Looking Back- Cowen or MPS?

I'd rather have Cowen 100%.

We also havent seen anything of MPS in the NHL. Too early to tell

LOL, I remember when I did this for Karlsson vs. Eberle. I am happy how Kalrsson turned out.

I think a lot of us here wanted MPS, but Cowen was at one time a top 5 pick, but the injury caused him to drop. MPS would help us a lot upfront where we need the help, and on the other hand Cowen could be a very good player on the blueline, which is also a good thing. Cowen's at least played a game in the NHL, MPS has not. Should be an Oiler next year though.

MPS... sorry Cowen but I have a soft spot for Swedish forwards.

I remember the Stars passing on MPS for Glennie and jumping around the living room because I knew we were about to draft him. I was absolutely devastated when we drafted Cowen because I had my hopes up for MPS. Over time I've grown to understand the decision and both will be great players in this league. Cowen is a major piece going forward and is a piece that will make our blueline very tough to play against in a couple years time.

Murray made the right choice and I think at least a couple of GM's will regret their choices in the near future.

Cowen for two reasons.

1) I had a mancrush on Cowen going into the draft.
2) I was, and still am, convinced that MPS is overrated.

Cowen. Big, mobile D-men are hard to find.

Tuk Tuk wrote:We also havent seen anything of MPS in the NHL. Too early to tell

Yep. Way too early. Neither Kalrsson, nor Wiercioch is a shutdown guy, so they needed to start developing a new Phillips. We have lots of forwards in the system and, frankly, there is nothing that says MPS will be any better than Regin or Silfverberg, or one of the others. Cowen is a *big* mobile defenseman, and those are much more difficult to get in a trade.

It's weird though...for how good Phillips is at his role, you would never see a guy like him being picked #1 overall these days.

Big Ev wrote:It's weird though...for how good Phillips is at his role, you would never see a guy like him being picked #1 overall these days.

Phillips had great stats in the WHL IIRC

So, did they think he would be an offensive defenseman?

No, but a mobile defensemen, who's excellent in his own, has a scoring touch, and who plays his best in the playoffs, is definitely a good candidate for 1st overall.

I am happy with the decision. I was hoping that Murray would have found a way to get another 1st to get some offensive depth but hey there is always this year. Now we just need to get some blazing speed for the wings.

Big Ev wrote:It's weird though...for how good Phillips is at his role, you would never see a guy like him being picked #1 overall these days.

No offense to Big Rig, but that was a particularly weak draft year. Look at the rest of the top-10:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_NHL_Entry_Draft

2 Andrei Zyuzin
3 Jean-Pierre Dumont
4 Alexandre Volchkov
5 Ric Jackman
6 Boyd Devereaux
7 Erik Rasmussen
8 Johnathan Aitken
9 Ruslan Salei
10 Lance Ward

Zubrus at 15 would not challenge Phillips 15 years later, Briere at 24, maybe.

There was this tall, skinny kid named Zdeno at 56; he turned out pretty good