Welcome to the Montreal Canadiens, David Reinbacher

[east coast]

Petr Svoboda. 5th overall, 1984. No one knew very much about him, or where he was on the day of the draft. Didn't stop Savard from taking a big risk on a skinny kid from behind the curtain.

Svoboda may not have become a superstar, but played over 1,000 games in the NHL. Credit Savard for taking the risk. The comparison I'm making here is between taking Svoboda and not taking Michkov although uncertainty abounded in both cases. I'm not factoring Reinbacher into the mix.

 

[Habsy]

Reinbacher is much better than people are giving him credit for

 

[GrandWazoo]

Do they not have any intelligence they could trust that could have reported on Michkov? Was it really necessary to be sitting in the seats?Players were drafted all the time from behind the iron curtain, or in the days when regular travel was not always practical.

Following that line of thinking, maybe we should go back to drafting players within a 60 minute drive from Montreal, like we did that year we picked a bunch of Corey Urquharts etc.

How must do you trust one guy that's not from your staff reporting on him vs another guy that all of your staff have personally seen live multiple times?

 

[GrandWazoo]

Petr Svoboda. 5th overall, 1984. No one knew very much about him, or where he was on the day of the draft. Didn't stop Savard from taking a big risk on a skinny kid from behind the curtain.

Svoboda may not have become a superstar, but played over 1,000 games in the NHL. Credit Savard for taking the risk. The comparison I'm making here is between taking Svoboda and not taking Michkov although uncertainty abounded in both cases. I'm not factoring Reinbacher into the mix.

There was no risk. Svoboda was well know and an highly touted prospect, the risk was getting him to defect and come over. By the moment Savard made the pick the defection already happened as Svoboda joined him on the stage.

 

[Rolex]

Rolex was upset that we didn’t pick Kopitar. Probably still is.

Kopitar wouldn't have butchered Rein's name

 

[Krustchev]

Reinbacher is much better than people are giving him credit for

Right but the issue is the pick, not the player, when a potential superstar forward was there for the taking.

 

[HabsFan1]

Reinbacher is much better than people are giving him credit for

My issue is I think Michkov is also much better then being credited for.

 

[Krustchev]

Kopitar wouldn't have butchered Rein's name

It was worse than butchering it. He didn't seem to even know it.

 

[east coast]

There was no risk. Svoboda was well know and an highly touted prospect, the risk was getting him to defect and come over. By the moment Savard made the pick the defection already happened as Svoboda joined him on the stage.

There were practically no eastern europeans in the NHL at the time. Maybe the Stasnys. There was no track record. I would say the risk was rather huge that he wouldn't pan out. Probably greater than the risk with Michkov.

 

[CH1]

It was worse than butchering it. He didn't seem to even know it.

I though he was gonna say David..........Poile told me to draft.....Matvei Michkov

 

[east coast]

How must do you trust one guy that's not from your staff reporting on him vs another guy that all of your staff have personally seen live multiple times?

I would have thought that even in current times, you wouldn't have to trust one guy. I would have thought we would have been a little better connected to whatever intelligence was nearby inside or outside of Russia-scouts, hockey people, KHL ex-pats whomever that would have some insight. Guess not.

And the guy has played in front of westerners before-just not recently. They could add that to the thinking.

 

[east coast]

Kopitar wouldn't have butchered Rein's name

Speaking of, what was that? Price ok?

 

[east coast]

And I'm grumpy and not helping us accept the situation re Michkov.

 

[Sal_Butera]

Kopitar wouldn't have butchered Rein's name

Bobby Clarke brutalized Claude Giroux’s name like a drunk would because he actually didn’t even know the name … here’s hoping Habs get similar finished product

 

[lecoqsportif]

I guess the trade down wasn’t available.

 

[Krustchev]

How come the Flyers were able to scout Michkov in person this past year? This just seems like an excuse from Hughes.

 

[TheCountofMonteCristo]

How come the Flyers were able to scout Michkov in person this past year? This just seems like an excuse from Hughes.

Molson did not want to upset his pal Justin and take a Russian that high. Justin has villified Russians for 18 months

 

[CH1]

I guess the trade down wasn’t available.

A trade down was very available (Nashville offered a mint of picks and Askarov) but HuGo did not want to lose the Austrian

 

[TheCountofMonteCristo]

A trade down was very available (Nashville offered a mint of picks and Askarov) but HuGo did not want to lose the Austrian

Hughes saw the player he wanted and took him, hard to bitch about it too much

 

[Krustchev]

A trade down was very available (Nashville offered a mint of picks and Askarov) but HuGo did not want to lose the Austrian

An efficient top pairing D, if that's his ceiling, is worth more than the players who were taken 15 and lower last night, I think.