Claimed:Revisionist History: Olsen to Toronto

[CowboyinAmerica 2,711]

 

Into the DeLorean!

 

Let’s travel back to a long, long time ago, a time before Riga had broken their curse and before Brovy was ever approved. The Season 33 draft, known as the first “Super Draft” in roughly 15 seasons, starred recreated players of Wesley Kellinger, Tomas Valiq, Felix Zamora, and others who were expected to dominate the VHL for a long time coming.

 

However, in the lead up to the draft, a new name emerged that some VHL scouts may not have expected: Oslo Storm defenseman Karsten Olsen. Despite being one of the few players with an agent who did not have a previous player, Olsen quickly made a name for himself through a particularly strong work ethic and impeccable practice skills.

 

When most mock drafts came out, in fact, Olsen was up higher than Tordahl, Toriyama, GIYGAS and many others. The consensus selection for the defenseman was all the way up at No. 3 in the draft — to the Toronto Legion. On Kendrick’s draft day radio show, Olsen to Toronto was the general consensus among all guests, and nobody really questioned the logic. Indeed, Olsen thought he was Canada-bound too: Sandro was the only GM he had spoken with after the season had ended.

 

On draft day, Olsen patiently waited for the phone call to announce his new home. Pick No. 1 occurred, and Wesley Kellinger was no surprise. Then, Olsen didn’t receive a call from Seattle before pick No. 2, so he was all set for Toronto when… “With the second pick in the draft, the Seattle Bears select Karsten Olsen.” Well, that was unexpected.

 

It’s safe to say that Olsen and Seattle have fit like a glove since that time, and Olsen currently holds one of the top TPE totals in the VHL four seasons into his career. But retrospectives are no fun. What would have happened if, say, Seattle went a different direction and Olsen fell to Toronto? We decided to investigate.

 

 

For Toronto

 

At the time, Toronto was a team desperately in need of defensive help. Sure, they had previous season’s No. 1 overall draft selection Jack Sound, but Mario Linguini was barely improving and the cupboard was bare elsewhere. Toronto was expecting to pair Olsen with Kjellburg, Lehtinen, Lebedev, Sound and Lebeau for a top 6 that couldn’t be beat.

 

However, Olsen was the only consensus top defenseman to take with that selection. (Willie Weber was the only other first round defenseman at No. 6.) Instead, Toronto ended up with Odin Tordahl, who was promptly shipped off along with a first round pick due to his extreme unhappiness with the organization a season later. That first round pick later turned into Naomi Young when Toronto missed the S34 playoffs and Helsinki ended up with the second overall pick.

 

Given Olsen and Young, it’s unlikely that Toronto would have needed to do or have space to do three key moves: moving Lebedev to defense, signing Chico Salmon and trading for Reggie Dunlop. As a result, here would be the potential starting lines for Toronto entering S36:

 

Lindberg – Kjellburg – Lehtinen

Namestnikov – Young – Lebedev

 

Sound – Olsen

Sixten

 

LeBeau

 

Plus, Toronto still would have held the picks they traded for Salmon and Dunlop. That sound you hear is Toronto fans having a collective aneurism.

 

Of course, Toronto is doing just fine as it is, likely to be competing with Quebec City this season for the North American Conference crown and still likely to be a Cup contender as long as LeBeau is in town. Still, with that defensive corps from S34 on once Sixten came into the fold, it’s not unreasonable to believe that Toronto would have become an instant contender, especially without having to take a step back following Jive’s retirement.

 

Who knows, maybe there will be happy hockey fans in Toronto one day.

 

For Seattle

 

Is it possible that the Bears might have been better off letting Karsten Olsen go in the draft too? It’s a concept that holds a tiny bit of weight, even if that weight is highly hypothetical.

 

GM Noah Lefevre’s reason for drafting Olsen in the first place seems to have held up through the seasons. He claimed at the time that he didn’t believe too strongly in any of the top wings’ ability to be a constant contributor, and seeing how GIYGAS, Felix Zamora, Tomas Valiq, and others have not been as active with current players as they were with previous players, it seems he was correct.

 

One player who was rumored at No. 2, though, is the guy who currently holds the most TPE from the S33 draft class — winger Odin Tordahl. It’s likely that Tordahl would not have been as unhappy in Seattle as he would have been in Toronto, especially considering that he told the Seattle organization that they were in his top three this past free agency period. All things considered, it’s likely he would have been just as active.

 

However, how much difference would Tordahl have made offensively? Toronto still finished 26 points ahead of Seattle in the S35 standings, and it’s unlikely that one offensive player can make that much difference, especially when a top defenseman would be taken away in turn. And before that, Seattle simply didn’t have a goalie solution, whether through an older Vincent Vega or a too-young Steven Smyl.

 

Likely, Sound would not have changed positions until this particular moment in time, making the change much as Olsen just did to provide more offense. Thus, the lines entering Season 36 would have looked like this:

 

Blade – Ball – Tordahl

Stamkos – GIYGAS – (Tordahl)

 

Sound – Lefevre

Yumalatopinto – Encarnacion/Glass

 

Smyl

 

In my opinion, Seattle would have been in much the same place, possibly not fighting as hard with New York but certainly not on hypothetical Quebec City or Toronto’s level. Thus, Tordahl would have worked out for Seattle just as well as Olsen, but another rumored player might have spelled disaster in Seattle that would have been hard to overcome.

 

Because no Seattle sports team has ever been screwed by bad decision-making

Edited February 4, 2014 by CowboyinAmerica

[Victor 10,550]

I always felt Seattle did this strictly to fuck over Toronto's plans.

[gregreg 930]

Not going to lie I pushed to draft other players but Noah was set on selecting Olsen and I'm glad he ignored me 

[Kesler 1,514]

Not going to lie I pushed to draft other players but Noah was set on selecting Olsen and I'm glad he ignored me 

LOL

[Doomsday 4,041]

Content: 3/3 - Revisionist history! You lost causer! It's ok, I totally dig it.

 

Grammar: 2/2 - Flawless.

 

Appearance: 1/1 - I need a prettier time machine.

 

Overall: 6/6 - Much history, wow. Very old!

[Kesler 1,514]

Claimed