Easy on the Hall of Fame label for Lecavalier

Sporting News, The, July 6, 1998 by Larry Wigge

Vicent Lecavalier is a tall, dark-haired center who oozes confidence and has an enormous upside, but I'll bet even he didn't know that he "has a chance to be the Michael Jordan of hockey, a sure Hall of Farrier."

So said new Lightning owner Arthur Williams after his team selected Lecavalier with the top pick in the draft. Let's take those unfair comparisons to Mario Lemieux up a level and go for the slam dunk Hey, someone tell Williams that he does have a great player, a great kid who has done everything right. After hearing that he needed to bulk up to make it to the NHL this year, Lecavalier hired a personal trainer and is doing weights in the morning, cardiovascular work in the afternoon and has changed his diet But, please, forget the MJ comparison More insights from last weekend's draft:

* The $80 million entry fee didn't equate to much talent in the expansion draft for Nashville. In fact, until Nashville G.M. David Poile got a call from San Jose five minutes before the entry draft and made a deal for the second pick overall and stole center David Legwand, this Nashville team looked more like the first Sharks team that went 17-58-5 than the first Florida team the Predators were supposed to be modeled after.

Poile stops short of calling Legwand a franchise player, but... "Our hearts stopped when we lost the second pick in the lottery in May," he admits. "We were so bullish on Legwand that we had to take a step back-and all of a sudden instead of thinking Lecavalier or Legwand, we had Five or six players that were a step below those two. Actually, we had two or three trades in the works to drop down in the first round and get some extra picks until the Sharks called."

Though the expansion draft was weak, Poile has given this franchise a base no other expansion team has enjoyed. In addition to Legwand, the Predators acquired compensatory picks for expansion-acquired free agents Mike Richter and Uwe Krupp and a second-rounder from St. Louis.

* Scouts say only Lecavalier is really ready to step into the NHL--and only because of his personal commitment to get stronger. Grudgingly, the consensus of scouts is that Legwand, San Jose defenseman Brad Stuart (third overall), Vancouver defenseman Bryan Allen (fourth), Rangers center Manny Malhotra (seventh) and Colorado tough guy Scott Parker (20th) might be able to play in the big show next season.

* The only major trade was a sad one-defenseman Paul Coffey going from the Flyers to the Blackhawks for a fifth-round draft choice. `Future Hall of Famer, greatest scoring defenseman in the game ... and it's come to this?" Oilers G.M. Glen Sather says. Sounds to me like the Blackhawks are trying to cover up for when they lose free-agent defenseman Gary Suter to St. Louis or Florida.

* The Avalanche did get immediate help in Parker, but they weren't able to parlay their four first-round picks and seven in the first 53 to move up for Lecavalier. Though they didn't get the immediate impact player they wanted, the team's long-term prospects look promising. Watch for defensemen Martin Skoula and Robyn Regehr in Denver in a couple of years. And the enthusiasm and defensive system of new coach Bob Hartley will add a new dimension in Colorado. And for those who claim the Avalanche started going downhill after they traded Chris Simon to Washington, the first-round pick Colorado acquired in that deal wound up being the pugilistic Parker.

* The draft winners? The Lightning, Avalanche, Predators, Devils, Rangers and Blues-yes, they had some picks and got a couple of talented defenseman, including Swedish blueliner Christian Backman, who one scout says could be another Nicklas Lidstrom.

* The losers? The Bruins, Stars, Panthers and Capitals, because they didn't have first-round picks, and the Maple Leafs, because they traded from eighth to 10th in the first round and then picked Kazakhstan center Nikolai Antropov, who was expected to go about 53rd.

Associate editor Larry Wigge covers hockey for The Sporting News. E-mail him at wigge@sportingnews.com.