| Following draft
day moves in 2001 to acquire star players Alexei Yashin from Ottawa and
Michael Peca from Buffalo, the Islanders had a renaissance season in
2001-02 and finished with a record of 42-28-8-4. Their 96 points was
just beaten out by Philadelphia for the Atlantic Division title and the
Islanders finished in 5th place in the Eastern Conference, qualifying
for the postseason for the first time in 8 years. With success comes a
lower draft choice, something the Islanders were happy to accept for the
first time in a while. So with the 22nd pick overall, GM Mike Milbury
decided not to wheel and deal by selecting C Sean Bergenheim from
Finland. The first player from that country to be drafted in the first
round by the Islanders, Bergenheim came into the draft touted as perhaps
the fastest skating player available. The only knock was that his
offensive ability may be a bit limited. That's a pretty big knock, but
with time Bergenheim could develop into a solid third line role player
in the NHL.
Hits: It's still way too early to tell. It usually takes a good 5 to 7 years before you can really evaluate a draft. Could Martin Chabada be a hit for the Islanders? He had a pretty good first season in North America, and a strong playoff, playing for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. While Bergenheim represented Finland in the 2003 World Junior Championships, Marcus Paulsson was a member of the Swedish squad. Danish born Franz Nielsen represented Denmark in their first World Championships appearance since the 1949 in 2003. Turn Back the Clock: Only Milbury knows if the Islanders tried to make a deal or not. It would have been very interesting to see if the Islanders would have selected Eric Nystrom out of Michigan, the son of former Islander great Bobby Nystrom. But instead Eric was long gone by the time the Islanders came up to the podium. The budding power forward ended up going 10th overall to the Calgary Flames
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