Can We Now Call Yakupov the Worst Forward Ever Drafted First Overall?

Roof Daddy

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Apr 1, 2008
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That's a fair point, but remember there was a big "fail for Nail" campaign that year. That's maybe an unfair comparison because of the difference in (social) media compared to Daigle's era, but even though Yak was the lesser regarded prospect he probably had more actual hype coming into the league.

Even with the difference in media I would still say Daigle was far more hyped. Consider the fact that he was the reason we have a draft lottery now. Teams were losing on purpose in pretty obvious ways to try and land 1st overall (not to the degree they did in 84 for Lemieux, but not far off). 2 years later, we have a draft lottery. Also consider the quality of that draft and who teams had to pass on to take Daigle 1st (and he was the slam dunk 1st overall) - Pronger (unanimous #2 selection), Kariya (went 4, destroyed college hockey as a draft eligible). Just a little better than Yak vs a steady Eddie vanilla Dman with injury concerns vs a guy who was injured all year vs a big D who needs to improve skating and ferocity vs a dynamic D who also missed the whole year. I still don't know how Forsberg dropped considering he was in the conversation for top 5 pre draft, but got passed by that pile of mediocrity (save for Reilly and maybe Galchenyuk).

The hype for Daigle was real. For Nail, there was certainly hype, but not to the point of franchise changing player.
 

Price is Wright

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But to Nail's credit, he did finish fifth in Calder voting in '13. At his best, he showed much more ability than Lawton or Stefan ever did.

That's what wins it out for me. I know some people are all about full career output but Yakupov once looked like it was acceptable for him to be selected first overall. Lawton and Stefan and Wickenheiser never did. Even if that level of play never returned, it was there once.

He also led the Oilers in goals in that lockout year. It doesn't mean much, but that's at least what you want to hear out of a first overall pick. Yak did that once. Who knows how his career would have looked if Krueger stayed coach?
 

The Winter Soldier

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Apr 4, 2011
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Gally and Yakupov were on that same Sarnia team, though with Gally he was hurt his draft year. Came back but did not play too well. It was a draft looking for a marque player. Ryan Murray was the other that was considered going 1OA. But he was not the prototype #1. More solid rather than star like for a player.
 

Mr Positive

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Nov 20, 2013
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Colorado is a good fit for Nail, so although he might be trending to be the worst first overall pick (in the modern era anyway), he still has time to claw to a respectable level.

I know Colorado is a bad team, but they are talented. Yakupov had a stretch with the Oilers where he really was turning his game around, while he was playing with Derek Roy. The team was a lost cause at that point having just fired Eakins for sinking the team yet again, and so Nelson had bottomless patience with Yakupov and could let him play through his issues (in retrospect, Eakins should have done this with Yakupov from day 1). Yakupov's downfall the next season was losing Roy, as well as major injuries to our centers, and even then Yak was finding traction playing with McDavid (the duo getting called "Conyak"). McLellan was likely trying to accelerate the team to a winning posture as well, so he had less patience with Yak than Nelson did.

In Colorado, Yak has decent centers to play with. Not only that, but the team still has low expectations, so they will probably give Yak more leash than St.Louis could afford to give him. If things click for the Avs, they might even be a competitive team as the season goes on, and Yak could find his place in helping the team win games.
 

oobga

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Aug 1, 2003
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You mean like when the Art Ross winner scored 94 points?

Daigle was a disappointment, but was a legit NHL player for at least a few seasons.

Daigle was kind of the opposite personality of Yak wasn't he? A very talented guy that didn't actually like hockey that much, his career drooped along with his commitment to putting in the work to compete at the highest level.

Yak is 100% about hockey and full of passion for the game but he just can't put together his game enough to get coaches to trust him out on the ice, which has slowly eroded his offensive skills and confidence.

Never know with guys like Yak. One day, after years of finally growing up and facing some harsh realities, maybe something finally clicks in his head and he becomes a decent NHLer. Just really hard for any team to keep him for too long hoping it's gonna happen for them.
 

GlitchMarner

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All in all Alexandre Daigle was worse, he dominated junior and then completely faltered at the NHL level. Yak didn't dominate the same way coming in, and many consider that year a weak year anyways. Daigle put up a couple 50 point seasons, but that was in a very offensive time in the NHL, not like todays low offense era.

Daigle scored 51 points in the first and last seasons of the dead puck era ('97 and '04).

The scoring rate in 2004 was even lower than it is now. Yak has never scored 40 points in a season. He's a worse player but isn't a bigger bust because Daigle was hyped much more and better players were drafted right after him.

The goals-per-game average in 2004 was 2.46, making it the lowest scoring season of the last 50 years.
 
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Johnnybegood13

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Jul 11, 2003
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You don't go off the board that much when you draft 1st OA. It was either Yak or Murray.
That was the perfect draft to deal the pick and draft from needs but knowing Edmonton's wonderful management staff they probably would have traded down 2 or 3 spots just to take Reinhart anyway. ;)
 

rboomercat90

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Mar 24, 2013
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He's going to be a major disappointment but his pre-draft hype was unreal. I still think he got ruined to an extent in Edmonton, he had a lot of talent but needed better guidance.

I don't think it would have mattered where he went. Eakins was a terrible coach who certainly didn't help him but he's had problems with most of his coaches wherever he's been. He wants to play the game the way he wants to play it and that hasn't and isn't going to work for him.
 

rboomercat90

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Lol @ the title

Yakupov is definitely the worst #1 pick ever. Stefan had a few decent seasons and so did Daigle. Yak has been putrid since his impressive rookie year.

The guy has absolutely ZERO hockey IQ. He has a good shot but can never get into a good position. He's fast but doesn't know where to go. He works hard on the ice but doesn't work smart.

I thought he had a chance at redemption in the 15/16 season when he started off at a PPG pace the first 13 games but McDavid's injury ended that. I never understood why McLellan never put Yak with McDavid again once he came back. I thought Yak had a good spot with McDavid because McDavid could actually help Yak utilize his skillset.

McClellan didn't put him back with McDavid because he too was fed up with him. He was trying to change the culture in Edmonton and get the players to play a team game. Yakupov was only interested in doing what he wanted to do. Mclellan actually kicked him off the ice in practice towards the end of his last season here because Yakupov wouldn't work on the things he wanted to. When that got out I knew the problems were more player related than team related with him. He wasn't going to reward his behaviour with a spot on McDavid's line. That would have gone against everything he was trying to do for the team in his first year.
 

GlitchMarner

Typical malevolent, devious & vile Maple Leafs fan
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There's no real argument that Daigle was a worse player than Yakupov.

Yak's peak is better than that of Stefan, Lawton and Wickenheiser, but he really has nothing besides one pretty good season.

At best, he's right in the running with those three for worst forward selected first overall in NHL history. If he can put together a couple of DECENT seasons (where he scores 40 or so points and isn't awful defensively), it should be enough to put him ahead of these three jabronis, but I don't know if that's going to happen.
 

rboomercat90

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The mouthguard assassin Slewfootin Matt Tkachuk? nah I think the Oilers did good with Puljujarvi, he hasn't played a full season in the league yet and you're ******** on him. Weak! but hey, you do you.
Really you're making us Leafs fans look foolish when you mock other teams draft picks. Take a look at Luke Schenn and how poor he turned out

Thread is filled with people blaming the Oilers for rushing Yakupov and people calling Puljijarvi a bust because the Oilers didn't rush him. Which one is it?
 

Ryan Michaels

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Mar 21, 2017
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Tough to say.

Crappy team drafts high again, rushes prospect that should have spent more time developing, people now call said prospect a terrible player without looking at all factors involved.

Sure... there's loser mentality and then there's this, I agree he was improperly developed but if you have the skill to go first overall and can't hit 40 points that's on the player. We can absolutely call him a terrible player this is beyond absurd.
 

Price is Wright

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I don't think it would have mattered where he went. Eakins was a terrible coach who certainly didn't help him but he's had problems with most of his coaches wherever he's been. He wants to play the game the way he wants to play it and that hasn't and isn't going to work for him.

Had he somehow fell to fourth I think he would be a good NHL player right now. The Islanders would have been a good spot for him. I like how they've been handling Ho Sang.
 

Ryan Michaels

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Mar 21, 2017
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Thread is filled with people blaming the Oilers for rushing Yakupov and people calling Puljijarvi a bust because the Oilers didn't rush him. Which one is it?

any reason to throw shade at the Oilers will do.

I don't enjoy responding to these but they're so damn annoying.

First of all this is not what people are saying. They are calling Puljijarvi a bust because he had an underwhelming season compared to many of his contemporaries, get it? Good. For the record I don't consider him a bust but this bares stating.

The second order of business is that you can rush one prospect and wait too long on another and it can be bad either way for player development because...say it together class...players are different. Again that's not what people are saying but if they were it could be a totally valid not made up thing.

And lastly, just about every fanbase on here employs a victim complex to a degree but none worse than you guys, the league, the refs, all other fanbases, everyone stays up late at night thinking about how were going to get...The Oilers? We have to invent reasons to throw shade at them in a ****ing Yakapov thread? Now I've heard everything.

Anyway got to run. Off to assemble my pornhub playlist of Oiler fans throwing jerseys on the ice, McDavid's injury, and Yakapov lowlights which I will share in the groupchat the 30 other fanbases all share.
 

PoutineSp00nZ

Electricity is really just organized lightning.
Jul 21, 2009
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Can we call this this the worst thread title ever?

Dipietro ended up bringing negative value to his team due to that horrendous contact. Stefan, Daigle, Lawton... There have been lots of awful #1 overall picks through the years.

Lawton was a bit before my time, but the other guys all had positive impacts, even if they were underwhelming. Dipietro would have been a stud but was derailed by injuries, only reason he became such an albatross was because that lunatic Wang gave him that insane contract.

Stefan became a solid player, Daigle was a good second liner for a time. None of those guys reached the hype, but could contribute.

Yakupov is a massive bust . . . first overalls should at least be decent NHL players, which all the other guys you listed were. Yakupov is salty garbage.
 

nabob

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Aug 3, 2005
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I don't enjoy responding to these but they're so damn annoying.

First of all this is not what people are saying. They are calling Puljijarvi a bust because he had an underwhelming season compared to many of his contemporaries, get it? Good. For the record I don't consider him a bust but this bares stating.

The second order of business is that you can rush one prospect and wait too long on another and it can be bad either way for player development because...say it together class...players are different. Again that's not what people are saying but if they were it could be a totally valid not made up thing.

And lastly, just about every fanbase on here employs a victim complex to a degree but none worse than you guys, the league, the refs, all other fanbases, everyone stays up late at night thinking about how were going to get...The Oilers? We have to invent reasons to throw shade at them in a ****ing Yakapov thread? Now I've heard everything.

Anyway got to run. Off to assemble my pornhub playlist of Oiler fans throwing jerseys on the ice, McDavid's injury, and Yakapov lowlights which I will share in the groupchat the 30 other fanbases all share.

pretty sure theres already a ongoing thread or mention of all of those things in various active threads. No need to create more just to pleasure yourself.
 

Oddbob

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Jan 21, 2016
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You mean like when the Art Ross winner scored 94 points?

Daigle was a disappointment, but was a legit NHL player for at least a few seasons.

Umm Daigle began his career in 93 or so, which was very high scoring, so not sure what you are on about. You mean Martin St. Louis, in 03-04, long after Daigle was considered a washout.
 

Oddbob

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Jan 21, 2016
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Daigle scored 51 points in the first and last seasons of the dead puck era ('97 and '04).

The scoring rate in 2004 was even lower than it is now. Yak has never scored 40 points in a season. He's a worse player but isn't a bigger bust because Daigle was hyped much more and better players were drafted right after him.

The goals-per-game average in 2004 was 2.46, making it the lowest scoring season of the last 50 years.

Yeah, but Yakupov is only 23, by 2004, Daigle was already 10-11 years into his career. Yakupov could easily outdo him yet.

Also, Daigle didn't have to deal with all the social media with fans able to spit out their displeasure with extreme speed. I think there is far more pressure now than in '94.
 

linusandvarlamov

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As an Avs fan, I'm praying he finds a little magic playing with some our top players at the beginning of the season. I do think he fits Colorado's mould more than he did St. Louis's.

Not expecting much but I'll be rooting for him to turn things around though.

It certainly would be entertaining to see him have a career high in points this year. :laugh:
 

HisIceness

This is Hurricanes Hockey
Sep 16, 2010
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That's a fair point, but remember there was a big "fail for Nail" campaign that year. That's maybe an unfair comparison because of the difference in (social) media compared to Daigle's era, but even though Yak was the lesser regarded prospect he probably had more actual hype coming into the league.

I'm pretty sure several of us on the Canes board were sporting Fail for Nail avatars and user titles that year. I also remember Columbus fans being pissed beyond belief that Edmonton won that lottery.

Those were the days.
 

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