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The 1990 NHL Draft

The NHL draft is among us again, And, like last year's, it's not a deep talent pool.

Once again, the quebec nordiques selects first overall. Since they already have two future franchise centers in joe sakic and mats sundin, they would bolster their wing depth by selecting owen nolan. The vancouver caucks, selecting 2nd, chose petr nedved of czechozlovakia, while the 3rd overall pick goes to the philadelphia flyers, who would select center keith primeau. With the free agent signing of Edmonton's Jari Kurri, primeau will already have a ready-made partner for his NHL Debut.

The penguins were up next and, to no one's surprise, they would select Jaromir jagr with the 4th overall pick. Mike ricci, whom many considered to go 1st overall, would be selected 5th by the new york islanders, while the los angeles kings, needing help in defense, would select daryl sydor with the 6th pick. The minnesota north stars were next, and they selected derian hatcher, while Washington would select john slaney.

It was now the detroit red wings's turn with the 9th overall pick...but wait! The NHL President steps up to the podium...

"We have a trade to announce...the Detroit red wings trade the 9th overall pick in the 1990 NHL Draft and Center mike krushelnyski to the montreal canadiens...in exchange for defenseman chris chelios! The canadiens are now on the clock."


Wayne gretzky, who was present, couldn't believe what he just heard! As soon as he arrived, new GM/Coach bryan murray managed to acquire a norris trophy-calibre defenseman! He knew that montreal was looking to ship him out due to his seemingly bad behaviour off the ice, but for pocket change? Well, not exactly pocket change, but, with a lackluster draft Pool this year, sacrificing the 9th overall pick for a much needed upgrade a defense is very welcome. Plus, the habs have great depth in defense, with young players such as mathieu schneider, eric desjardins, sylvain lefevbre, petr svoboda, patrice brisebois and jean-jacques daigneault among others. Plus, the habs already got a new no.1 center in new jersey's kirk muller, acquired in exchange for the disgruntled claude lemieux, and they have a lot of depth on the wings with Mats Naslund, stephane richer, Shayne Corson, Mike Mcphee, Russ Courtnall, Andrew cassels and Mark Recchi, with youngsters mike keane and John Leclair on the verge of making the big club, so what they really need is a bottom 6 center and improve theirbcenter depth, which they did by acquiring muller and krushelnyski as well as picking bryan smolinski with the 9th overall pick.

The good news would keep coming for wayne and the red wings: Bryan murray would acquire new jersey's Paul Ysebaert for lee norwood and future considerations, with Ysebaert slotting in as the new 3rd line center along with shawn bur and swedish rookie johan garpenlov. The big one, however, was that both sergei fedorov and Vladimir Konstatinov, who traveled with the soviets for the goodwill games, managed to defect from the soviet union and arrived at the joe Louis arena to play in the NHL this season! Fedorov's arrival will certainly help the wings's wing depth, as john ogrodnick left in free agency to join the new york rangers. Gretzky, especially, can't wait to play alongside fedorov, as he is a big fan of his game.

Here's bow the wings will line up this season: