What if the New Jersey Devils had won the 1984 NHL entry draft?

Question

So seeming I - as well as most of you - am hockey deprived both here at Y/A! and in general waiting for the hockey season to start, I have been reading through my old hockey magazines(which aren't really "old"...5 years old may be the "oldest")...but anyways, one of the magazines I have asks a bunch of "what if" questions, and some of them are really good. So seeming this section needs some hockey into it, I will ask one that I remember out of the magazine. The question being:

"What if the New Jersey Devils had won the 1984 NHL entry draft?"

How do you think the NHL would be different? Would Pittsburgh still had even been a franchise? If Pittsburgh did cease to exist, where do you think they would move to? How would New Jersey's franchise be different?

Please discuss what you think. =)

Answer 1

I tried to figure that out once, and believe it or not, the Devils would have been pretty much the same: 3 Cups, 21 (or whatever the number was when I figured it out) Playoff series won.

What I decided was, if the Devils had Mario, they probably would've won the Cup in 1988, and the Pens might not have won in 1991, which might've opened the door for a second Cup.  But then the Devils would've kept Brendan Shanahan, which means they wouldn't have gotten Scott Stevens.  Which means their defense is reduced.  And with all Mario's injuries, the Devils might still have won Mario's real-life second Cup in 1992, giving them three, but remember he was out for all of 1995, so without Mario or Scottso the Devils don't win that one.  And by 2000, their real-life second Cup, Mario is finished.  And they probably don't win in 2003, either.

Maybe the earlier success gets the Prudential Center built a few years sooner, and maybe winning three Cups before the Rangers win in 1994 gives them a few PR points and converts a few more fans.  But other than that, really, they'd have been no better off drafting Mario Lemieux instead of Kirk Muller -- who, don't forget, was the trade bait to get Stephane Richer and Tom Chorske, two key figures from the 1995 Cup.  And if the last Devil Cup is before the Rangers' '94 win, then they have the edge over us, instead of the other way around.

As for the Pens, they probably get moved to a Sun Belt city that otherwise got an expansion team.  And Shanahan probably doesn't stay with the Devils forever, so maybe he ends up in Detroit and helps them win 3 Cups anyway.

Answer 2

What if Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated ?

Would any of us be alive ?

Answer 3

Well since that draft the Devils have won more Cups then the Pens.

So since the Devils got Mario did the Pens get Kirk Muller?Who wasn't a bad player.He wasn't a guy like Brian Lawton or Daigle.He had close to 1,000 points in his career.Mario would not have been as good.No Jagr or Rex or a Ronnie Francis.He wouldn't have had the guidance of a Bryan Trottier or help of a guy with playoff experience of a Paul Coffey but he would still have been a Hall of Famer.I also don't think 99 would have called the Devils a "Mickey Mouse organization"if Mario was on the team.Also if he was on the Devils they would have been a better team so they probably wouldn't have been able to get a Marty Brodeur although he didn't go as high as you would have thought.

Answer 4

New Jersey is based on systematic hockey.  The Pens were known to have a country club atmosphere where the players practiced when they wanted.  They won their cups on pure skill alone, outscoring opponents with 5+ goals per game.  If Mario were on the Devils, they might have been unstoppable, once Brodeur arrived.  People have to remember that when Mario was having his best seasons, he was playing with AHL talent.  Rob Brown, Bob Errey, Dan Quinn, Mike Bullard - LOL.  It wasn't until 90' that he started playing with decent players.  A guy like Mario only comes along once every couple generations.  Even Sid and Ovechkin can't hold a candle to Mario's pure talent.  For those who haven't had the opportunity to see him play, it's very unfortunate because he was amazing.  And Pittsburgh probably would not exist if it weren't for 66.

Answer 5

i believe that pitt would not have a franchise even if they got the 2 next no1 picks, they would have got wendel clark(was good, but had shortened career, and nothing like the scoring of lemiuex, and joe murphy, and those two together only amount to half the poins of lemiuex, and neither of those guys are franchise players, i think that if lemiuex were on the devils, they would have won the 94 cup, as well as maybe a few earlier, and because martin brodeur was predicted to go mid-second round, the devils chose him in the first round of the draft, so mario and marty would be a unstoppable team, along with scott stevens, i think that lemiuex wouldnt have the same point totals if he played in NJ, but would definitely be a HOFer