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.