 1972 -1982... thats 6 final four appearances in their first 10 years of existance.

That was the National Arts Centre, but you know that was all a tax-avoidance scam in the end, right? That's why the money was returned.


Not sure I follow? Like I mentioned, the Isles drafted them both at the same time, and Nyström played his whole career on Long Island.


Hard to disagree -- I guess you're eliminating the Oilers as not 'built from scratch'?

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hell yeah , how and why the hell did they keep Gretzky!!!???!?!!? hence i have zero empathy for them.

Billy Harris was part of the trade for Butch Goring, considered by many to be the final piece, and one of the best trades ever.

Ah, those were the days...

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