NHL Analyst

June 23, 2000

NHL analyst, Craig Simpson, who won two Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, discusses this year's entry draft, the state of officiating in the NHL, and what it was like playing with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

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CTVSportsnet: Welcome to the CTVSportsnet.com chat. Today, we have CTVSportsnet NHL analyst Craig Simpson, who spent ten years in the NHL, winning two Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers during that time.

Craig: Welcome to the chat! I look forward to speaking with you all!

Mystery Girl: Who do you think will be the number one pick in Saturday's entry draft?

Craig: I think it's pretty clear that it will be between Dany Heatley, who is rated number one and who has great offensive skills and is really one of the few pure goal scorers in this years draft, and the wild card may be Rick DiPietro the goalie from Boston U whose stock has risen, and you may see a team trade up with the New York Islanders to insure they get a goalie with such great potential.

HMlet: Dany Heatley will likely go first tomorrow - Is it telling that this year's first round is not a product of the Canadian Junior program?

Craig: Interestingly enough, this season there are a lot more US college players in the draft. It hasn't been an overwhelmingly strong year for the Canadian junior programs. There is a lot more European flavor to the first round than there is Canadian junior, and that may be part of the cycle that sometimes happens in development. But there may only be 5 or 6 players from the Canadian Hockey league in the first round, which is alarmingly low.

Marek: Which team will be the most active, behind the scenes, tomorrow?

Craig: Well Marek, I think the New York Islanders by having the first pick in the draft will be the busiest, receiving calls and inquiries about trading the first pick. When you think back last year, Mike Milbury had 4 first round picks. So the Islanders have a lot of use already in their organization, and are in a position to trade for a veteran and a top quality player and still potentially move down in the first round and because of the overall depth of the draft. They may still end up with another player who may eventually play on their team. I don't think the Islanders tomorrow will be the team that picks first.

Junky: Is this years draft a bumper crop?

Craig: Interestingly enough it doesn't have the big name star power potential of some other years, and even unlike last year where you had Patrick Stefan, Pavel Brendel, and Sedin twins, who were all "can't miss" blue chip prospects. This year you only really have 4, Heatley, DiPietro, Klesla, and Gaborik and they are not for sure star potential players. But this years draft is a much deeper draft than last year all the way through to the top 40 that potentially could be good NHL players. Most of them second and third line type guys. So in that sense it's not a "star power" draft but a solid draft.

Tom Grainger: Mr. Simpson, do you think that people's concerns with expansion creating a 'watered down league' are as serious as some people think?

Craig: That's a good question. I think clearly it allows some teams to be more competitive with the top clubs simply because everybody is spread out much more thinly through having to lose players thru the last 2 years in the expansion draft. I personally think it definitely waters down the talent level of teams and becomes very difficult for a larger amount of the teams to develop into top quality teams and it takes a lot of even the top quality teams and shortens their bench. So many teams now have to just rely on just 4 defensemen who are solid and two who hardly play at all. A lot of that has to do with the extra teams taking away the potential quality players. The challenge is to continue to try to build an entertaining NHL when a greater number of the teams don't have the talent level that they would have in a smaller team league.

Scuba Girl: What do you think MacTavish will bring to the Oilers?

Craig: I think Craig is the natural and perfect choice to coach the hockey club. And having played with Craig and having played against Craig throughout my career - the qualities you think of with him are hard work, perseverance and intelligence. And he's the type of person, when you were playing with him, you wanted to play well for him. You respected the effort he put in every day on and off the ice. And as a coach he will be a good communicator, has great instincts for the game, and will inspire and push the Oiler players to continue to try to be better.

Cana Dave: With such strong goal scorers what do you think the Canadians will be looking for in the draft this year?

Craig: Montreal is in a good situation having the 13 and 16th picks with the kind of draft that it is this year. There are good players down at that level. I know that they want Nikita Alexeev - he's 6 foot 5 and 215 lbs and has a good upside potential. If they can get him they will probably try to complement him with another forward, potentially - most likely a European. I don't see Montreal trying to make any trades to move up because they can get 2 good solid players for the future in the positions that they're drafting.

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