Drafted Into Obscurity < 1990 Calgary Flames >

Many organizations get snake-bitten by their decision-makers lack of foresight on player potential and skill brake down. Failed successive draft years can handcuff organizations for years and even decades. Therefore, drafting underage juniors into the highest level of hockey in the world, the NHL, can be considered an advanced skill and even an art. To find those players who are diamonds in the rough no matter where they play their hockey in the world and develop them wisely is what sets great teams apart from the wanna-be’s.  Draft disasters separate the quality from obscurity.

The Calgary Flames team found themselves with this same problem, coming off their one and only Stanley Cup championship in the spring of 1989. The Flames veteran-laden lineup was changing over quickly with ownership creating an unsettling atmosphere for coaches and players alike. By the end of the 1990 season gone were the heady days of Flames legends and key contributors Lanny McDonald, Joe Mullen and Hakan Loob. Coach Terry Crisp and GM Cliff Fletcher were also on their way out as the Flames franchise made major wholesale changes.

Nicolas Perreault

Of course the Flames management looked to the draft to fill some of the gaping holes left by those legendary players. Rebuilding began in earnest at the 1990 draft as the Flames shored up their goaltending by taking the consensus number one ranked overall major junior net minder that year, Trevor Kidd. What transpired next for Calgary in the second round of the 1990 draft continues to baffle the minds of hockey experts and pundits alike. For their first of three picks in the second round, Flames management engineered a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins to trade one of their leaders and future HOF sniper, Joe Mullen, for an unknown, off-the-board, Ontario tier two defenseman and true prospect by the name of Nicolas Perreault at #26.

Mullen went on to be an instrumental player in Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992 and eventually became the second highest scoring American player in NHL history while being inducted into the HOF in 2000.Perreault was coming off an extremely successful season as the Central Ontario Junior "A" Hockey League's top defenseman and rookie-of-the-year, leading his Hawkesbury Hawks to become regular season and playoff champions, while signing a letter-of-intent with the CCHA’s Michigan State Spartans.

A true long-shot prospect, Perreault would never patrol an NHL blue line and became lost in the annals of hockey lore forever. After four unspectacular years in college at Michigan State, Perreault only played a paltry 84 minor league professional hockey games over two years with Saint John of the AHL and Toledo of the ECHL and in less than 10 years he was out of hockey for good.

Viitakoski with the
 1993 Calgary Flames

But this disastrous draft tale for the Calgary Flames does not end here.  Continuing on further into the second round of the 1990 draft, the Flames looked off-continent to Finland for their second pick at #32 as they selected huge left winger Vesa Viitakoski. The 6’3” 209 lb Viitakoski was a promising young scorer who put some flashy numbers in the Finnish junior league and World juniors from 1988 to 1990 -and 1991. Viitakoski appeared to have the physical presence NHL GM’s were always yearning for and the big Finnish winger decided to continue his seasoning back home in Finland until the end of the 1993 season.

Viitakoski with the

1994 Saint John Flames

The Flames roster was a revolving -door on the bottom two lines which gave Viitakoski a legitimate shot at making the Flames straight out of camp in fall of 1993. Left wing was pretty bare with only Gary Roberts cemented in at the first line spot. Viitakoski debuted in the NHL, scoring three points in eight games, while spending most of the 1993-1994 campaign with the Flames AHL farm team in Saint John. While with Saint John, Viitakoski was a point a game player, putting up 28 goals and 67 points in 67 games to finish third in team scoring.

It looked like 1994-1995 was going to be Viitakoski’s year to really crack the Calgary line-up but only saw action in only 10 NHL games, scoring 3 points and not impressing Flames management enough for more call-up time. Viitakoski’s production slipped a little in Saint John as he finished with 43 points but a lack-luster performance and little improvement had Flames management souring on him.

Viitakoski in 2010 with Ilves

By 1996, Viitatoski saw the last of his NHL action ever and was promptly traded to the Colorado Avalanche for Paxton Schulte. Now back in the AHL with Cornwall, Viitakoski never got a shot in Colorado and was back in Finland after a one year stint in Sweden by 1998. He continued playing top level pro hockey in his homeland of Finland with a brief second stop in Sweden up until recently in 2010, totaling a 20 year career of top level professional hockey.  

For their third pick in the second round of the 1990 NHL draft, the Calgary Flames went off the board again, mystifing scouts and experts, selecting Cornell d-man Etienne Belzile at #41. In his four years of college Belzile was an outstanding stay-at-home, shut-down defenceman for the Big Red, averaging four points a season. The Flames seemed to be adding depth to their backline with another hard-rock hitter but Belzile never played an NHL game. Fans and critics must have been questioning why the Flames scouting staff were so high on this player. At the time, Belzile was concentrating on a medical degree and preparing for a potential future in an area that had nothing to do with hockey - neurosurgery!!! But once again Calgary scouts and management had other ideas and went with a very risky selection. By the time Belize graduated from Cornell three years later, the defenceman was out of hockey and on his way to becoming a doctor of medicine, fading into hockey obscurity forever.