from Andrew Duffy of the Ottawa Citizen,

As a draft-eligible junior in Sweden, he was so little regarded that he was passed over by every team in the NHL. It wasn’t until he was 22 years old and a forward in the Swedish Elite League that the Ottawa Senators plucked him out of the sixth round, 133rd overall. He was — like everyone else chosen so late in the 1994 draft — a gamble, a long shot, a hunch.

“We liked what we saw, but he was a little undersized,” remembers then Senators GM Randy Sexton. “It was no slam dunk that he was going to play in the NHL.”

Alfredsson will retire Thursday with more NHL goals (444) and more points (1,157) than anyone else selected in that year’s draft.

Even more improbably, this quiet, private man from Gothenburg, Sweden will retire as the most beloved hockey player in the modern history of the Ottawa Senators: an icon in a city still coming to terms with its Alfie obsession.

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