CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

The Canucks have been infamous for their poor draft picks.

And, one of their bad selections was Petr Nedved – who they took 2^nd overall in the 1990 draft.

Nedved had a high-scoring rookie season – 1989-90 – with Seattle, tallying 65 goals and 80 assists, in 71 games.

A few years after the Canucks had drafted the young Czech, Vancouver GM Pat Quinn admitted that Nedved had been the Thunderbirds’ third line centre, and had thus always played against rival third lines, and that in Major Junior, the talent level falls off drastically after the first two lines.

Why Vancouver hadn’t realized this before they had selected him, is another question.

So, who were these first and second line centres, who put up more points than Nedved’s 145, in 71 games?

And, which NHL teams did they go on to?

And how many goals did they score in the NHL?

They were Glen Goodall and Victor Gervais.

And neither would play a single NHL game.

Goodall scored 76 goals, and had 87 assists, in 67 games. And, Gervais had 64 goals, and 96 assists, in 69 games – with the Thunderbirds.

Goodhall had been drafted 206^th overall, by Detroit in 1988.

The 5’8” 170 pounder would play a couple of seasons in the AHL/IHL, before being demoted to the ECHL and moving to Europe to play in the German leagues. He is currently playing for Ingolstadt in the DEL.

The 5’9” 170 pound Gervais was drafted 187^th overall in 1989, and would bounce back and forth between the AHL/IHL and the ECHL, before also going to Germany.

He must have had some grit, as he played 16 games in the QSMHL in 2003-04, with Link Gaetz as a teammate.