Excluding DeAngelo doesn't make sense to me, but I have pointed out quite a few times that Yzerman did not have the best track record in drafting defenseman prior to coming here.
Yeah, that's the biggest learning process he went through at Tampa. Hopefully, he is now the result-maker with us.
2011: (only 1 defenceman drafted)
5th round - Nikita Nesterov (good call for low-round, panned almost, now in KHL)
2012:
1st round - Slater Koekkoek on #10 overall (bust, Top5 best guys Murray,Rielly,Lindholm,Dumba,Trouba went just in front of this pick)
2nd round - Dylan Blujus (bust)
6th round - Jake Dotchin (kind of bust, AHL def currently)
2013:
No defenceman drafted, skipping Seth Jones #3 overall for Jonathan Drouin. Then trading Drouin for Sergachev to fix a hole created by himself.
2014:
1st round, #19 overall, Tony DeAngelo. Kind of panning out now at Rangers, but looked like a bust and traded away.
2nd round, #35 overall, Dominik Masin (bust)
2nd round, #57 overall, Jonathan MacLeod (bust)
4th round, Ben Thomas (bust)
2015:
2nd round, #44 overall, Matthew Spencer (bust)
5th round, Ryan Zuhlsdorf (bust)
2016:
2nd round, #37 overall, Libor Hajek (ok defenceman, but traded to Rangers, for McDonagh)
6th round, Oleg Sosunov (bust)
2017:
1st round, #14 overall, Cal Foote (seems ok, but too early to tell)
6th round, Niklaus Perbix (?)
2018: - too early to tell.
Skipping Seth Jones in the biggest mistake ever. After that, he has been hunting those RhDs like every season. Tampa defence would be unbelieveable with Hedman and Jones.
Now that RhD thing looks like it's already at good shape at Detroit, thanks to
Hronek, making that
Seider-pick instead of any "drouin", and thanks to development of
Lindström.
Tuomisto looks also promising, but that credit goes mostly Tyler Wright (Yzerman trusted for the leaving guy, and not walking over, kind of a good GM move).
If these are our future D at right side, 50% of credit goes to Yzerman doing the right things, and rest goes to Ken Holland. and 50% of these GM credits go to Håkan Andersson. Quite sure Lindström and Hronek were his findings.
Just one thing, all these RhDs are European findings. Who's the scouting Director at Europe? Yes -
Håkan Andersson. Germany, Sweden, Finland, Czech. No wonder Stevie showed door for many of our North-American scouts. That side has been lacking eye for too long.