Alexandre Daigle
|
|
Alexandre Daigle (born February 7, 1975 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who plays for the National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild. He was drafted First Overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft.
Daigle was considered one of the most promising prospects of his generation. In junior hockey he had set new records and some had gone so far as to compare him to Wayne Gretzky. The Ottawa Senators were even accused of deliberately losing late in the season in order to draft him. When the expansion team did finish last they immediately took Daigle and gave him that largest starting salary in league history, which lead to the introduction of a rookie salary cap a few years later.
Daigle never measured up to his potential, however. He was outshone by Russian centre Alexei Yashin, and was frequently criticized for lack of effort and motivation. After several disappointing seasons, the fans and management in Ottawa turned against him and he was traded. He continued to play poorly and quit the league in order to pursue a career in Hollywood. When this did not work out he decided to return to hockey, signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2002-03 season. The next season he moved to the Wild. Today he is a solid but unspectacular player who has put up decent number for the Wild while earning a reasonable salary. In fact, Daigle's best NHL season to date came in 2003-04 where he racked up 51 points in 78 games to lead the team in scoring.
The number two pick in the 1993 draft was Chris Pronger who has gone on to be one of the top defencemen in the NHL over the last decade.
When drafted, Daigle made the comment "I'm glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two.", to which Pronger replied "We'll see about that."