Funny you should mention poaching of players ... many of my Canadian friends/relatives have always mentioned how the NHL poaches Canadian players and the US teams buy their Stanley Cups. I've seen the NHL do it with the Europeans too. I don't really argue because, for the most part, it's true and it's a side of professional sports that I really don't like. It has even spilled into the Olympics and such where they allow professionals to play for their countries and they blur the lines of citizenship to allow certain players to play for certain countries, but maybe all that was done just to break the Russian domination of Olympic hockey, eh? So maybe it's not such a bad thing ... but it's funny how the US never really competed internationally until they allowed professionals in.
You know, I thought the #1 pick that year was Modano, but the spelling was off and I was too lazy to look it up. Yeah, he was a great player/leader. Did you know he was a local boy from around Detroit? Grew up around Westland/Livonia areas and played some juniors at Compuware ... I was glad he was able to come home and play for the Wings before he retired and glad he got his name on the Cup with Dallas. Wish the Stars would have stayed in Minnesota as the 'North Stars' though, I always liked that team.
Oh yeah .... favorite KHL team = Traktor
