(Yeah, you know I'm a hit with the ladies.)
Q: What do the following hockey players have in common?
Brian Finley, Maxime Ouellet, Ari Ahonen, Alex Auld, Simon Lajeunesse, Jan Lasak, Evgeny Konstantinov, Craig Anderson, Johan Asplund, Jean-Francois Laniel, Adam Hauser, Sebastien Caron, Cory Campbell, Rob Zepp, Evan Lindsay, and Jean-Francois Nogues.
A: They are all goaltenders who were drafted in 1999 before this guy:
Sure, the NHL draft is a crapshoot in general, and particularly for goalies -- Daryl Reaugh was drafted ahead of Patrick Roy.* But that's SIXTEEN guys, and not an All-Star among them.***Reaugh is, however, the Patrick Roy of TV hockey color-commentary men.
**Craig Anderson probably would have made the All-Star game this season if there had been one. However, he never played a game with the team that drafted him (Calgary) and has played for three teams since. He had played barely 100 career games before the current season, about three fourths of them last year.
Only two -- Anderson and Auld -- have ever been NHL-caliber players at any point in time. And oddly enough, both have played for the chronically woeful Florida Panthers, who drafted Auld in '99 and employed Anderson last season. Auld broke into the NHL with Vancouver, however, and ended up playing terribly in 35 games for the Panthers (3.35 GAA) after coming over in the disastrous Roberto Luongo trade.
Even more evidence of crapshootery: Three teams drafted two goalies apiece before Miller was drafted.* The two drafted by Nashville -- in the first and second rounds -- played a grand total of 10 NHL games between them. The two drafted by Los Angeles played a combined total of zero.
*Miller was the first goalie Buffalo drafted in '99 -- still in the midst of Dominik Hasek's prime, with Martin Biron and Dwayne Roloson behind him -- which I think counts as some sort of evidence of competence.
What's the point of all this? I have no idea. Ryan Miller is awesome. And I know dumb stuff.
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