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Displaying pretext
It's early in June of 1988, and in the offices of the Saskatoon Westerns, there's a bit of excitement in the air. The team is coming off its best performance in the league since moving from St. Louis in 1983, and fictional GM Ardal Ekrub can see how the draft picks he has made in the past five years are beginning to pay dividends. Draft time is always his favorite time of year, since it gives him a chance to use the results of his Project-a-Tron objective player rating system.
The 1988 NHL Entry Draft class is the thinnest that Ekrub has had to select from since he began drafting. From 1983 to 1987, there were between four and six eligible players with a projected peak GVT value of at least 9.0. In 1988, only two players have such a rating: Teemu Selanne and Mike Modano, who we know will certainly turn out to be exceptional hockeyists, but who Ekrub knows he is very unlikely to get. His top draft pick is 19th overall, and while Ekrub fully expects a very good player to be overlooked by other teams and fall that low, Selanne and Modano specifically are terribly unlikely to suffer such a fate.
Top 30 Players Available at 1988 Entry Draft
Rank Player Pos League PGVT+ Drafted
1 Selanne, Teemu F Fin 11.0 10
2 Modano, Mike F WHL 9.5 1
3 Horak, Roman F Cze 8.7 -
4 Shannon, Darrin F OHL 8.3 4
5 Fiset, Stephane G QMJHL 8.0 24
6 Elvenes, Stefan F Swe 8.0 71
7 Lambert, Dan D WHL 7.9 -
8 Hrbek, Peter F Cze 7.9 59
9 Ciger, Zdeno F Cze 7.7 54
10 Goodall, Glen F WHL 7.6 206
11 Raitanen, Rauli F Fin 7.4 -
12 Fournier, Rob G QMJHL 7.3 51
13 Gelinas, Martin F QMJHL 6.8 7
14 Akerblom, Markus F Swe 6.6 127
15 Lebeau, Patrick F QMJHL 6.5 -
16 Linden, Trevor F WHL 6.4 2
17 Leschyshyn, Curtis D WHL 6.0 3
18 Roussel, Dominic G QMJHL 6.0 63
19 Kjellberg, Patric F Swe 6.0 83
20 Kennedy, Sheldon F WHL 5.9 80
21 Goverdaris, Chris F OHL 5.8 11
22 Maurice, Daniel F QMJHL 5.8 197
23 Duval, Murray D WHL 5.6 26
24 Bearegard, Stephane G QMJHL 5.5 52
25 Mick, Troy F WHL 5.2 130
26 Gauthier, Daniel F QMJHL 4.9 62
27 Nilsson, Henrik F Swe 4.9 -
28 Cimetta, Rob F OHL 4.7 18
29 Ing, Peter G OHL 4.7 48
30 Savage, Reggie F QMJHL 4.4 15
At this time, the NHL has a rule in place that most 17-year-old players from the Canadian major junior leagues are only eligible to be selected in the first three rounds of the draft. Since Ekrub has no reason to think this restriction will be lifted any time soon, he decides that he may as well stock up on picks in the first three rounds, if that's when he's going to be able to select the players he really wants. He makes a trade with Quebec to secure their second-round pick in 1988 and their third-rounder in 1989.
As it happens, the rule on CHL players has a positive future result for the Westerns. Due to these restrictions, Ekrub ends up drafting Claude Lapointe and Donald Audette with his two final picks. Both will turn out to be solid NHL players, which is more than you generally expect from players drafted 229th and 250th. This is pure chance, of course. Luck plays a very large part in the NHL Entry Draft, and no amount of analysis or scouting will ever change that.
Saskatoon Westerns 1988 Entry Draft Picks
Pick Player Pos League PGVT+
19 Horak, Roman LW Cze 8.7
24 Fiset, Stephane G QMJHL 8.0
40 Elvenes, Stefan RW Swe 8.0
61 Lambert, Dan D WHL 7.9
82 Goodall, Glen C WHL 7.6
103 Raitanen, Rauli C Fin 7.4
124 Akerblom, Markus RW Swe 6.6
145 Maurice, Daniel RW QMJHL 5.8
166 Nilsson, Henrik RW Swe 4.9
187 Racicot, Andre G QMJHL 4.1
208 Stone, Don C CCHA 4
229 Lapointe, Claude C QMJHL 3.6
250 Audette, Donald RW QMJHL 3.6
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Pucks From The Past (10/27)
9 comments have been left for this article. 
Despite his struggles I hope they don't replace Vincent Riendeau with Ekrub's latest draft choice Andre "Red Light" Racicot.
Riendeau was a pretty decent goalie, as I recall. Looking at his stats, he went 29-9-6 with the Blues in 1990-91, and was a decent back-up for Detroit and Boston later on.
He'll do for several years to come, and we know Ekrub has another solid young Quebec goalie in his system.
Racicot doesn't get a shot with the big club, he's caught in a glut of pretty good goalies.
I've noticed that the goalies drafted by the Westerns correlate very highly with the goalies in the Montreal minor-league system in these years; J-C Bergeron and Andre Racicot, and Saskatoon came *very* close to drafting Patrick Roy in 1984, in fact. Spoiler alert, but they'll be drafting Jose Theodore and Mathieu Garon as well in the near future.
I don't know if it's a coincidence, or if it says something about Montreal's drafting of netminders in these years.