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Who would you have selected with the 15th selection overall of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft? Does bloodlines mean anything when making your consideration? Well, if it does that won't exactly make this decision anymore easier. You se, both Kent Nilsson and Zach Parise had fathers in the NHL. Robert Nilsson, the player the Islanders chose Saturday, is the son of Kent Nilsson, who enjoyed a 10 year professional career, 8 of which were in the National Hockey League from 1979-87. Kent made a name for himself by recording 2 straight 107 point seasons with the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association in the late 70's. When the WHA folded in 1979, instead of carrying over with the Jets into the NHL, Kent joined the Atlanta Flames, who drafted him back in 1976. In his first two season's with Atlanta/Calgary the elder Nilsson tallied 89 times without missing a game. In 1980-81, the first year after the Atlanta franchise moved to Calgary, Kent finished with 131 points. That was good for third in NHL scoring that season behind only Marcel Dionne's 135 points and Wayne Gretzky's league leading 164 points. The Islanders Mike Bossy finished fourth that year with 119 points. A major injury in 1981-82 cut Kent's season to just 41 games. But he returned to form in 1982-83 with 104 points, 46 goals, in another full 80 games. After 2 more successful 30 goal seasons with the Flames, Kent was dealt to Minnesota in the summer of 1985 in a deal that saw Calgary gain a draft pick which they later used to draft Joe Nieuwendyk.
Kent has been retired for 8 years now, but his legacy lives on in his son Robert. The younger Nilsson has already made a name for himself as a 17 year old over in Sweden playing in the Elite League. Last season with Leksand Robert scored 21 points as a rookie, which set the record for most points by a rookie since current NHL stars Markus Naslund recorded 19 points and Peter Forsberg recorded 17 points both in 1990-91.
Behind the back passes and highlight playmaking are now part of Robert's forte. If Robert becomes anything like his dad the Islanders will be very pleased. But still, there will be some doubters. What often happens at the draft is unless you're a scout there are not many people who have seen or truly know what kind of package a European player can bring to an NHL team. Sometimes, as in the case of Pierre Macguire who was vocal against the Islanders selection, an analyst may make a remark about wanting to see a player selected based on seeing him a couple times as in Zach Parise, while at the same time dismissing the fact that he doesn't know anything about Robert Nilsson the player. Now maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Pierre and other detractors saw every game Parise played and actually do feel he is the better player. But if you are basing it on size the players are virtually similar. The only difference is 3 pounds and Parise actually holds the edge. So to use that as an argument is unfair. The other point of view, and one would have to wonder why Macguire would look at it this way, is the Islander history angle. Zach's father also played in the NHL. Jean-Paul Parise broke into the NHL in 1965 with the Boston Bruins. After only 18 games J.P. was claimed by Oakland in the 1967 Expansion draft. He never played for the Seals and was later dealt to Toronto in exchange for former New York Islander scout Gerry "Tex" Ehman. But J.P.'s stint only lasted 1 game with the Leafs before he was traded to Minnesota in an eight player deal. There Parise would jump start his NHL career. He would spend the next 8 years with the North Stars recording three 20 goal seasons. Midway through the 1974-75 season, the Islanders were en route to their first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So in January of 1975 Jean-Paul was acquired by the Islanders for spare parts Doug Rombough and Ernie Hicke.
Midway through 1977-78 the Islanders decided to part with J.P. when they dealt him to Cleveland along with defenseman Jean Potvin in exchange for Wayne Merrick and minor league defenseman Darcy Regier. Cleveland would later merge with Minnesota in the 1978 Dispersal draft and Jean-Paul got the opportunity to end his career in 1978-79 with the North Stars. If you want to go as far as compare careers then you would have to give the statistical edge to Kent Nilsson over J.P. Parise. So who will be better as we enter the future, Robert Nilsson? Or Zach Parise?
But the fact that Parise slipped down created a controversy among Islander fans. Would it have been the same had the Islanders selected Parise? Probably not. But that doesn't nor shouldn't detract from the decision they made. I may be patting myself on the back here but it was back on June 1st right here on islesinfo.com that I predicted Robert Nilsson would be the Islanders man at #15. But I also prefaced it by saying they would take Parise if he was still available. I also predicted on the Faceoffhockeyshow.com Friday night that Nilsson was the Islanders target player. The comparisons to talent like Forsberg and Naslund were the winning factors in the Islanders decision to stick with the slick Robert Nilsson. For every great thing Zach Parise has done to garner support from those who have seen him, Robert Nilsson has matched with equal star ability. While Parise has been a record setting American born player growing up through the U.S. and College system, Nilsson has done the same through the Swedish system. Only time will tell. But odds are both players will go on to successful NHL careers. Both had comparable stats in the recent World Junior Championships. The final unfortunate scenario is many Islander fans, who are looking for any excuse to roast GM Mike Milbury, whether it be warranted or not, see Parise going at #17 to the New Jersey Devils as a sign that the Islanders made a mistake. New Jersey, the defending Stanley Cup champions, traded up to draft Zach and we all know Devil's GM Lou Lamoriello and head of scouting David Conte are always right, right? Well not always. And forget who drafted Parise. It would have been nice to see him go to another team not in the tri-state area. But there's nothing one can do about it now. Parise was going to go within the next few picks to some other team anyway. Let's see what Nilsson can do for us down the line. So when you get tired of the Rick DiPietro debate and whether the Islanders should have selected him #1 overall in the 2000 draft, you can always turn the page and wait to see what happens in the next great Islanders draft debate: who will be better? Robert Nilsson? Or Zach Parise? We will wait and see.
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1998-2006 Tom Mascioli
