October 27, 2011
Pucks From The Past
Saskatoon Westerns, 1987-88

by Iain Fyffe

Displaying pretext

Saskatoon Westerns at the 1987 Entry Draft

Fictional GM Ardal Ekrub has a new wrinkle to deal with for the 1987 edition of the NHL Entry Draft, one which puts additional constraints on the players he can select. Starting this season, most age-17 players from the Canadian major junior leagues are restricted to the first three rounds of the draft. Ekrub prefers to draft age-17 players, of course, since generally speaking good prospects will have revealed themselves to be good prospects by that age. Older players who have big seasons, but who were not impressive at 17 years old, are generally not highly-ranked by the Project-a-Tron.

This means that although the list below shows the 30 best prospects available, Ekrub will not necessarily be able to select the best player remaining on the list, starting in the fourth round of the draft. As it turns out, this restriction is not a huge impediment in 1987, and doesn't affect the Westerns until pick 121, when Ekrub would have drafted Marc Saumier (5.4 PGVT+) if not for his being 17 years of age. He would have later drafted Daniel Maurice (4.8 PGVT+) and Wayne Hynes (4.6 PGVT+) as well, but instead selects Roman Nemcicky (4.5 PGVT+), Darcy Norton (4.2 PGVT+), and Brad Hornung (3.2 PGVT+) as the best players available at the time that the team is allowed to select.

Top 30 Players Available at 1987 Entry Draft

Rank	Player			Pos	League	PGVT+	Drafted
1	Turgeon, Pierre		F	QMJHL	13.2	1
2	Richardson, Luke	D	OHL	9.6	7
3	Archibald, Dave		F	WHL	9.4	6
4	Fogarty, Bryan		D	OHL	9.0	9
5	Wesley, Glen		D	WHL	8.0	3
6	Kivela, Teppo		F	Fin	7.8	88
7	Glickman, Jason		G	OHL	7.8	-
8	Shanahan, Brendan	F	OHL	7.7	2
9	Persson, Ricard		D	Swe	7.6	23
10	Kiuru, Marko		F	Fin	7.3	-
11	McBean, Wayne		D	WHL	7.0	4
12	Miller, Brad		D	WHL	6.9	22
13	McCrady, Scott		D	WHL	6.9	35
14	Osborne, Keith		F	OHL	6.8	12
15	Bergeron, Jean-Claude	G	QMJHL	6.8	-
16	Erickson, Patrik	F	Swe	6.7	37
17	Fitzpatrick, Mark	G	WHL	6.6	27
18	Cassels, Andrew		F	OHL	6.4	17
19	Sakic, Joe		F	WHL	5.9	15
20	Luce, Scott		G	OHL	5.8	-
21	Beausoleil, Luc		F	QMJHL	5.5	-
22	Waite, Jimmy		G	OHL	5.5	8
23	Holland, Dennis		F	WHL	5.4	52
24	Saumier, Marc		F	QMJHL	5.4	-
25	Wilkie, Bob		D	WHL	5.3	41
26	Tremblay, Patrice	F	QMJHL	5.1	-
27	Miller, Kip		F	CCHA	5.1	72
28	Recchi, Mark		F	WHL	5.0	-
29	McGill, Ryan		D	WHL	5.0	29
30	Tabaracci, Rick		G	OHL	5.0	26

We, with knowledge of the future that Ekrub cannot possess, already know that most of the players he selected at the 1987 Entry Draft (see below) will not pan out. But there is one very notable exception. Just like Theoren Fleury the year before, he takes a small(ish) WHL right wing in the later rounds of the draft, one which seems to be a decent prospect but who was completely undrafted in the real world this season, but who would emerge as a bona fide NHL star: Mark Recchi. In a few years, Ekrub will look back on this draft as being worthwhile, if only for uncovering Recchi.

Saskatoon Westerns 1987 Entry Draft Picks

Pick	Player			Pos	League	PGVT+
16	Kivela, Teppo		C	Fin	7.8
37	Glickman, Jason		G	OHL	7.8
58	Kiuru, Marko		LW	Fin	7.3
79	Bergeron, Jean-Claude	G	QMJHL	6.8
100	Beausoleil, Luc		RW	QMJHL	5.5
121	Tremblay, Patrice	RW	QMJHL	5.1
142	Recchi, Mark		RW	WHL	5.0
163	Jurik, Juraj		LW	Cze	4.7
184	Lefebvre, Patrice	RW	QMJHL	4.6
205	Nemcicky, Roman		LW	Cze	4.5
226	Norton, Darcy		LW	WHL	4.2
247	Hornung, Brad		C	WHL	3.2