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Trade drama on Draft Day
7/3/1992
It was out with the old, in with the new today as the Senators and Lightning made their inaugural first round selections. San Jose added to the festivities with a Draft day trade and a top 5 selection of their own.
With the first pick of the day, and the first pick in their history, the Tampa Bay Lightning selected American defender Brian Rafalski making it the second year in a row a defender was selected first. Following their expansion cousin, The Ottawa Senators selected Canadian centre Mike Peca. To round out the top five, Philadelphia selected Goalie Tim Thomas, San Jose picked Sergei Gonchar, and the Vancouver Canucks placed a jersey on the shoulders of winger Cory Stillman.
San Jose, eager to address team needs, also made a trade with the Senators. Going to Ottawa is offensive defenseman Greg Hawgood. In return, the Sharks received veteran Stay-at-home rearguard Curt Giles (pictured with Minnesota). With 10 years separating their age, it was apparent Ottawa is keen to get younger, whereas San Jose was eager to acquire some much needed leadership.
“(Hawgood) was great for us this year, but with Zalapski coming into the fold and Brisebois emerging as a top-four option we needed to augment our blueline a little bit. Giles gives us some no-nonsense leadership on the back end.” GM Fyvie said.
On the drafting of Gonchar, Fyvie said “Sergei is deadly on the blueline. Like Niedermayer before him, we’re trying to build the best defense in the league”.
When asked how close the young Russian defender was from the NHL. “He’s a few years away. I think Niedermayer benefitted from a year in the minors. Sergei may stay in Russia this year and we’ll re-evaluate next summer.”
Notable players that were unselected in the top five were Russian phenom Alexei Yashin (later selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs at 12th), who some pundits predicted had a good chance of being selected first, and Russian winger Maxim Sushinsky, who went unselected, was also mentioned as a potential top 5 pick.
And with that the first day of the 1992 draft concluded. The second and subsequent rounds will begin tomorrow morning.
The complete first round is listed below:
1 - Brian Rafalski - OTT
2 - Michael Peca - TB
3 - Tim Thomas - PHI
4 - Sergei Gonchar - SJ
5 - Cory Stillman - VAN
6 - Jim Carey - DET
7 - Steve Sullivan - HFD
8 - Patrick Lalime - MTL
9 - Sami Salo - WAS
10-Jason Smith - WPG
11-Anson Carter - QUE
12-Alexei Yashin - TOR
13-Joe Hulbig - LA
14-Stephane Yelle - BUF
15-Mark Mowers - BOS
16-Nathan Dempsey - STL
17-Craig Rivet - NJD
18-Frantisek Kaberle - NYI
19-Jeff Shantz - NYR
20-MIke Rathje - CHI
21-Joel Bouchard - CGY
22-Manny Fernandez - MIN
23-Roman Hamrlik - EDM
24-Jaroslav Spacek - PIT
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