Tribute to Teemu Week: The Beginning

by Jen Neale on Dec 12, 2011 9:56 PM PST in Duck Tales

On Saturday, Teemu Selanne will be making his triumphant return to Winnipeg since being traded during the 1995-1996 season. As a tribute to Teemu, Anaheim Calling will be spending the days leading up to his homecoming in the 'Peg taking a look back at what got him to this point in his career. First up is Teemu and the 1988 NHL Entry Draft.

It's easy to look back and ask yourself: how was Teemu Selanne not drafted higher than 10th in the 1988 draft? Perhaps it was because the NHL didn't value Selanne's time in Finnish junior hockey with Jokerit as much the number one draft pick's time in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders. In 33 games played, young Teemu scored 43 goals and had 26 assists. In comparison, the number one pick had 70 games played, 43 goals and 80 assists. Who was the number one pick that year?

...some American kid named Mike Modano.

Between Modano and Selanne, the top 10 of the 1988 draft class laid out as such:

Team	Player
Minnesota North Stars	Mike Modano
Vancouver Canucks	Trevor Linden
Quebec Nordiques	Curtis Leschyshyn
Pittsburgh Penguins	Darrin Shannon
Quebec Nordiques	Daniel Dore
Toronto Maple Leafs	Scott Pearson
Los Angeles Kings	Martin Gelinas
Chicago Blackhawks	Jeremy Roenick
St. Louis Blues	Rod Brind'Amour
Winnipeg Jets	Teemu Selanne

Other notable names in draft class: Tie Domi (27th), Mark Recchi (67th), Tony Amonte (68th), Rob Blake (70th), Keith Carney (76th), Alexander Mogilny (89th), Tony Twist (177th). Not bad, eh?

Following the draft, Teemu didn't join the Jets right away. Instead, he opted to return to Finland to serve his required military service. (Some believe this obligation led to his drop in the draft class.) While serving, Selanne found time to be a kindergarten teacher (awesome) while tearing it up with Jokerit again, bouncing between what I believe is juniors and the Finnish elite league. When not playing with his Jokerit club team, serving in the military, or inspiring the youth of Finland, he was representing Finland in the Canada Cup, World Junior Championships, World Championships, and the Olympics, etc.

	Career Totals
Team	GP	G	A
Jokerit Helsinki Jr.-FIN-Jr.	73	64	45
Jokerit Helsinki-FINLAND-2	40	37	34
Finland-EJC-A	6	7	9
Pvuk Lahti JR.-FIN-JR.	3	3	1
Finland-WJC-A	7	5	5
Jokerit Helsinki-Finland	97	76	56
Finland-WEC-A	10	6	5
Finland-CAN-CUP	6	1	1
Finland-Olympics	8	7	4

Teemu played a hell of a lot of pro-level hockey before even hitting the NHL ice, which makes his current performance at 41 years old even more remarkable. How the Jets waited until the 1992, four years after he was drafted, to get him in the lineup is beyond me, but was their greatest mistake yet to come?

Coming up tomorrow, Teemu finally arrives in the NHL.

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Comments

Why did you ignore the fact that he joined the military? That had as much to do with his draft position as anything else…..

"Thank you very much fans and let’s go for the next game together!"

— Lubomir Visnovsky

I rec’d that shit.

by Steven Hida on Dec 12, 2011 10:24 PM PST reply actions

Woaaaahh. Wasn’t intentional. Military service is required in Finland, and served his military duties while playing hockey. I was going completely off of stats as compared to other draftees. I’ll add that in tomorrow morning.

"I'm not a lady. I'm a DUCK!" - Connie Moreau, D2: Mighty Ducks
Managing Editor - Anaheim Calling

by Jen Neale on Dec 12, 2011 10:30 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions

I think the fact that he was European might have had something to do with it too. Let’s face it, the NHL draft system is tilted towards kids that play in major junior. Certainly European players have gained more prominence, but even now you see European kids trying to defect to major junior to improve their chances of being in the NHL. I’m sure Teemu’s military service turned some teams off to him, but I think the fact that the Finnish leagues weren’t seen as good, as well as other bias towards Europeans, helped cause that drop as well.

Then again, I was 5 years old in 88, so…

by Daniel AC on Dec 13, 2011 10:33 AM PST up reply actions