If you saw Yzerman tribute on the CBC last night you would have heard both Red Wing owner Mike Ilitch and senior vice president Jim Devellano both indicate that back in 1983 when Yzerman was drafted, the team had targeted him as the player they wanted to rebuild the Red Wings around. Being an ancient hockey fan, that is not my recollection. Back in 1983, American teams were keen to draft American players to use for marketing purposes. The first pick by Minnesota that year was American Brian Lawton although he was not the best player available. The Red Wings who had the 4th pick were very interested in Pat Lafontaine who was from the Michigan area but was taken 3rd by the Islanders so they settled for Yzerman. Second pick went to Hartford who selected Sylvain Turgeon.
In hindsight, the Red Wings couldn't have done better. Even though Lafontaine had a great career, he played half the number of games that Yzerman played as you can see from the stats below. As well, Yzerman scored almost as many points as the 3 players selected before him.
1. Brian Lawton, 483 games 112 G 154 A 266 Pts
2. Sylvain Turgeon, 669 games 269 G 225 A 494 Pts
3. Pat Lafontaine, 865 games 468 G 545 A 1013 Pts
4. Steve Yzerman, 1514 games 692 G 1063 A 1755 Pts
12 years ago
