November 30, 2011
Pucks From The Past
Saskatoon Westerns, 1993-94

by Iain Fyffe

Building up the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, the hype is all about Alexandre Daigle, widely considered a can't-miss superstar-to-be. Fictional Saskatoon GM Ardal Ekrub knows there's no such thing as a can't-miss prospect, of course, though his objective draft ranking system does see Daigle as a good bet, with a projected peak GVT of 12.4 per season. But that ranks only fourth among available players. He sees Paul Kariya, who would only be selected with the fourth overall pick, as by far the best prospect in the draft, with a 30.0 PGVT+, which is the maximum the system will allow for. It's unsuprising to see Daigle drafted first, and then Chris Pronger (who is one of the very best prospects the system has seen) second. But Chris Gratton also ahead of Kariya? Really? Gratton is a fine player and prospect, but the Tampa Bay scouts let themselves be blinded by his size, rather than seeing Kariya's far superior ability at, you know, playing hockey. Ekrub can only chuckle and rue that the fourth pick was not his. He has to wait for the twenty-fifth before making a selection.

Top 30 Players Available at 1993 Entry Draft
Rank	Player			Pos	League	PGVT+	Drafted
1	Kariya, Paul		F	HE	30.0	4
2	Pronger, Chris		D	OHL	17.8	2
3	Vyborny, David		F	Cze	13.9	33
4	Daigle, Alexandre	F	QMJHL	12.4	1
5	Lindgren, Mats		F	Swe	10.3	15
6	Kozlov, Viktor		F	Rus	10.0	6
7	Sundstrom, Niklas	F	Swe	9.8	8
8	Koivu, Saku		F	Fin	9.6	21
9	Tsulygin, Nikolai	D	Rus	9.2	30
10	Gratton, Chris		F	OHL	8.7	3
11	Allison, Jason		F	OHL	8.5	17
12	Salo, Sami		D	Fin	8.3	-
13	Thibault, Jocelyn	G	QMJHL	8.1	10
14	Mattsson, Jesper	F	Swe	8.0	18
15	Harvey, Todd		F	OHL	7.7	9
16	Wilson, Landon		F	USHL	7.7	19
17	Demitra, Pavol		F	Cze	7.7	227
18	Pandolfo, Jay		F	HE	7.4	32
19	Roche, David		F	OHL	7.2	62
20	Stajduhar, Nick		D	OHL	7.0	16
21	Deadmarsh, Adam		F	WHL	6.7	14
22	Niedermayer, Rob	F	WHL	6.5	5
23	McCabe, Bryan		D	WHL	6.5	40
24	Niinimaa, Janne		D	Fin	6.3	36
25	Adams, Kevyn		F	CCHA	6.2	25
26	Pettersson, Mikael	F	Swe	6.0	-
27	Murray, Marty		F	WHL	5.9	96
28	Hilton, Kevin		F	CCHA	5.9	74
29	Jonsson, Kenny		D	Swe	5.9	12
30	Blazek, Tomas		F	Cze	5.8	-

Another year at the Entry Draft, another bevy of European talent drafted by the Saskatoon Westerns. The team's first five picks are all from across the Atlantic, including David Vyborny who the Project-a-Tron sees as the third-best pick available, behind only Kariya and Pronger. Not that you'd be able to see Kariya if you were standing behind Pronger, of course. Three defensemen are among the draftees, which will help the team from running short of blueline prospects, as it was in danger of doing just a few years ago.

Saskatoon Westerns 1993 Entry Draft Picks
Pick	Player			Pos	League	PGVT+
25	Vyborny, David		RW	Cze	13.9
51	Salo, Sami		D	Fin	8.3
77	Demitra, Pavol		LW	Cze	7.7
103	Pettersson, Mikael	LW	Swe	6.0
129	Blazek, Tomas		RW	Cze	5.8
155	Keller, Aaron		D	WHL	5.4
181	Wiegand, Josh		RW	USHL	5.2
207	Salajko, Jeff		G	OHL	5.2
233	Ton, Petr		LW	Cze	5.0
259	Johansson, Daniel	D	Swe	5.0
285	Bowler, Bill		C	OHL	4.8

The cuts needed to maintain the team's Reserve List at the legal limits are becoming more painful each year, with Ekrub needing to release good players just to get under the bar. The league helps out a little bit, in the form of Expansion Drafts that are a near-annual occurrence at this time in the league's history. Before the draft, Ekrub trades Jean-Claude Bergeron and Jari Torkki to Florida or Anaheim for future considerations; said considerations to be that they select Dan Lambert in the Expansion Draft. Losing a defenseman guarantees that the Westerns cannot also lose a goaltender, and Ekrub does not want to lose a still-young Stephane Fiset, preferring to lose three spare parts in place of his backup netminder.

Teppo Kivela is also claimed in the Expansion Draft. Even with these departures, our fictional GM must still trim the Reserve List by releasing Lee Norwood, Sean Whitham, Sami Wahlsten, Harri Suvanto, Alexei Stepanov, Rauli Raitanen, Glen Goodall, Mattias Olsson, Denis Chalifoux, and Kari-Pekka Friman.

Saskatoon Westerns 1993-94 Reserve List
Pos	Name			Age	Acquired
G	Fiset, Stephane (k)	23	Draft,1988 (24)
G	Potvin, Felix (k)	22	Draft,1989 (61)
G	Salajko, Jeff		18	Draft,1993 (207)
G	Sharples, Scott (k)	25	Trade,1992
G	Wilkinson, Derek (k)	19	Draft,1992 (119)
D	Bodger, Doug (k)	27	Draft,1984 (9)
D	Brown, Jeff (k)		27	Draft,1984 (30)
D	Dahl, Kevin (k)		24	Trade, 1991
D	Johansson, Daniel	19	Draft,1993 (259)
D	Julien, Stephane (k)	19	Draft,1992 (239)
D	Kaberle, Frantisek	19	Draft,1992 (191)
D	Keller, Aaron		18	Draft,1993 (155)
D	Mironov, Boris (k)	21	Draft,1991 (197)
D	McCrimmon, Brad (k)	34	Trade,1983
D	Numminen, Teppo (k)	25	Draft,1986 (15)
D	Salo, Sami		19	Draft,1993 (51)
D	Smith, Ryan (k)		19	Draft,1992 (143)
D	Snell, Chris (k)	22	Draft,1990 (249)
D	Van Impe, Darren (k)	20	Draft,1991 (104)
D	Yushkevich, Dmitri (k)	21	Draft,1990 (45)
D	Zhitnik, Alexei (k)	20	Draft,1991 (65)
D	Zubov, Sergei (k)	22	Draft,1990 (81)
C	Bowler, Bill		18	Draft,1993 (285)
C	Brylin, Sergei		19	Draft,1992 (30)
C	Conroy, Al (k)		27	Draft,1984 (218)
C	Ducharme, Dom		20	Draft,1992 (263)
C	Firth, Jason (k)	22	Draft,1990 (186)
C	Gilmour, Doug (k)	30	Transfer,1983
C	Lapointe, Claude (k)	24	Draft,1988 (229)
C	Larouche, Steve (k)	22	Draft,1989 (40)
C	Lebeau, Stephan (k)	25	Draft,1990 (141)
C	Marchant, Todd (k)	20	Draft,1992 (215)
C	Miller, Colin (k)	22	Draft,1990 (228)
C	Nieuwendyk, Joe (k)	27	Draft,1985 (9)
C	Nylander, Michael (k)	20	Draft,1991 (43)
C	Perreault, Yanic (k)	22	Draft,1990 (102)
C	Reichel, Robert (k)	22	Draft,1989 (19)
C	Sakic, Brian (k)	22	Draft,1990 (39)
C	Straka, Martin (k)	21	Draft,1991 (219)
C	Suk, Steve		20	Draft,1992 (95)
C	Zhamnov, Alexei (k)	22	Draft,1990 (60)
LW	Alatalo, Mika		22	Draft,1989 (103)
LW	Andersson, Niklas (k)	22	Draft,1989 (43)
LW	Demitra, Pavol		19	Draft,1993 (77)
LW	Hoglund, Jonas		21	Draft,1991 (241)
LW	Horak, Roman (k)	23	Draft,1988 (19)
LW	Kozlov, Vyacheslav (k)	21	Draft,1990 (18)
LW	Luovi, Mikko		19	Draft,1992 (48)
LW	Pettersson, Mikael	19	Draft,1993 (103)
LW	Recchi, Mark (k)	25	Draft,1987 (142)
LW	Rob, Lubos (k)		23	Draft,1989 (145)
LW	Ton, Petr		19	Draft,1993 (203)
LW	Tormanen, Antti		22	Draft,1989 (187)
LW	Whitney, Ray (k)	21	Draft,1991 (21)
RW	Audette, Donald (k)	23	Draft,1988 (250)
RW	Blazek, Tomas		18	Draft,1993 (129)
RW	Brousseau, Paul (k)	20	Draft,1992 (23)
RW	Caloun, Jan		20	Draft,1991 (87)
RW	Cherbaev, Alexander	20	Draft,1991 (109)
RW	Dackell, Andreas	20	Draft,1992 (167)
RW	Drulia, Stan (k)	25	Draft,1986 (162)
RW	Fleury, Theoren (k)	25	Draft,1986 (204)
RW	Gendron, Martin (k)	19	Draft,1992 (71)
RW	Graham, Dirk (k)	33	Free Agent,1983
RW	Kapanen, Sami		20	Draft,1992 (46)
RW	Lebeau, Patrick (k)	23	Draft,1989 (82)
RW	Lefebvre, Patrice (k)	25	Draft,1987 (184)
RW	Lehtinen, Jere		20	Draft,1991 (131)
RW	Mullen, Joe (k)		36	Transfer,1983
RW	Petrov, Oleg (k)	22	Draft,1990 (57)
RW	Prochazka, Martin	21	Draft,1990 (144)
RW	Sjogren, Thomas (k)	25	Draft,1986 (57)
RW	Tuomainen, Marko	21	Draft,1991 (175)
RW	Varvio, Jarkko (k)	21	Draft,1991 (153)
RW	Vujtek, Vladimir	21	Draft,1990 (207)
RW	Vyborny, David		18	Draft,1993 (25)
RW	Wiegand, Josh		18	Draft,1993 (181)
Players on Reserve List (Maximum 80): 77
Players Under Contract (Maximum 50): 50

Once again, the Westerns establish a new team record for points in a season, besting their total from 1992-93 by a single point, and edging out the New York Rangers for first overall with 115 points to their 112. Felix Potvin is a key to the team's success, as usual, but Robert Reichel surprises everyone by leading the team, loaded with offensive performers, in scoring. Young Sergei Zubov also makes a statement, proving himself most valuable among the blueline corps.

Saskatoon Westerns 1993-94 NHL Season Results
GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts	Finish
84	53	21	10	360	253	115	1st place, Central; 1st overall
Player		Num	Pos	GP	OGVT	DGVT	GVT
Potvin, Felix		31	G	60	0.0	22.5	22.5
Reichel, Robert		29	LW	84	16.8	3.2	20.0
Gilmour, Doug		9	C	83	13.8	6.1	19.9
Fleury, Theoren		14	RW	83	12.8	5.6	18.4
Zubov, Sergei		46	D	78	11.9	5.3	17.2
Nieuwendyk, Joe		25	C	64	13.6	2.9	16.5
Recchi, Mark		8	LW	84	14.3	1.9	16.2
Mullen, Joe		7	RW	84	10.7	3.7	14.4
Brown, Jeff		28	D	74	10.7	1.2	11.9
Bodger, Doug		3	D	75	3.1	5.8	8.9
Kozlov, Vyacheslav	16	LW	77	6.7	1.8	8.5
Audette, Donald		18	RW	75	6.9	1.5	8.4
Zhamnov, Alexei		23	C	61	6.9	0.6	7.5
Graham, Dirk		21	RW	67	2.3	4.8	7.1
Yushkevich, Dmitri	2	D	75	2.8	2.7	5.5
Lapointe, Claude	17	LW	58	1.6	2.3	3.9
Zhitnik, Alexei		44	D	41	2.6	-0.2	2.4
Whitney, Ray		13	LW	22	1.0	0.6	1.6
Lebeau, Stephan		47	C	56	2.4	0.7	3.1
Straka, Martin		56	LW	10	0.5	0.2	0.7
Lebeau, Patrick		32	RW	12	0.5	0.0	0.5
Numminen, Teppo		27	D	57	1.0	1.6	2.6
Nylander, Michael	36	C	12	0.7	0.4	1.1
Mironov, Boris		4	D	39	1.0	-0.4	0.6
Larouche, Steve		22	RW	4	0.2	0.0	0.2
McCrimmon, Brad		10	D	65	-1.4	2.1	0.7
Fiset, Stephane		35	G	24	0.0	0.5	0.5
Lefebvre, Patrice	57	RW	7	0.2	0.0	0.2
Demitra, Pavol		38	LW	6	-0.2	-0.1	-0.3
Total					84	143.4	77.3	220.4

Playoffs, First Round

Saskatoon draws the surprising San Jose Sharks in the first round of the playoffs, and the upstart team makes a statement with victories of 7-1 and 7-2 on Saskatoon ice. The Westerns rally to win three of the next four games (5-0, 2-0, 2-4, 7-1) and finally finish off the inexperienced team with a 7-0 romp in Game 7. After a terrible start to the series, netminder Felix Potvin records three shutouts in the final five games of the series.

Playoffs, Second Round

Another West Coast team awaits Saskatoon in the second round, but the Vancouver Canucks never really threaten the prairie team, who take the series in five games (3-1, 2-1, 7-4, 1-3, 2-1).

Playoffs, Third Round

Saskatoon alternates between wide open hockey and tight games in defeating the Maple Leafs in six games (8-4, 3-5, 1-0, 4-5, 10-2, 1-0). Potvin records his fourth and fifth shutouts of the playoffs, in only 17 games.

Playoffs, Final Round

Although the Westerns have won two league championships before (1990, 1992), their final series have always been close, needing a seventh game both times. Once again in 1994, Saskatoon finds itself in the finals having split the first six games, this time against the New York Rangers. After winning the first three games by scores of 3-2, 5-2, and 9-2, it seems the Westerns would have their first easy win in a final series. That is not to be, however, as Mark Messier and Brian Leetch lead their team to three straight victories of their own (2-0, 4-1, 4-2) to knot the series. Theoren Fleury's performance in Game 7 saves his team from an embarrassing defeat, potting two goals in a 5-4 win, giving Saskatoon their third Stanley Cup in five years.

The Conn Smythe goes to Fleury, whose 18 goals and 36 points lead the 1994 NHL playoffs. Doug Gilmour leads the league with 25 playoff assists, while Felix the Cat sets a league record with five shutouts, and certainly made a case of his own for the Smythe.

1994 Stanley Cup Champion Saskatoon Westerns
Player			Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
Fleury, Theoren		RW	24	18	18	36
Gilmour, Doug		C	25	6	25	31
Nieuwendyk, Joe		C	22	10	12	22
Recchi, Mark		LW	25	10	12	22
Kozlov, Vyacheslav	LW	25	9	10	19
Zubov, Sergei		D	25	5	14	19
Reichel, Robert		LW	25	5	12	17
Brown, Jeff		D	25	5	8	13
Bodger, Doug		D	25	2	8	10
Lebeau, Stephan		C	21	4	5	9
Audette, Donald		RW	22	3	4	7
Mullen, Joe		RW	24	4	3	7
Zhamnov, Alexei		C	23	2	4	6
Yushkevich, Dmitri	D	19	1	4	5
Lapointe, Claude	C	20	2	3	5
Numminen, Teppo		D	25	2	3	5
Graham, Dirk		RW	25	2	3	5
McCrimmon, Brad		D	24	1	3	4
Nylander, Michael	C	9	0	3	3
Zhitnik, Alexei		D	5	1	1	2
Mironov, Boris		D	3	0	1	1
Whitney, Ray		LW	4	0	1	1
Straka, Martin		C	6	1	0	1
Total				25	93	157	250
Player			Pos	GP	MIN	GAA	SO
Potvin, Felix		G	25	1490	2.46	5
Fiset, Stephane		G	2	65	3.69	0
Total				25	1555	2.51	5