Top 10 first round picks per team (cut off 2002) Part 1

[Form and Substance]

This is a list of what these players have accomplished thus far NOT an evaluation of actual talent, though when the score was close, bias often played a part. The list is naturaly mostly comprised of retired players. Feedback would be nice. Part II will come tomorrow with the rest of the teams.

Anaheim (will list only 5)
1.Paul Kariya (4th overall, 1993)
2.Oleg Tverdovsky (2nd overall, 1994)
3.Stanislav Chistov (5th overall, 2001)
4.Ruslan Salei (9th overall, 1996)
5.Chad Kilger (4th overall, 1995)

Atlanta (will list only 3)
1.Kari Lehtonen (2nd overall, 2002)
2.Ilya Kovalchuk (1st overall, 2001)
3.Dany Heatley (2nd overall, 2000)

Boston
1.Ray Bourque (8th overall, 1979)
2.Joe Thornton (1st overall, 1997)
3.Terry O'reilly (14th overall, 1971)
4.Reggie Leach (3rd overall, 1970)
5.Segei Samsonov (8th overall, 1997)
6.Craig Janney (13th overall, 1986)
7.Glen Wesley (3rd overall, 1987)
8.Barry Pedersen (18th overall, 1980)
9.Glen Murray (18th overall, 1991)
10.Bryan Smolinski (21st overall, 1990)

Buffalo
1.Gilbert Perreault (1st overall, 1970)
2.Pierre Turgeon (1st overall, 1987)
3.Dave Andreychuk (16th overall, 1982)
4.Phil Housley (6th overall, 1982)
5.Rick Martin (5th overall, 1971)
6.Bob Sauvé (17th overall, 1975)
7.Tom Barasso (5th overall, 1983)
8.Calle Johansson (14th overall, 1985)
9.Mike Ramsey (11th overall, 1980)
10.Martin Biron (16th overall, 1995)

Calgary
1.Al MacInnis (15th overall, 1981)
2.Gary Roberts (12th overall, 1984)
3.Dan Quinn (13th overall, 1983)
4.Derek Morris (13th overall, 1996)
5.Trevor Kidd (11th overall, 1990)
6.Cory Stillman (6th overall, 1992)
7.Chuck Kobasew (14th overall, 2001)
8.Oleg Saprykin (9th overall, 1999)
9.Denis Gauthier (20th overall, 1995)
10.Rico Fata (6th overall, 1998)

Carolina/Hartford
1.Chris Pronger (2nd overall, 1993)
2.Ron Francis (4th overall, 1981)
3.Jeff O'Neill (5th overall, 1994)
4.Bobby Holik (10th overall, 1989)
5.JS Giguere (13th overall 1995)
6.Sylvain Cote (11th overall, 1984)
7.Scott Young (11th overall, 1986)
8.Sylvain Turgeon (2nd overall, 1983)
9.Dana Murzyn (5th overall, 1985)
10.Dave Tanabe (16th overall, 1999)

Chicago
1.Denis Savard (3rd overall, 1980)
2.Jeremy Roenick (8th overall, 1988)
3.Doug Wilson (6th overall 1977)
4.Real Cloutier (9th overall 1976)
5.Tuomo Ruutu (13th overall, 2001)
6.Phil Russell (13th overall 1972)
7.Ed Olczyk (3rd overall, 1984)
8.Tony Tanti (12th overall, 1981)
9.Dave Manson (11th overall, 1985)
10.Darcy Rota (13th overall 1973)

Click to read more...

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

EDIT: Oops, forgot about the whole '1st Rounders only' thing...

Edmonton
1. Grant Fuhr (8th overall, 1981)
2. Paul Coffey (6th overall, 1980)
3. Kevin Lowe (21st overall, 1979)
4. Ryan Smyth (6th overall, 1994)
5. Jason Arnott (7th overall, 1993)
6. Martin Rucinsky (20th overall, 1991)
7. Jeff Beukeboom (19th overall, 1983)
8. Ales Hemsky (13th overall, 2001)
9. Tyler Wright (12 overall, 1991)
10. Boyd Devereaux (6th overall, 1996)

 

[Legionnaire]

As a Kings fan, I object to this thread.

 

[Legionnaire]

Edmonton
1. Mark Messier (48th overall, 1979)
2. Grant Fuhr (8th overall, 1981)
3. Paul Coffey (6th overall, 1980)
4. Jari Kurri (69th overall, 1980)
5. Kevin Lowe (21st overall, 1979)
6. Esa Tikkanen (80th overall, 1983)
7. Glenn Anderson (69th overall, 1979)
8. Ryan Smyth (6th overall, 1994)
9. Miroslav Satan (111th overall, 1993)
10a. Kirk Maltby (65th overall, 1992)
10b. Jason Arnott (7th overall, 1993)

First round picks.

 

[Captain Conservative]

Heres my list for the Washington Capitals


1.Scott Stevens
2.Sergei Gonchar
3.Olaf Kolzig
4.Mike Gartner
5.Jason Allison
6.Nick Boynton
7.Brendan Witt
8.Kevin Hatcher
9.Bobby Carpenter
10.Ryan Walter

 

[King'sPawn]

Kings
Jim Fox: 10th, 1980
Larry Murphy: 4th, 1980
Jimmy Carson: 2nd, 1986
Olli Jokinen: 3rd, 1997
Darryl Sydor: 7th, 1990
Martin Gelinas: 7th, 1988
Alexander Frolov: 20th, 2000

Please don't make me list anymore. It would begin to hurt.

 

[Epsilon]

This is a list of what these players have accomplished thus far NOT an evaluation of actual talent, though when the score was close, bias often played a part. The list is naturaly mostly comprised of retired players. Feedback would be nice.

Okay

Atlanta (will list only 3)
1.Kari Lehtonen (2nd overall, 2002)
2.Ilya Kovalchuk (1st overall, 2001)
3.Dany Heatley (2nd overall, 2000)

And you've contradicted yourself right off the bat. A guy with four games NHL experience has accomplished more than the reigning goal scoring champ and #2 scorer, and a guy with an 89 point season 2 years ago?

Carolina/Hartford
1.Chris Pronger (2nd overall, 1993)
2.Ron Francis (4th overall, 1981)

Talented but often-injured defenseman with a few monster seasons over one of the most consistent point producers of the last quarter century? Here's a basic tip: Hall of Famers before non-Hall of Famers on lists like these.

 

[BlueBleeder]

For the Blues

1. Bernie Federko - 7th - 76
2. Rod Brind'Amour - 9th - 88
3. Wayne Babych - 3rd - 78
4. Perry Turnbull - 2nd - 79
5. Wayne Merrick - 9th - 72
6. Barret Jackman - 17th - 99
7. Gene Carr - 4th - 71
8. Jason Marshall - 9th - 89
9. Jocelyn Lemiux - 10th - 86
10. Marty Reasoner - 14th - 96

 

[shadoz19]

Detroit

1. Steve Yzerman (4th Overall)
2. Keith Primeau (3rd Overall)
3. Martin Lapointe (10th Overall)
4. Jiri Fischer (25th Overall)
5. Niklas Kronwall (29th Overall)

Pretty sad.

 

[DownFromNJ]

Devils

1. Martin Brodeur (20th overall)
2. Scott Niedermayer (3rd overall)
3. Kirk Muller (2nd overall)
4. Brendan Shanahan (2nd overall)
5. Sean Burke (24th overall)
6. Ken Daneyko (18th overall)
7. Bill Guerin (5th overall)
8. Scott Gomez (27th overall)
9. Brian Rolston (11th overall)
10. Petr Sykora (18th overall)

Pretty good list off the top of my head.

 

[Nielson81]

Here are the Habs...they were better in the 2nd round in almost every draft.

Lalfeur 1st overall
Bob Gainey 8th overall
Saku Koivu 21st overall
Shayne Corson 8th overall
Andrew Cassels 17th overall
Mark Napier 10th overall
Petr Svoboda 5th overall
Pierre Mondou 15th overall
Turner Stevenson 12th overall
Jason Ward 11th overall

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Detroit

1. Steve Yzerman (4th Overall)
2. Keith Primeau (3rd Overall)
3. Martin Lapointe (10th Overall)
4. Jiri Fischer (25th Overall)
5. Niklas Kronwall (29th Overall)

Pretty sad.

Don't you think Pete Mahovlich should be a little higher than Niklas Kronwall? Maybe Marcel Dionne? Joe Murphy? Adam Graves? Mike Sillinger? Jim Rutherford?

 

[trentmccleary]

Cool, we've picked 12 in that time span (--> M.Chouinard and Klepis out).

Ottawa:

1) Marian Hossa (12th, 1997)
2) Alexei Yashin (2nd, 1992)
3) Martin Havlat (26th, 1999)
4) Jason Spezza (2nd, 2001)
5) Radek Bonk (3rd, 1994)
6) Chris Phillips (1st, 1996)
7) Bryan Berard (1st, 1995)
8) Anton Volchenkov (21st, 2000)
9) Alexandre Daigle (1st, 1993)
10) Tim Gleason (23rd, 2001)

 

[shadoz19]

Don't you think Pete Mahovlich should be a little higher than Niklas Kronwall? Maybe Marcel Dionne? Joe Murphy? Adam Graves? Mike Sillinger? Jim Rutherford?

Graves was a 2nd rounder. I only went back 20 years, so cross off Dionne, Mahovlich, and Rutherford. Sillinger has never done much. I probably should have put Murphy on the list though.

 

[turnbuckle*]

Detroit

1. Steve Yzerman (4th Overall)
2. Keith Primeau (3rd Overall)
3. Martin Lapointe (10th Overall)
4. Jiri Fischer (25th Overall)
5. Niklas Kronwall (29th Overall)

Pretty sad.

Pretty sad if you have little knowledge of the team pre 1990 other than Yzerman.

Here's my Wings' top 10 first round picks:

Dionne
Yzerman
Primeau
Foligno
Craven
Rutherford
Fischer
R. Lapointe
Murphy
Burr

Here are some of the guys that didn't make my top 10:



McCourt
Blaisdell
Huber
Fedyk


None of them were slugs. McCourt retired early, but left with stats around .90 points per game, and that was mostly attained before the high scoring of the mid 1980's. Blaisdell was a solid third/fourth liner in the league for a number of years.


Obviously not as impressive a list as Montreal's for instance: (Lafleur, Shutt, Gainey, Koivu, Tremblay, Risebrough, Mondou, Napier, Cassells, Svoboda, Corson), but not horrible.

 

[Psycho Papa Joe]

Here are the Habs...they were better in the 2nd round in almost every draft.

Lalfeur 1st overall
Bob Gainey 8th overall
Saku Koivu 21st overall
Shayne Corson 8th overall
Andrew Cassels 17th overall
Mark Napier 10th overall
Petr Svoboda 5th overall
Pierre Mondou 15th overall
Turner Stevenson 12th overall
Jason Ward 11th overall

You have some notable exceptions:

1. 1971 1 Guy Lafleur

2. 1973 8 Bob Gainey

3. 1972 4 Steve Shutt

4. 1993 21 Saku Koivu

5. 1984 8 Shayne Corson

6. 1974 12 Mario Tremblay

7. 1984 5 Petr Svoboda

8. 1987 17 Andrew Cassels

9. 1975 15 Pierre Mondou

10. 1969 1 Rejean Houle

11. 1981 7 Mark Hunter

12. 1974 7 Doug Risebrough

13. 1977 10 Mark Napier

14. 1969 2 Marc Tardif

15. 1972 14 John Van Boxmeer

16. 1972 6 Michel Larocque

17. 1990 12 Turner Stevenson

18. 1974 10 Rick Chartraw

19. 1980 1 Doug Wickenheiser

20. 1997 11 Jason Ward

I rated 20 of them since I wanted to show just where Ward fits into the picture and hopefully he falls out of the top 20 if some of the prospects pan out.

 

[Form and Substance]

And you've contradicted yourself right off the bat. A guy with four games NHL experience has accomplished more than the reigning goal scoring champ and #2 scorer, and a guy with an 89 point season 2 years ago?

The Atlanta list was reversed when I compiled the final rankings. It was a mistake but I didn't really feel like changing it because it'll look like that anyway in 5 years.

Talented but often-injured defenseman with a few monster seasons over one of the most consistent point producers of the last quarter century? Here's a basic tip: Hall of Famers before non-Hall of Famers on lists like these.

Who's to say Pronger won't be a hall-of-famer? I'm sorry but I'll stick to my guns on this one.

 

[Nielson81]

Don't know how I missed Steve Shutt

 

[craig1]

Pittsburgh:

1.) Mario Lemieux (1st overall 1984)
2.) Jaromir Jagr (5th overall 1990)
3.) Pierre Larouche (8th overall 1974)
4.) Markus Naslund (16th overall 1991)
5.) Doug Bodger (9th overall 1984)

 

[trentmccleary]

Pittsburgh:

1.) Mario Lemieux (1st overall 1984)
2.) Jaromir Jagr (5th overall 1990)
3.) Pierre Larouche (8th overall 1974)
4.) Markus Naslund (16th overall 1991)
5.) Doug Bodger (9th overall 1984)

B.Stoughton
C.Simpson
M.Bullard
M.Straka
Z.Zalapski?

 

[craig1]

B.Stoughton
C.Simpson
M.Bullard
M.Straka
Z.Zalapski?

Not in the top 5 IMO. Zalapski comes in at 6 behind Bodger. Bodger was the steady d-man that so many teams crave for years in the NHL. Zalapski, while a great offensive threat, had defensive shortcomings that incline me to move Bodger ahead of him. Who amonsgt Lemieux, Jagr, Nasland, LaRouche and Bodger would you drop for any of the ones you mentioned?

 

[trentmccleary]

Not in the top 5 IMO. Zalapski comes in at 6 behind Bodger. Bodger was the steady d-man that so many teams crave for years in the NHL. Zalapski, while a great offensive threat, had defensive shortcomings that incline me to move Bodger ahead of him. Who amonsgt Lemieux, Jagr, Nasland, LaRouche and Bodger would you drop for any of the ones you mentioned?

The thread says "Top 10". You don't have to drop anyone.

 

[bland]

Kings
Jim Fox: 10th, 1980
Larry Murphy: 4th, 1980
Jimmy Carson: 2nd, 1986
Olli Jokinen: 3rd, 1997
Darryl Sydor: 7th, 1990
Martin Gelinas: 7th, 1988
Alexander Frolov: 20th, 2000

Please don't make me list anymore. It would begin to hurt.

Hopefully not including Jay Wells is an oversight.

I can't wait until the "worst 1st rounders" thread starts:

Doug Smith (two picks before Ron freakin' Francis, and then we drafted Dean Kennedy in the 2nd round, one pick ahead of Chris Chelios), Craig Redmond (not bad), Craig Duncanson and Dan Gratton (9th and 10th in 1985), and Wayne McBean. All of this mess was in a pathetic seven year span.

 

[Le Golie]

New York Islanders - possibly the best drafting team ever. To bad many of these players enjoyed success elsewhere.

1 Denis Potvin 1973 1st overall
2 Mike Bossy 1977 15th overall
3 Pat Lafontaine 1983 3rd overall
4 Todd Bertuzzi 1993 23rd overall
5 Roberto Luongo 1997 4th overall
6 Wade Redden 1995 2nd overall
7 Brent Sutter 1980 15th overall
8 Darius Kasparitus 1992 5th overall
9 Eric Brewer 1997 5th overall
10 Rick Dipietro 2000 1st overall

 

[kmad]

1. Cam Neely - 9th overall, 1983
2. Trevor Linden - 2nd overall, 1988
3. Rick Vaive - 5th overall, 1979
4. Mattias Ohlund - 13th overall, 1994
5. Garth Butcher - 10th overall, 1981
6. Petr Nedved - 2nd overall, 1990
7. Don Lever - 3rd overall, 1972
8. Daniel Sedin - 2nd overall, 1999
9. Henrik Sedin - 3rd overall, 1999
10. Dale Tallon - 2nd overall, 1970

This is just in terms of NHL success... if I were answering this as a Canuck fan, Neely and Tallon - two representative pinnacles of Canuck mediocrity and failure - would surely not be on the list.

Interesting side note: The Canucks have never selected first overall.