This decade had its share of great drafts and absolute stinkers. We thought this would be a good time to take a look back at the draft picks that helped build the contenders into the teams they are today—and helped doom the teams that are in the basement. We went back and chose the very best player that was picked in each position of the 1st round.
Predictably, there were a ton of great options for players that were selected #1 overall. But did you know that some positions in the 1st round might be cursed? Alexander Radulov is the only player selected #15 overall to do anything this decade; and everyone in Nashville knows how that turned out. Hell, Jeff Tambellini might be the best guy picked #27 all decade. Yes, really.
Another aspect of the list to point out is the way the lists lean towards the earlier part of the decade. It’s hard to pick out players from the most recent drafts who are playing in Juniors or even the AHL with tons of potential—but still are rated solely on that potential. In a few years, some of those guys will be stars in the league while others will still be toiling in the AHL. Until then, we’ll talk about guys that have already proven they can play in the NHL.
1. #1 Overall: Alexander Ovechkin (’04)
Honorable Mentions: Ilya Kovalchuk (’01), Rick Nash (’02), Marc-Andre Fleury (’03), Sidney Crosby (’05), Erik Johnson (’06), Patrick Kane (’07), Steven Stamkos (’08), John Tavares (’09)
2. Evgeni Malkin (’04)
Honorable Mentions: Dany Heatley (’00), Jason Spezza (’01), Eric Staal (’03), Bobby Ryan (’05), Jordan Staal (’06), Drew Doughty (’08), Victor Hedman (’09)
Who would you rather have? Toews, Bogosian or Bouwmeester?
3. Jonathan Toews (’06)
Honorable Mentions: Marian Gaborik (’00), Jay Bouwmeester (’02), Nathan Horton (’03), Jack Johnson (’05), Zach Bogosian (’08), Matt Duchene (’09)
4. Nicklas Backstrom (’06)
Honorable Mentions: Stephen Weiss (’01), Andrew Ladd (’04), Evander Kane (’09)
5. Phil Kessel (’06)
Honorable Mentions: Thomas Vanek (’03), Carey Price (’05), Luke Schenn (’08)
6. Mikko Koivu (’01)
Honorable Mentions: Scott Hartnell (’00), Milan Michalek (’03), Derick Brassard (’06), Same Gagner (’07)
7. Ryan Suter (’03)
Honorable Mentions: Mike Komisarek (’01), Joffrey Lupul (’02), Kyle Okposo (’06), Jakub Voracek (’07)
8. Devin Setoguchi (’05)
Honorable Mentions: Pascal Leclaire (’01), Braydon Coburn (’03)
9. Dion Phaneuf (’03)
Honorable Mention: Tuomo Ruutu (’01)
10. Michael Frolik (’06)
Honorable Mentions: Andrei Kostitsyn (’03)
11. Anze Kopitar (’05)
Honorable Mentions: Keith Ballard (’02), Jeff Carter (’03)
12. Tyler Myers (’08)
Honorable Mentions: Marc Staal (’05), Bryan Little (’06)
13. Alexander Semin (’02)
Honorable Mentions: Ales Hemsky (’01), Dustin Brown (’03), Drew Stafford (’04)
14. Brent Seabrook (’03)
Honorable Mentions:Chuck Kobasew (’01), Christopher Higgins (’02)
15. Alexander Radulov (’04)
Honorable Mentions: No one yet. Good luck Erik Karlsson!
16. Steve Bernier (’03)
Honorable Mention: RJ Umberger (’01)
17. Zach Parise (’03)
Honorable Mentions: Martin Hanzal (’05)
Not too bad for a guy picked towards the end of the 1st round
18. Brooks Orpik (’00)
Honorable Mentions:Denis Grebeshkov (’02), Chris Stewart (’06)
19. Ryan Getzlaf (’03)
Honorable Mentions:Shaone Morrisonn (’01)
20. Alexander Frolov (’00)
Honorable Mentions:Brent Burns (’03), Travis Zajac (’04), Michael Del Zotto (’08)
21. Anton Volchenkov (’00)
Honorable Mentions: Colby Armstrong (’01), Wojtek Wolski (’04)
22. Claude Giroux (’06)
Honorable Mentions: Sean Bergenheim (’02)
23. Ryan Kesler (’03)
Honorable Mentions: Tim Gleason (’01), Simeon Varlamov (’06)
24. Mike Richards (’03),
Honorable Mentions: Brad Boyes (‘oo), Lukas Krajicek (’01), TJ Oshie (’05)
25. Cam Ward (’02)
Honorable Mentions: Steve Ott (’00), Andrew Cogliano (’05), Patrik Berglund (’06)
26. David Perron (’07)
Honorable Mentions:Brian Sutherby (’00)
27. Jeff Tambellini (’03),
Honorable Mention: Jeff Woywitka (’01)
28. Corey Perry (’03)
Honorable Mention: Justin Williams (’00)
29. Mike Green (’04)
Honorable Mention: Niklas Kronwall (’00)
30. David Steckel (’01)
Honorable Mention:Jeff Taffe (’00)
Oh, and the worst pick of the decade? Can anyone come up with someone worse than Alexandr Svitov at #3 overall?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Meg: You have no idea how badly I wanted to put Doughty over Malkin… but yeah, that might take a while.
SensBlog: All of those are good choices… it would be hard to argue with any of your picks. I went with Malkin because you can make the argument that he’s the 2nd best player in the league right now. I can’t do that with Eric Staal.
The Michalek/Koivu thing was the hardest decision of the entire list–both are very good, underrated players. I’m glad to see that Michalek is starting to get his due in Ottawa.
As far as Kostitsyn/Frolik… I just wonder if the people’s perceptions would be different if Frolik was the one in Montreal and Kostitsyn was the one in Florida. Very close though…
Interesting list. I might argue for a couple of changes:
#2 Eric Staal over Malkin
#6 Michalek over Koivu
#10 Kostitsyn over Frolik
I compiled a list of how well teams drafted by calculating the points of all their draft picks at: http://www.sensblog.com/NHL-Team-Drafting-Records.html
Top 3 teams:
Sens, Devils, Avalanche.
Dammit, why did Doughty have to be the same number pick as Malkin. Just not fair!