Tom Awad has a nice post on the Sakic and Sundin legacies. Unlike Tom, I was watching the 1989 draft…My memory could be failing, but the consensus was that Sundin and Bobby Holik should go #1 and #2, but Sundin needed to finish his military service and Holik might never show up in North America. Also, Jason Herter was projected to be a huge star. Twenty years later, it feels like another lifetime: 15 of 21 first round picks came from Canadian Tier I junior, and picking a European player seemed like a huge risk.
Interestingly, Sundin never led the NHL in any category of consequence in any season, and Sakic tied for the lead in +/- once and tied for the lead in short-handed goals once. Of course, neither did Mark Messier.
