The Wolf Pack’s first few teams were by and large veteran groups.
The New York Ranger organization’s focus was not necessarily on developing young prospects, but one draftee that they were able to season on the Wolf Pack’s charter 1997-98 team was dynamic center Marc Savard.A fourth-round draft pick by the Rangers in 1995 and a two-time Ontario Hockey League scoring champion, Savard enjoyed an excellent first pro year in ‘97-’98, from beginning to end. He won the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award as the top rookie in Ranger training camp and earned 28 NHL games with the big club. In the AHL, he led the Wolf Pack club in both regular-season and playoff points and helped the Pack to the Conference Finals. The Ottawa native spent all but nine games of the following season in the big time with New York, and had another excellent playoff with the Wolf Pack. That was it for his time with the Rangers, though, as Savard was part of some wheeling and dealing that Ranger management did at the 1999 NHL Draft in Boston. He was swapped to Calgary in a deal that brought Jan Hlavac, and a first-round draft pick that became Jamie Lundmark, to the Blueshirts. That began a tour for Savard around the NHL map that came full circle this summer, when he signed with the Boston Bruins and found himself back in New England. His first two seasons in Calgary were excellent, as he totaled 45 goals and 118 points with the Flames. He got into only 56 games in 2001-02, though, and his production slipped to 14 goals and 33 points. Ten games into the next season, Calgary dealt him to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for Ruslan Zainullin. That would turn out to be a good deal for Atlanta, as Zainullin has yet to play in North America and Savard would have two-and-a-half good seasons with the Thrashers. Despite playing in only 57 of Atlanta’s 82 games in that 2002-03 season, Savard would finish third on the Thrashers’ club in assists and fourth in points, with 16-31-47. He got into only 45 games the next year, but tied for third-most points on the squad, totaling 19-33-52. After spending the lockout season of 2004-05 playing in Switzerland, Savard returned to Atlanta and had his best year yet. He would play in all 82 of the Thrashers’ games in 2005-06 and break out for 97 points, 28 goals and 69 assists. That assist total was good for tops on the Thrasher team and a tie for third in the NHL, and Savard finished second Ilya Kovalchuk on the club in points, and ninth overall in the league. Savard parlayed that great year into a free agent contract with the Bruins and a chance to be part of a new era in Boston. From General Manager Peter Chiarelli to Head Coach Dave Lewis to high-profile players like Zdeno Chara and Savard, much of the face of the Bruins’ organization has been re-tooled. After a 2-5-1 start, the new group picked things up considerably. Savard was certainly doing his part, leading the club in scoring as the calendar wound toward the Christmas holiday. |
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