Patrick: It's a very, very lucky day
Penguins general manager Craig Patrick knew his team had won the draft lottery and the chance to draft 17-year-old phenom Sidney Crosby before team president Ken Sawyer, coach Eddie Olczyk and Mario Lemieux.
Still, he was surprised.
"I was in the third row in the sequestered room where the balls came out," Patrick said Friday afternoon as he and Sawyer were driving to the airport from the NHL offices in New York. "I couldn't really see the ball come out, but when it did, everybody turned to me and said, 'congratulations.' I said, 'What?' I was shocked.
"It's a very, very lucky day, and it's about time. People have said (Crosby) has the vision of Wayne Gretzky and the goal-scoring and playmaking ability of Mario Lemieux, and if that's true, it's incredible that he's coming to Pittsburgh."
Crosby is so good, many scouts believed that if he had been eligible last year, he would have been the No. 1 overall pick over highly-touted Russian prospects Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, the latter of whom the Penguins drafted No. 2 overall.
The Penguins finished last in the league overall with a 23-47-8-4 record in 2003-04 but lost that draft lottery. In fact, they had never won the lottery in its 10-year history until yesterday, when they were one of four teams with the maximum three balls allowed in the hopper. That translated into a 6.25 percent chance of winning, or 1 in 16.
If the Penguins actually won the lottery last year, their chances would have dropped by one-third to 4.17 percent.
This marks the second time in three years that the Penguins will have the first pick in the draft. They traded up from third to first to select goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with the top pick in 2003.
Crosby watched the selection show on television along with father Troy, mother Trina and sister Taylor from their home in Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia. From the moment the Penguins' ball was drawn, Crosby started getting questions about his ability to, perhaps, save the Penguins' franchise as Lemieux did when he was drafted first overall in 1984.
"Definitely there's pressure there, but I'm going to come in and make sure that I'm ready come September," Crosby said. "My first goal is just making the team, and after that, we'll see how things go. I have to set my goals short and just make sure I'm prepared to be the best player possible in September."
Crosby and Lemieux trained together last summer in Los Angeles.
"It'll be unbelievable," Crosby said of the chance to play with Lemieux. "He's a very nice guy and a great role model, and to be able to play with him will be something really special."
Lemieux was at the doctor's office with his oldest daughter when he got the call relaying the good news.
"I couldn't believe it when I found out," he said. "It's quite a day for us."
With Crosby widely expected to make the team out of training camp, he will make his NHL debut alongside Lemieux on Oct. 5, Lemieux's 40th birthday.
Second-year coach Eddie Olczyk watched the drawing from his office in Mellon Arena.
"We couldn't ask for a better day," he said. "We're extremely excited about where we are and where we're trying to get to. When you're able to have the No. 1 pick and have a player that certainly has a lot of potential and bring interest, not only to the city of Pittsburgh, but throughout the National Hockey League under these last trying times, it's great to be back."
The Penguins haven't made the playoffs since 2001. In recent years leading up to the expiration of the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement, the team wasn't able to keep its good players when they were able to command millions of dollars elsewhere.
But yesterday's ratification of the CBA brought additional good news for the Penguins. Under the economic system as outlined in the new CBA, the team should be able to pay and keep top draft picks such as Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and defenseman Ryan Whitney (fifth overall in 2002).
"Talk about a day of double great news -- as (former Penguins coach) Bob Johnson said, it's a great day for hockey, and it's a spectacular day for hockey on two fronts," Sawyer said.
Olczyk said there is still work to be done.
"Certainly it's going to be my position and our organization's position to put him in the best possible scenario each and every night to have success," Olczyk said. "It's a major jump for any player, whether it's going from college or major junior in Canada to the NHL. We've all known about Sidney for a long, long time, and he's ours now so we're extremely excited about it."
