Post #6: the 1989 NHL Entry Draft
Wayne sat in his couch inside his residence at bloomfield, north of detroit as the 1989 NHL Draft was about to begin. He hoped that the red wings would adress their biggest needs in defense and goalies. With their frist round pick going to edmonton as part pf the trade that brought him in the motor city, the scouts needed to be on top of their game to find some hidden gems in the late rounds.
The first overall pick went to the quebec nordiques, who selected sweden's mats sundin, the first european ever to be drafted first overall. This shows how far the NHL has come towards accepting players from outside north america and treating them as equals. However, while swedes and fins have no troubke coming to america, eastern bloc players has always been tough to bring, due to the cold war. However, with the berlin wall crumbling, NHL clubs's efforts in defecting soviet and czechoslovak talent being more and more successful and the soviet union being on the verge of collapsing, we might be seeing the best russians and europeans come into the league at an alarming rate.
And that is what the red wings seemed to believe, at least, according o their draft picks. After selecting Center/defenseman Kris draper with their second round pick, Gretzky noticed that the red wings only selected europeans afterwards. Swedish defenseman nicklas lidstrom had shown some good, itelligent play while playing for vasteras in the swedish elite league, while sergei fedorov and vladimir konstantinov are both standouts on the soviet junior team that faced canada in the world juniors final in 1988. Fedorov was a very fast and skilled player, while konstatinov had sandpaper qualities to hin that is rare among Russian Players, and he showed his toughness by taking part in the huge brawl that ended the world juniors finals. While lidstrom would have no problem crossing the atlantic, the two russians would have to find a way to defect from their countries if they wanna join the red wings.
Despite the uncertainety surrounding the soviets, gretzky was glad that the team is actively trying to improve their defense.
Finally, with the 1st round pick that they acquired in the gretzky trade, the oilers select center mike sillinger.
DETROIT RED WINGS NOTABLE DRAFT PICKS
#32: C/D Kris Draper
#53: D Nicklas Lidstrom
#74: C/RW Sergei Fedorov
#221: D Vladimir Konstantinov
TO BE CONTINUED...