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Before you drink your weekend away, give your brain a jog:
Question #2: Roberto Luongo leads all Canuck netminders in history with a 2.29 GAA when playing a minimum of 50 games. Name the other four goalies that round out the top five (hint: you need not go back terribly far).
...and...
GM'ing #2: Nine years ago, the Canucks used their first round pick to select Nathan Smith, 23rd overall, in the 2000 entry draft. The following list shows the 2008 production of the ten players selected behind Smith (picks 23-33):
(Martin Samuelsson, drafted by the Bruins, plays for the Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish Hockey League and has never played a NHL game.)
(Ilya Nikulin, drafted by the Thrashers, plays for the Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL and has never played a NHL game. In fact, just this week he rejected another offer from Atlanta.)
(Tomáš Kůrka, drafted by the Carolina Hurricaces, plays for HC České Budějovice in the Czech Extraliga and played 14 games with the 'Canes back in 2003.)
Other notables in the draft include Ilya Bryzgalov (44), Jarret Stoll (46), Andreas Lilja (54), Antoine Vermette (55th) and Paul Martin (62).
I assume you don't precisely miss Smith's four game regular season career presence in Vancouver, but don't forget, the bastard played in the 2007 playoffs (yeah, that's offensive depth to be scared of). You can also forgive Brian Burke who, at the time, had an offensive unit with a still burgeoning Markus Naslund, veteran Andrew Cassels and rookie Peter Schaefer as some of his top scorers while the blueline was just given the gift of Ed Jovanovski from the Pavel Bure trade. So a big forward like Smith made sense...at the time.
But, ignoring the past and focusing on the now, the question is Mr. or Ms. GM, would you still have taken Smith with the first round pick? And if not, then who and why?