Battle of the third jersey 3, seiie. seins

Reva: the Vancouver Canucks and
Giants (Western Hockey League) have
released their third jerseys. Both boast that
they truly represent Vancouver’s legacy.
But in all honesty, only one can claim
superiority.

The Vancouver Giants opted to go historical
with their jersey, but it isn’t a mish-mash

of old logos. Instead, they went with the
Millionaires’ old uniform and kept it simple.
For those who are unaware, the Millionaires
was a Vancouver hockey team who won our
only Stanley Cup in 1915.

Where the Canucks jersey has gone
wrong is here: it’s as though Johnny Canuck,
the Millionaires, and the Stick Logo all
threw up on the jersey. It doesn’t tie together
at all and it’s like they are trying to hit every
hockey fan without actually worrying about
what the uniforms actually look like.

That’s why it’s refreshing to see the
Giants go with one idea and stick to it. It’s
also nice to see someone actually playing in
those old jerseys again without saying they

paying homage to the team. But their team
has no relation to it other than the fact that
the Millionaires played in Vancouver.

Unfortunately, the Canucks desperately
cling to this old team as though they are
closely related. Despite the fact they never
played in the same league, have the same
players, play around the same time, etc.,
there’s nothing related to them. But it gives a
38-year-old team a chance to say they won a
Cup. It doesn’t matter to them that they had
nothing to do with it.

Which is why more people should go
to the Giants. They have pretty much won
everything they could have by now and are
able to pay homage without claiming things
they haven’t done:and never will do, unless
Vancouver has allowed a second NHL team,
of course.

So, the next time you see a Canucks
third jersey in the store, go to a Giants game
instead, support a winner, and maybe even
help they pay homage to the true greats who
brought this city pride in 1915, and support
the best hockey team we have in Vancouver!

are “ours” but actually crediting that they are

 

 

Falling off the Ma 5 cuss:

Ewe summer, the NHL entry draft rolls around,
and every time any team selects a first round draft
pick, they are instantly proclaimed future superstars
who will inevitably lead the franchise to multiple
Stanley Cups. However, it seldom works out that way.
For every Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin
there are a dozen versions of Alexandre Daigle, Brad
Ferance or Patrick Stefan. So how and why does that
happen? Why are some players, who seemingly have
all the tools and everything going for them, just never
develop properly?

I want to look at a prospect that was highly touted
in the New York Rangers’ system. His name is Hugh
Jessiman, and he was once a can’t-miss, top-flight
prospect.

The 2003 entry draft has been considered to be
one of the deepest in league history. So far it has
produced blue chippers such as Eric Staal, Marc-
André Fleury and Nathan Horton. The pickings were

so good that our very own Ryan Kesler— who is

excelling this year—is considered to be one of the
lower-end choices of that year.

Jessiman was selected by New York 12" overall.
He was expected to be a future star on Broadway, and
on draft day, there was little reason to doubt that. He
was a 6’5, 230 pound power forward who was born in
NYC and idolized the Rangers growing up. He already
had a full season of high-level university hockey
under his belt and had established himself as an elite
prospect. After one year with Dartmouth, an elite
school, he had scored 23 goals and added 24 assists
for 47 points in just 34 games as a freshman.

For a freshman in college, those are extremely
rare numbers. For example, Kyle Turris, who was
chosen third overall by Phoenix in 2007 and is
projected to be among the NHL’s elite in a few years,
only scored 11 goals and 35 points in 36 games.

After being drafted, Jessiman returned to
Dartmouth and had a solid, but not as good,
sophomore year. He recorded 33 points in 34 games.
The next year, however, his hockey career started
to go downhill. Injuries limited Jessiman to only 12
games, and he scored just once with one assist. He
opted to turn professional the next year, instead of
getting his development back on track, and joined
the Rangers’ farm club, the Hartford Wolf Pack. In
another injury-riddled campaign, Jessiman played 46
games and had only seven goals and 12 assists. The
next year, he was demoted further to New York’s tier-
two farm team in the ECHL, the Charlotte Checkers.
It is very rare for a player to go to the ECHL and still
make the NHL.

Jessiman would bounce around Charlotte for the
next few years while his fellow ‘03 draft picks were
surging. Six games into this year (during which he
failed to score and had just one assist), the Rangers
had had enough. They shipped Jessiman off to
Nashville for virtually nothing. He was immediately
sent to their farm team, the Milwaukee Admirals, and
so far has done nothing with them.

Hugh Jessiman is the only player taken in the
first round of the 2003 NHL entry draft to not make
an NHL team full time. He has never played an NHL
game.

So, what happened? This was a guy who was a
good skater, had good hands and all the physical tools
to become a bona-fide star in the NHL. However, he
just failed to develop. His skating never improved,
and neither did his balance. He never got more
responsible defensively, and when a player has that
many deficiencies that he hasn’t worked out properly,
something’s wrong. It just goes to show that not every
NHL draft pick turns out to be a superstar.