TBC: Inexact Science

Everyone in hockey seems to understand that today's game requires a bigger commitment to drafting and developing players thanks to the salary cap. Teams can't just spend their way out of mistakes any longer, so having that next great player ready to step into the lineup has become paramount to winning in today's NHL. While there certainly have been can't-miss prospects in each draft, knowing how to identify those players is something no one has perfected despite years of NHL Entry Drafts. In saying that, Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years in NHL History, written by Evan Dowbiggin and Bruce Downbiggin and published by ECW Press. Inexact Science isn't looking at the science of drafting, though. Instead, Evan and Bruce Dowbiggin focus on six key draft years that changed the hockey based on the players available with a focus on how teams arrived at their draft slot in those six NHL Entry Drafts.

Before we get into the book, let's meet the authors as we start with Evan Dowbiggin. From his ECW biography, Evan "is a sports statistical researcher who runs TSN's Twitter stats page and has been a part of Sportscentre's behind-the-scenes team for over a decade. A University of Lethbridge grad, he writes about sports, studies history, and continues to build an extensive music collection. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Hannah, and their dog and cat." Inexact Science is Evan's first book, co-written with his father and long-time author Bruce Dowbiggin, and Evan and his wife have since added a baby daughter, Charlotte, to their home since the book was released! Despite his living and working in Toronto, Evan is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan as well.

Bruce Dowbiggin is likely more well-known to readers. From his ECW biography, Bruce "is a bestselling author of over ten books, including Cap in Hand, and Personal Account. He is also a regular contributor to SiriusXM's Canada Talks, Channel 167, and a two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster. He lives in Calgary, Alberta." Those Gemini Awards came when Dowbiggin worked for CBC, and he's also been a writer for the Calgary Herald and The Globe and Mail. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English and Drama, and he has written The Meaning of Puck and Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend which were reviewed here on HBIC.

When one looks at the first-overall selections from all the NHL Entry Drafts that have been held, there are more misses than sure-fire hits when it comes to superstadrom in the NHL. The likes of Mario Lemieux, Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and Guy Lafleur can be countered with names like Alexandre Daigle, Patrik Stefan, Joe Murphy, and Gord Kluzak. No one is saying that those players weren't good hockey players, but they simply didn't have the impact as the four men listed at the start of the previous sentence. Inexact Science chose six NHL Entry Drafts where the player selected first-overall had a massive effect on the team that chose him and the NHL itself while filling in the story of how that team was able to secure the first-overall pick.

The years that the authors focus on in Inexact Science are 1971, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1991, and 2005, but for various different reasons. For instance, there were two very good players who would go on to be superstars in 1971 who would be drafted, and the question for the Montreal Canadiens was whether they'd choose Guy Lafleur or Marcel Dionne. We get a full recap of how the Canadiens used the drafts and some of their leverage to obtain incredibly-gifted players, but this was the first time that two players emerged who legitimately would be a sure-fire superstar. The Dowbiggins go a good job in showing how Montreal came to its conclusion despite some calling for them to select Dionne over Lafleur.

The other years covered in detail in the covers of Inexact Science saw the discussion over Waybe Gretzky not being drafted in 1979 and how that affected the NHL teams, Mario Lemieux's dazzling junior career leading into the 1984 draft and beyond, the changing of the landscape in 1989 with Russia, Czechoslovakia, and other countries opening their doors to the NHL, how Eric Lindros changed the NHL landscape in 1991 with his play and decisions, and how the 2005 draft lottery changed the fortunes for both Crosby and the NHL. Inexact Science does a great job at painting the background of these players and teams heading into the draft while adding context to everything that happened after the players had their names called.

As I read through Inexact Science, there were details that I didn't know when it came to a player being drafted or a team acquiring a pick to choose a player. One such detail is in the passage below from Inexact Science that reads,

"More pivotal in shaping the future of Les Glorieux, however, was a 1983-84 trade that was consummated before the draft with John Ferguson, Savard's former teammate in Montreal and also his boss when he suited up for the Jets over his last two seasons as a player. The transaction saw defenceman Robert Picard shipped to the Jets for what turned into goalie Patrick Roy, a third-round pick who paid huge dividends as perhaps the greatest big-game goalie in modern NHL history."

As you'll find out in Inexact Science, the Jets were nearly the landing place for Wayne Gretzky as his WHA days came to an end, and now the Dowbiggins reveal that Patrick Roy could have been a Winnipeg Jets goaltender as well? If there is one team whose draft day strategy needed to change, it seems that answer is the original Jets who missed out on two players who may have altered the franchise's history in dramatic fashion!

As an aside, reading Inexact Science kept bringing me back to Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. In that movie, Pitt, playing Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, tells head scout Grady Fuson about how inexact the science of scouting is from his perspective.
Reading some of the passages in Inexact Science will make you realize that for all the experience and ability some have in choosing players in a draft, there's still a great number of variables that scouts cannot control when it comes to the future of those players. Inexact Science doesn't delve deep into these variables, but the players who they identify as both superstars and coulda-beens make you realize that talent alone at the junior level doesn't guarantee any success beyond the number at which a player is drafted.

Overall, Inexact Science is a solid look at six draft years that feature playeras who changed the NHL after they were drafted. While those stories are covered very well, the lead-up in how teams were able to obtain the first-overall pick along stories of players who were drafted much lower than they should have been are examined as well. As a result, the years chosen show that while some teams made the no-brainer pick, other teams should have done a little more homework to find the best player still available. Because of these stories and some fun facts along the way, Inexact Science absolutely deserves the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Inexact Science is available at book stores and libraries, and the material contained within the covers is pretty easy to read. There is a choice word or two when the authors use direct quotes from people, but those are few and far between. I'll leave this one up to parents to decide, teens and older should find Inexact Science as an enjoyable read about six years of NHL drafts!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!