Tuesday, June 12, 2007

LA Kings 1998 Draft – Who? Why? Where is He Now?

I haven’t been looking forward to writing this post because the 1997 Draft was a bit of a downer. In case you haven’t read it and don’t want to read it, the only notable players from the 1997 Draft were Jokinen and Corvo. The Kings traded Jokinen away while he was still just a feeble Euro trying to get used to his big boy pants and live up to his potential. While the Kings got some use out of Corvo, he eventually left and signed with Ottawa.

Enough about 1997, here’s the list of the unbelievable pickings from the 1998 Draft (round picked is in parenthesis):
  1. Mathieu Biron (R1)
  2. Justin Papineau (R2)
  3. Alexei Volkov (R3)
  4. Kip Brennan (R4)
  5. Joe Rullier (R5)
  6. Tomas Zizka (R6)
  7. Tommi Hannus (R7)
  8. Jim Henkel (R8)
  9. Matthew Yeats (R9)
Oh My God! Did I really just write those names? I only recognize Kip Brennan and I think he has played…maybe 5 games with the Kings. I'm convinced that Dave Taylor wasn't even trying. I think he could have gotten better results if he had put the Kings on “auto draft”. Who are these guys? Bear with me while I bring everyone back to this memorable draft day.

Mathieu Biron. Nope, not that Biron. He made his NHL debut in the ’99-’00 season with the NY Islanders and I have no idea how he got there or who the Kings got in return, unless the Kings were never able to sign him.

Apparently
Justin “Pap Smear” Papineau was so good that he entered the draft twice!!! What, Round 2 wasn’t good enough for him? Well, I guess the NHL thought it was because the Blues picked him in Round 3 of the 2000 Draft.

Alexei Volkov plays in Russia. Sweet!!

Okay, so I was wrong,
Kip Brennan played in 41 games with the Kings, 5 with Atlanta, and 12 with the Ducks. The rest of his career has been and still is in the minors. While in the minors, twice he has almost reached 300 PIM. I find it amusing that someone edited his Wikipedia Bio to say that, ”Brennan will no doubt become an NHL Superstar before his retirement if he continues to perform at this caliber”. That’s just a cruel joke.

Joe Rullier has never played in the NHL and I can’t even find anything interesting to say about him, so he sucks.

No Way!
Tomas Zizka actually played in a Kings jersey! For all of 25 games!! Hooray!! And he recorded 8 points!!! Double Hooray!! This is like when your team is down 8-0 and the goalie finally makes a save.

I doubt
Tommi Hannus has even step foot outside of Europe.

Jim Henkel. Who?

Matthew Yeats: Is it really worth picking a goalie in the 9th Round?

Thank goodness it’s over. What a horrendous Draft. As I progressed down the list it was like a bad dream during which I couldn't wake up. I don’t know why any of these guys were picked and I guess it’s good none of them are still with the Kings, but what were we doing with them in the first place? Now I wish someone like Jokinen was in this draft, because then at least I could say that the Kings were right for picking him but they either lost patience in waiting for him to develop or lost faith in his actual abilities. I don’t think things could get any worse and hopefully I’m correct.

3 comments:

Isleschick said...

New York Islanders traded Zigmund Palffy, Bryan Smolinski, Marcel Cousineau and 4th round selection (previously acquired from the New Jersey Devils - Daniel Johansson) in 1999 to the Los Angeles Kings for Olli Jokinen, Josh Green, Mathieu Biron and 1st round selection (Taylor Pyatt) in 1999.

Steph said...

Well now that that question's been answered...how did he end up a baby Hab?

Marie said...

Isleschick: thanks for the info!

Steph: I always wonder how we end up with random guys...and why.