Adam Wodon writes:
>As for an earlier point about the the quality of college hockey players going
>down -- someone said to check out the Hobey finalists and that would show it.
>Well, the recent Hobey finalists look decent to me.
 
That was me who said that, and I will stand behind it...allow me to
support my contention by comparing 1987 and 1994.
 
1987
1  F Tony Hrkac, North Dakota (Thunder Bay, ONT)
2  F John Cullen, Boston University (Puslinch, ONT)
3  F Gary Emmons, Northern Michigan (Winnipeg, MAN)
4  F Wayne Gagne, Western Michigan (Toronto, ONT)
5  F Tony Granato, Wisconsin (Downers Grove, IL)
6  F Craig Janney, Boston College (Enfield, CT)
7  D Brian Leetch, Boston College (Cheshire, CT)
8  F Lane MacDonald, Harvard (Mequon, WI)
9  F Joe Nieuwendyk, Cornell (Whitby, ONT)
10*F Tom Sasso, Babson (Everett, MA)
 
1994
Winner: LW Chris Marinucci, Sr, Minnesota-Duluth (Grand Rapids, MN)
Other finalists (alphabetical)
   F  Craig Conroy, Sr, Clarkson (runner-up) (Potsdam, NY)
   F  Dean Fedorchuk, Sr, Alaska-Fairbanks (Winnipeg, MAN)
   G  Neil Little, Sr, RPI (Medicine Hat, ALB)
   D  Sean McCann, Sr, Harvard (North York, ONT)
   F  David Oliver, Sr, Michigan (Courtenay, BC)
   G  Jamie Ram, Sr, Michigan Tech (Scarborough, ONT)
   G  Dwayne Roloson, Sr, Mass Lowell (Simcoe, ONT)
   G  Steve Shields, Sr, Michigan (North Bay, ONT)
   F  Brian Wiseman, Sr, Michigan (Chatham, ONT)
 
I would be honestly surprised if even one person said he/she thought
the finalists from 1994 as a group were anywhere near as good as those
from 1987 - and that is certainly not meant to belittle last year's
players.
 
In fact, if I had to come up with a second ten from 1987, they would
probably include the following (in no particular order):
 
F Kevin Stevens, Boston College
G Bruce Racine, Northeastern
D Ian Kidd, North Dakota
G Ed Belfour, North Dakota
F Kevin Miller, Michigan State
F Bob Joyce, North Dakota
F Mitch Messier, Michigan State
F Paul Ysebaert, Bowling Green
D Mark Benning, Harvard
D Eric Weinrich, Maine
 
And I would take those ten over 1994's first ten, too.
 
Even the third ten would be a tough call, looking at who is left from
1987, including Corey Millen, Mike Richter, Jon Morris, Paul Ranheim,
Dave Snuggerud, Dan Shea, John Blue, Bob Kudelski, Luc Borsato, Jeff
Norton, Ken Hodge, Bob Essensa - whoops, now we are into the fourth
ten. :-)
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93