Alexandre Daigle, traded to Philadelphia by Ottawa this past weekend for Vaclav “Vinny” Prospal, Pat Falloon, and Philadelphia’s 1998 second round choice, will finally be allowed to live like any other NHL player. He is no longer the walking testament to his franchise’s darkest days, he is no longer “The Franchise” that never was, he is no longer the guy of whom much more is expected. In short, he gets to stop being a disappointment.
Daigle was the obvious choice for first overall pick in the deep 1993 draft. He had drawn comparisons to Mario Lemieux in junior hockey as the star player for the QMJHL Victoriaville Tigres with his combination of blazing speed, scoring touch around the net, and decent size. Daigle was an even more perfect choice for the horrific Ottawa Senators, coming off a 10-70-4 inaugural season. He was strikingly handsome, enthusiastic, charismatic, and obliging with media and fans. And, most importantly, Daigle was bilingual (sort of -- his English improved rapidly and dramatically in his first season in Ottawa), a must-have quality for a team with about a 30% francophone target audience. He was a perfect gift for the overburdened Senators PR department. Daigle got his own television special, mention and attention from the Prime Minister, and a record-breaking five year, $12.5 million contract from GM Randy Sexton.
In hindsight, Daigle was set up to fail. The Senators were too horrid in too many ways for one 18-year-old to make much of an impact, let alone perform a complete salvation. This is not to say that it’s not Daigle’s fault, but instead that there’s enough blame to go around -- the team was incompetent both on the ice and in the front office, and anyone will tell you that any competitor starts to get fried after too many losses. Daigle did all right for a rookie on an awful team, notching 51 points (20-31-51) for a team which finished 14-61-9, good for second in team scoring and sixth in rookie points, but teammate and fellow rookie Alexei Yashin did better in both categories, albeit without the pressure of expectations. Daigle improved his numbers during the lockout-shortened 1995 season (16-21-37 prorated becomes 28-37-65), but had a miserable 1995-6 campaign -- 5 goals for 3 Senators coaches before breaking his arm and missing the final 32 games of the season.
The Senators as a team tried to right the ship with the hiring of GM Pierre Gauthier and coach Jacques Martin midway through the 1995-6 season. The team -- and Daigle (26-25-51) -- responded with their first ever playoff berth the next season. But this season, things were not going as well, and Daigle, as ever, went how the team went. South. The Senators decided to unload their albatross, Randy Sexton’s most expensive legacy, as soon as they could find a team willing to pick up Daigle’s still considerable salary.
