Best Drafting Teams in the NHL

[Habs Halifax]

I've been working at this for a while and was curious to see who are the best drafting teams in the NHL.

- This does not factor in any trades. It's strict straight up drafting and ability to produce NHL players.

- I have not double checked the games played or points yet. If you see errors, let me know and I will update. I plan on double checking at some point this summer before the new season starts.

- I provided Multiple ranges to evaluate in the last 12 years. Started in 08, might take it further when I have time.

- The scoring formula took me a while to come up with and not sure how people will receive it. The point is to dilute the games played and points generated by the picks the teams actually had. For example, the Caps are the only team in the NHL who have not had a top 10 pick in the last 12 drafts but still managed to produce in terms of NHL games played and points. If you have any other ideas on creating another formula or adjusting mine, I'm all ears.

Click to read more...

 

[Dumais]

CBJ

Jarmo Kekäläinen (2013-Current)

Scott Howson + Doug MacLean (2000-2013)

EDIT: amazing how much they rushed/relied on rookies.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

So Dallas isn't good, but not as bad as everyone says.

 

[Hivemind]

Interesting method. Would like to see some more factors fed into the equation to account for teams that have hits with goalies and defensemen. Right now it can punish your pts/game metric. I expect the Caps would plummet in your method in the next few years, as even when their 2016-19 draftees start cracking the NHL ranks, it's going to be mostly D and some role player forwards.

 

[Superlative Soup]

Checks out for the Canucks.

 

[A4T1L6]

Very interesting, great work!!!

 

[895]

Liked just because your results confirm my biases.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

I expected the Oilers to be worse. Must be the 1st overall picks year after year pushing them up the rankings.

 

[Leafidelity]

Bless you, Brendan Shanahan. All I gotta say here.

 

[super6646]

Calgary from 2015 onward has been pretty good at drafting. Lot of good talent being pumped out:

2015: Andersson, Kylington (2nd rd), Mangiapane (6th rd)

2016: Tkachuk (1st rd), Dube, Parsons (2nd rd), Fox (3rd rd), Phillips (6th rd)

2017: Valimaki (1st rd)

2018: Petersson (6th rd)

2019: Too soon, but Pelletier (1st rd), Nikolayev (3rd rd), Wolf (7th rd) are my favourites

 

[HockeyAddict]

Yep... not that surprised to see the Habs near the bottom. Although, they are trending quite a bit higher in the lastest 4 year span... lets hope that continues.

 

[Bluenatic]

Appreciate the time and effort for this formula. Very interesting imo. Kudos OP

 

[Jumptheshark]

for me we need to split this into two different catagories

Best Drafting team and Best Team at Developing

some of the players who prop up other teams were traded before the hit their stride or when they changed teams suddenly got a lot better due to a different coaching and developing system

 

[oilers4life]

I expected the Oilers to be worse. Must be the 1st overall picks year after year pushing them up the rankings.

well thing one the rarest good things chia did was bring in keith gertkzy he has done a decent job finding talent

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Interesting concepts but I think there's something that doesn't add up with it.

For example, Detroit is ranked 24th from 2012-2019 but somehow rises to 21st when you include 08, 09, 10, and 11.

Their top 5 players drafted from 08 - 11 were Nyquist, Tatar, Jensen, Mrazek, and Jarnkrok. Sheahan is the only other one of note.

Compare that to 12-15, where their top 5 would be Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Janmark-Nylen. (Pending Svechnikov actually staying healthy long enough to get an opportunity)

I won't even compare 16-19 because there's still room for those guys to develop. That being said, while they were obviously drafting later in 08-11 than in 12-15, Larkin is clearly the best of either group by a wide margin, Mantha is probably the equivalent of Nyquist and Tatar, and AA, Bertuzzi, and MJN greatly outweigh Jensen, Mrazek, and Jarnkrok.

I think it'd make more sense that Detroit would be higher from 12-19 and lower from 08-19. 08-11 were pretty brutal drafting years for them. Definitely an interesting concept! Just giving my $.02. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

well thing one the rarest good things chia did was bring in keith gertkzy he has done a decent job finding talent

Those guys haven't really made the team yet.

 

[themelkman]

Sharks are always at the top no shocker

 

[SnowblindNYR]

The Rangers being last is misleading from 2013-2016 they had no first rounders and since then there hasn't been enough time for players to make the NHL.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Interesting concepts but I think there's something that doesn't add up with it.

For example, Detroit is ranked 24th from 2012-2019 but somehow rises to 21st when you include 08, 09, 10, and 11.

Their top 5 players drafted from 08 - 11 were Nyquist, Tatar, Jensen, Mrazek, and Jarnkrok. Sheahan is the only other one of note.

Compare that to 12-15, where their top 5 would be Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, and Janmark-Nylen. (Pending Svechnikov actually staying healthy long enough to get an opportunity)

I won't even compare 16-19 because there's still room for those guys to develop. That being said, while they were obviously drafting later in 08-11 than in 12-15, Larkin is clearly the best of either group by a wide margin, Mantha is probably the equivalent of Nyquist and Tatar, and AA, Bertuzzi, and MJN greatly outweigh Jensen, Mrazek, and Jarnkrok.

I think it'd make more sense that Detroit would be higher from 12-19 and lower from 08-19. 08-11 were pretty brutal drafting years for them. Definitely an interesting concept! Just giving my $.02. Thanks for sharing.

The formulas are equally applied to all teams. The only thing that could be off is the games played and points. I took my time adding each team up but I’m human. I believe it’s close to being accurate. I will double check each team again before the season starts

Wish I had auto stat updater! Anyone know how you can get this? I’d like to link it to the spreadsheet so it automatically updates

I know what your saying about the flames and how the rankings change cause I had the same feeling with the Habs on separate spans. You have to understand that when you change the spans, there are moving parts for all teams that factor in or factor out which will affect the rankings for each team

Got a few other ideas as well. I’ll share when they are completed.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Can fans from each team check the games played and points? Let me know if it’s checks out or if it’s off. Takes a almost a full day to check all teams on my own

 

[canuckslover10]

Well this was nice

 

[Habs Halifax]

Interesting method. Would like to see some more factors fed into the equation to account for teams that have hits with goalies and defensemen. Right now it can punish your pts/game metric. I expect the Caps would plummet in your method in the next few years, as even when their 2016-19 draftees start cracking the NHL ranks, it's going to be mostly D and some role player forwards.

Good point on the goalies. I’ll look into it.

Thought about D too but that evens out for all teams. Preds were not penalized for their stock pile of top 4D. It would be complicated to award different points to D vs F. Got any recommendations? I’ll factor it in next time I update it

Having the ability to get live updated stats would be nice

 

[lawrence]

awesome work. thanks for posting.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Washington can draft Russians because every Russian wants to play with Ovi & won't defect back to KHL because of that so Russians falling to them in the draft like Kuznetsov work out quite well for them.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Yep... not that surprised to see the Habs near the bottom. Although, they are trending quite a bit higher in the lastest 4 year span... lets hope that continues.

2016+ is where the Habs turned it around. The 08-11 span is a black hole. 12-15 are meh.. average at best