Nice! Mike Milbury now has TWO whole franchises & fanbases ready to lynch him. Only 28 more to go and this guy will finally be completely unemployed.
“I reached out to Mike Milbury last night via NHL commissioner Gary Bettman,” Leonsis wrote. “Gary called me, and we spoke. And then Mike called me, and we spoke late last night.
“Mike calmly explained that he meant no harm. He had a slip of the tongue when trying to start a commentary about our play. He meant to say the Washington Caps but instead he said the Washington Craps.
“He laughed and then stated we weren’t playing well at that time in the game and we were playing like the ‘Crapitals.’ He was trying to be funny and trying to recover - on air - and he misspoke.”
For the latest in our Back In The Day series, which shines a spotlight on excerpts from old news articles about significant/interesting events in the past, we decided to take a look at the 1997 draft. At the time, the draft was regarded as one of the deepest ever. Some guy named Joe Thornton went first.
For Islander fans, this draft was all about a franchise goaltender not named Rick DiPietro. For more details, see this excerpt from a Toronto Globe and Mail story written by Gare Joyce and published in June 1997. One warning, this story contains quotes from Mike Milbury. I know some Isles fans are allergic to Mad Mike so I just wanted to give you all a head’s up:
NHL’s draft production lacks dramatics Islanders closest to dealing, but in end pick promising goalie, top-rated defenceman without making a trade
GARE JOYCE
The Globe and Mail
23 June 1997
All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved.
PITTSBURGH — By all estimations, the 1997 entry draft was the deepest in the past five years and the most uneventful in recent memory. Despite rumours of teams bidding to move up, of GMs covetous of Val d’Or goaltender Roberto Luongo, none of the top 20 picks in the draft were flipped for immediate help.
The closest thing to drama was provided by New York Islanders GM Mike Milbury, who owned his team’s pick at No. 4 over all and the next selection, acquired from Toronto along with Kenny Jonsson last year for Wendel Clark and Mathieu Schneider.
In Pittsburgh, in the days leading up to the draft, the air was thick with 100-per-cent humidity and talk of Milbury’s desire to flog one or both of the top choices.
“In a perfect world,” Milbury observed, “we would come out of the draft with a centre and a left wing.”
It was far from a perfect world for Milbury. The top three picks in the draft were all centres. With the first pick by virtue of the league’s worst record and a little luck in the lottery, Boston selected Sault Ste. Marie centre Joe Thornton, the only draft-eligible player on Canada’s team at the world junior tournament last winter.
With the next pick the San Jose Sharks selected Seattle Thunderbirds centre Patrick Marleau, rated as the No. 2 skater in North America by NHL Central Scouting. Then the Los Angeles Kings called Finnish centre Olli Jokinen, whose shaven pate was a reminder to his new employers that he has obligations outstanding with Finland’s military.
The wild card was Luongo. Florida GM Bryan Murray said: “He’s the best goaltending prospect in a long time and teams are placing more value than ever on goaltenders. They’ve recognized that you can’t win with average goaltending.”
“We knew about Luongo all along, but he really put on a show at the [Canadian Hockey League] prospects game,” Milbury said. “I saw him in the Quebec [Major Junior Hockey] League playoffs against Hull. He didn’t have a lot in front of him, but he was really sensational.”
Milbury dismissed the idea that it’s harder to scout a goaltender than other positions. “It’s not that complicated,” the Islander GM said. “It comes down to whether he gets in front of the puck. [Luongo] did.”
But it also sometimes comes down to need. Though Luongo was clearly the likely name to be called in the four-spot, the Islanders did not seem to have a conspicuous need at that position. The Isles rifled Toronto for netminder Eric Fichaud, a Leaf first-round pick in ‘94, in a deal for forward Benoit Hogue. Milbury also has Swede Tommy Salo contending for the top job. Thus it figured that teams would bid on Luongo.
Milbury wasted no time in announcing the selection of Luongo, but that didn’t necessarily undo the scenario. With the rights to Luongo, Milbury was in a position to make the pad-kickers sweat out their offers.
Before making the fifth pick, Milbury had a conversation at the Tampa Bay table with GM Phil Esposito. The floor hummed with speculation, but nothing transpired. Going to need, Milbury had to have been interested in Chris Gratton or Jason Wiemer. Nothing was worked out. After taking a timeout, Milbury went to the mike and selected Prince George defenceman Eric Brewer, the top-rated blueliner in the draft.
“We had talks about one thing last night,” Esposito said. “He turned it into something else at the last minute.”
Afterward, Milbury said he had talks with one team about his picks with “a premier centre-ice man” involved. Edmonton GM Glen Sather said that he had talked with Milbury, possibly about a deal involving both the fourth and fifth picks, and thus opened speculation about Jason Arnott as bait.
“My staff talked me out of it,” Milbury said of the mystery centre.
