Best Drafts Ever

[StefanW]

After listening to Bryan Murray's interview where he discusses picking up Getzlaf and Perry with fairly late selections in the 2003 draft, which led to winning the cup a few years later, I went back through previous drafts to see if anyone had better draft days than that. It seemed like fun, considering draft day is coming up on Sunday and hope springs eternal even picking at 17.

The absolute best draft I found was the Edmonton Oilers in the 1979 draft. They were dead last, which meant picking at 21 in the first round. From the worst draft position in the league they ended up getting Kevin Lowe in the first round with pick #21 (I love the fact that they started with a top end D), they had no pick in the 2nd, picked Mark Messier in the 3rd round (pick #48, obtained in a trade), and picked Glenn Anderson in the 4th round (pick #69, also obtained in a trade). The other guys they drafted did not amount to anything, but holy crap! Talk about turning a strong team into a juggernaut in one afternoon.

Does anyone else have any favourite draft years, or any other examples of teams literally turning everything around in one draft?

Edit: Add in that this was the first draft for the Oiler franchise in the NHL.

Click to read more...

 

[trentmccleary]

Draft Num. Round Player Pos Drafted From GP G A Pts PIM
1989 Entry 11 1 Mike Sillinger C Regina Pats [WHL] 1049 240 308 548 644
1989 Entry 32 2 Bob Boughner D Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds [OHL] 630 15 57 72 1382
1989 Entry 53 3 Nicklas Lidstrom D Vasteras IK [SEL] 1564 264 878 1142 514
1989 Entry 74 4 Sergei Fedorov C CSKA Moscow [Russia] 1248 483 696 1179 839
11989 Entry 116 6 Dallas Drake R Northern Michigan University [WCHA] 1009 177 300 477 885
1989 Entry 221 11 Vladimir Konstantinov D CSKA Moscow [Russia] 446 47 128 175 838

 

[Icelevel]

Round Overall pick Player Position Nationality College/junior/club team (league)
1 6 Mika Zibanejad Centre *Sweden Djurgårdens IF Hockey (SEL)
1 21 (from Nashville) Stefan Noesen Right Wing *United States Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
1 24 (from Detroit) Matthew Puempel Left Wing *Canada Peterborough Petes (OHL)
2 61 (from Boston) Shane Prince Left Wing *United States Ottawa 67's (OHL)
3 66 Traded for Nikita Filatov
4 96 Jean-Gabriel Pageau Centre *Canada Gatineau Olympiques (QMJHL)
5 126 Fredrik Claesson Defense *Sweden Djurgårdens IF Hockey (SEL)
6 156 Darren Kramer Centre *Canada Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
6 171 (from Phoenix) Max McCormick Left Wing *United States Sioux City Musketeers (USHL)
7 186 Jordan Fransoo Defense *Canada Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)
7 204 (from Pittsburgh) Ryan Dzingel Centre *United States Lincoln Stars (USHL)


Why not Lowry instead of trading for filatov!? Very upset. Veeeerry upset.

 

[R2010]

Round Overall pick Player Position Nationality College/junior/club team (league)
1 6 Mika Zibanejad Centre *Sweden Djurgårdens IF Hockey (SEL)
1 21 (from Nashville) Stefan Noesen Right Wing *United States Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
1 24 (from Detroit) Matthew Puempel Left Wing *Canada Peterborough Petes (OHL)
2 61 (from Boston) Shane Prince Left Wing *United States Ottawa 67's (OHL)
3 66 Traded for Nikita Filatov
4 96 Jean-Gabriel Pageau Centre *Canada Gatineau Olympiques (QMJHL)
5 126 Fredrik Claesson Defense *Sweden Djurgårdens IF Hockey (SEL)
6 156 Darren Kramer Centre *Canada Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
6 171 (from Phoenix) Max McCormick Left Wing *United States Sioux City Musketeers (USHL)
7 186 Jordan Fransoo Defense *Canada Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)
7 204 (from Pittsburgh) Ryan Dzingel Centre *United States Lincoln Stars (USHL)

I think 5 years from now the 2011 draft is going to look like a very strong draft.

 

[BonkTastic]

Draft Num. Round Player Pos Drafted From GP G A Pts PIM
1989 Entry 11 1 Mike Sillinger C Regina Pats [WHL] 1049 240 308 548 644
1989 Entry 32 2 Bob Boughner D Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds [OHL] 630 15 57 72 1382
1989 Entry 53 3 Nicklas Lidstrom D Vasteras IK [SEL] 1564 264 878 1142 514
1989 Entry 74 4 Sergei Fedorov C CSKA Moscow [Russia] 1248 483 696 1179 839
11989 Entry 116 6 Dallas Drake R Northern Michigan University [WCHA] 1009 177 300 477 885
1989 Entry 221 11 Vladimir Konstantinov D CSKA Moscow [Russia] 446 47 128 175 838

When your 1st rounder is the 4th best player you took in a draft, and that 1st rounder is Mike Sillinger, that's a hell of a draft. The fact that the Red Wings got Lidstrom, Fedorov, AND Konstantinov in that draft, and none of them were 1st or 2nd rounders, is ridiculous.

There will never be another draft as good as Detroit's '89 draft. They built a dynasty on that one single draft year, and it boggles the mind just how much better they could have been had Konstantinov not suffered his tragic accident.

 

[Milan the God*]

Draft Num. Round Player Pos Drafted From GP G A Pts PIM
1989 Entry 11 1 Mike Sillinger C Regina Pats [WHL] 1049 240 308 548 644
1989 Entry 32 2 Bob Boughner D Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds [OHL] 630 15 57 72 1382
1989 Entry 53 3 Nicklas Lidstrom D Vasteras IK [SEL] 1564 264 878 1142 514
1989 Entry 74 4 Sergei Fedorov C CSKA Moscow [Russia] 1248 483 696 1179 839
11989 Entry 116 6 Dallas Drake R Northern Michigan University [WCHA] 1009 177 300 477 885
1989 Entry 221 11 Vladimir Konstantinov D CSKA Moscow [Russia] 446 47 128 175 838

whoa. That is some crazy, crazy drafting. Wow.

 

[Milan the God*]

*Not that the others aren't good (well, the Sens one is a bit premature), but that Red Wings one is stacked. Wasn't aware they got so much of their talent from that one draft. I knew about the Oilers one, which is also crazy, but I was just shocked about the Wings one.

 

[CanadianHockey]

Fall of the wall lead to that Detroit draft.

 

[trentmccleary]

2001 Entry 2 1 Jason Spezza C Windsor Spitfires [OHL] 611 228 393 621 388
2001 Entry 23 1 Tim Gleason D Windsor Spitfires [OHL] 599 15 112 127 581
2001 Entry 99 4 Ray Emery G Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds [OHL] 228 0 4 4 44
2001 Entry 127 4 Christoph Schubert D Munich Barons [DEL] 315 25 47 72 263
2001 Entry 193 6 Brooks Laich C Moose Jaw Warriors [WHL] 566 117 165 282 243
2001 Entry 223 7 Brandon Bochenski R Lincoln Stars [USHL] 156 28 40 68 54

I think this still stands as our best entry.

 

[BonkTastic]

Fall of the wall lead to that Detroit draft.

Which is exactly why we'll never see another draft like the '89 draft.

Nobody knew what they hell they were doing with the Soviet Bloc guys. No one had really scouted there (compared to how much they scouted the more "established" player pools/ junior leagues. Believe it or not, Fedorov was the 1st Russian taken in that entire draft. Vancouver got Pavel Bure in the 6th round. NOBODY was blowing a top draft pick on a Russian, because there was so much uncertainty.

We'll never see drafts like we did in '89 & '90 ever again. When you look at those two drafts, you'll notice that not a single Russian was taken before the 3rd round.
The '90 draft was a lot like the '89 one was...
- Viacheslav Kozlov (DET, 3rd round)
- Zhamnov (WIN, 4th)
- Sergei Zubov (NYR, 5th)
- Andrei Kovalenko (QUE, 8th)
- Valeri Zelepukin (NJ, 11th round)


It's crazy to think of the talent that was being drafted in the early 90's that nobody was paying any attention to.

... Man, early 90's was admittedly an awesome time to be a Hockey fan. The draft was so all-over-the-place, your 1st rounder had a much bigger chance of falling flat on his face, and you saw more late-round picks become superstars.