High draft picks who were drafted after their first year of eligibility.

[Gambitman]

While reading the thread on Brent Gretzky I read a comment that he was not drafted until his 3rd year of eligibility. This brought to mind the curious case of Mark Greig. I lived in Lethbridge in the late 80’s early 90’s and regularly attended Lethbridge Hurricanes games. They were a powerful all offense team that was fun to watch for a few years. (They had 6! players with 100 points in the same season.)

Anyways Mark Greig was one of the stars of this team and had a very good 88-89 season as a 19 year old. Surprisingly he went undrafted. He had a better season the next year and was taken 15th overall when he was 20. Has there ever been a player drafted higher as a 20 year old since the draft age was lowered to 18?

Click to read more...

 

[Staniowski]

Martin Rucinsky was drafted 20th overall in his 3rd year of eligibility in the '91 draft (the Lindros draft) after being one of the best players in the '91 WJC in Saskatoon.

Rucinsky was the same age as Bobby Holik and Robert Reichel, who were both drafted 2 years earlier than Rucinsky.

 

[kaiser matias]

David Perron. Eligible for the 2006 draft, he was playing tier 2 hockey in Quebec, with what looks like rather weak numbers (he had 69 points and was 3rd on his team, 21st overall; the leading scorer in the league had 115 points). Next year he plays in the QMJHL for a Lewiston team that makes the Memorial Cup, where he has 3 points in 4 games and goes into the draft the 10th ranked North American skater. Even so he is only selected 26th overall, with the Blues' third first round pick that year (they decided Lars Eller and Ian Cole were more valuable).

Of course, for Canucks fans, Perron went one spot after the Canucks selected Patrick White, one of the biggest busts in a Canucks drafting history full of busts.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

another european example: martin straka was eligible for the 1990 draft but wasn’t taken until 92, not super high—19th—but a first round pick.

he was actually born the same year as jagr.


i’m usually pretty confused about the eligibility of NCAA-committed players but dany heatley seems like he should have been eligible for the 1999 draft. he was older than brendl and connolly. he went second overall in 2000, of course.

 

[Sprague Cleghorn]

Thomas Vanek

 

[tony d]

Dany Heatley? Born in January 1981, would have made him eligible for 1999. He didn't get picked until 2000.

 

[Staniowski]

Dany Heatley? Born in January 1981, would have made him eligible for 1999. He didn't get picked until 2000.

I think this was due to particular draft rules pertaining to the NCAA.

 

[Michael Farkas]

There was like an opt-in thing for NCAA kids back then...the exact details elude me at the moment, but kids like Heatley and Parise went the "next" year...

Perhaps slightly more related to the thread, Tanner Pearson was passed up twice and then went in the first round to LA...

 

[SabbathBloodySabbath]

Darren Veitch
- not eligible at 18 years old in 1978
- passed over at 19 years old in 1979
- drafted 5th overall by WSH at 20 years old in 1980

 

[Claude The Fraud]

Ruslan Salei, #9, 1996

He was drafted at 21 years old, after a season with Las Vegas in the IHL.

IHL always had those Europeans prospect back then. Bonk, Dome, Sykora and Samsonov to name a few.

Also does somebody knows how Salei went from a player who was passed up on three times to a ninth overall pick, in one year? Was he so impressive with Vegas or was it bad scouting?

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Darius Kasparitis #5 in 1992, 2nd year of eligibility

What about guys like Mark Streit and Dimitry Kvartalnov, they were drafted in their mid 20s. Kvartalnov was 16th overall, Streit was a 9th rounder but had a nice career.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Ruslan Salei, #9, 1996

He was drafted at 21 years old, after a season with Las Vegas in the IHL.

IHL always had those Europeans prospect back then. Bonk, Dome, Sykora and Samsonov to name a few.

Also does somebody knows how Salei went from a player who was passed up on three times to a ninth overall pick, in one year? Was he so impressive with Vegas or was it bad scouting?

He played largely in Belarus and for some reason did not play in any WJC division. Maybe they had no program going on.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Darius Kasparitis #5 in 1992, 2nd year of eligibility

man, this sent me down a wormhole.

re: eligibility, what we know for sure is that there was the rule where an 18 year old player could only be drafted in the first three rounds. and we also know that there was the "bure exemption," where an 18 year old player who had played eleven professional games in each of two seasons could be drafted in later rounds.

slava kozlov was the first 18 year old soviet union player drafted in the first three rounds, in the 1990 draft. kozlov was a march '72 birthday, born the same week as brodeur and ten days before sydor (both 1990 first rounders out of the CHL). pre-car accident kozlov was a hugely hyped prospect and i've read one scout saying he was better than mogilny, fedorov, and bure at the same age. i take that with a grain of salt, but still, he almost certainly would have been a high first round pick a few years later.

alex kovalev (feb '73 birthday) was the first 18 year old soviet union-trained player taken in the first round, 15th overall in the 1991 draft. he was the only 18 year old soviet taken in that draft. the next soviet player taken was sandis ozolinsh, who was a year older. he was in the second round. ozo was a late birthday (august 1972) and his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are karl dykhuis (july '72) and derian hatcher (june '72), both first rounders in the 1990 draft.

in 1992, there were four 18 year old soviet union-trained players taken in the first round: yashin, nazarov, krivokrasov, and gonchar. plus kasparaitis, who was a year older than them. kaspar was an october '72 birthday, so theoretically an early birthday for his draft year. his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are falloon (september 22, 1972) and glen murray (november '72).

so i'm trying to figure out how it was that kaspar wasn't drafted in 1991. ozolinsh, kasparaitis, and alexei zhitnik were born a month apart. assuming the draft cut off has always been september 15, ozolinsh would be on one side of it, kaspar and zhitnik (who were born days apart in october 1972) would be on the other side.

all three were also on the 1991 WJC team and while i admittedly have no memory of any of them in that tournament, none of them seemed to distinguish himself. kaspar had 4 points, ozo had 3, zhitnik had 2. nobody made the all-tournament team. the top three defensemen seem to have been jiri slegr and dmitri yushkevich (both 1971 birthdays, slegr was drafted in 1990, yushkevich was taken later than both ozo and zhitnik in '91), and scott lachance (born the week after zhitnik and kaspar, was in his freshman year of college, 4th overall in the '91 draft—which raises a whole other set of questions about NCAA opt-in/eligibility).

so ozo was drafted in '91, a year after he theoretically should have been eligible. as of the 1991 draft, he had just finished his first pro season, with riga. he only would have been eligible for the first three rounds of the 1990 draft and being that kozlov was the only guy taken early it probably makes sense that ozo had to wait a year given that he hadn't even turned pro yet (as far as we know). jack ferreira, who was san jose's first GM, gloated that he was happy to pass over niedermayer with the #2 pick in '91 because he had ozo, who he said was just as good, lined up for the second round. and ozo wasn't even his first second round pick; he took ray whitney with the first pick of the second round and waited until mid-round to take ozo (eight pick of the second round, 30th overalll). his actions suggest that ozo was probably an under the radar pick at that point, or at least that among guys who had been passed over the year before, the undersized but WHL-proven whitney was more likely to have gotten picked by #30.

i do think it's weird that ozo would have been drafted in the second round and zhitnik in the fourth round, while kaspar doesn't go in the first three rounds, which is what he theoretically would have been eligible for. (kaspar had played 3 games with dynamo moscow at 16, and 1 game at 17. in his theoretical draft-eligible year of '91, he played 17 games, so he would only have been eligible in the first three rounds. zhitnik had played 31 games with kiev in his 17 year old season, and another 46 in his draft-eligible year. so he qualified for the bure exemption.) they don't seem especially far apart as prospects, especially given that a year later kaspar was touted as a potential first overall pick and was taken 5th overall.

there is the sense that zhitnik might have proven himself more, and by this point ozo too. but kaspar was challenging for minutes as a youngster on a legitimately good dynamo moscow team (filled with future NHLers semak, lomakin, zhamnov, kovalev, korolev, tatarinov, karpovtsev, bautin, and goalies trefilov and shtalenkov), while ozo and zhitnik's teams were weaker (riga only had irbe and a young just-draft-eligible zholtok, while kiev had alexander godynyuk and half a season of khristich before he went to washington).

what happened in the year between ozo and zhitnik getting drafted and kaspar going 5th overall?

all three guys stayed overseas and they had not especially dynamic domestic league seasons in '92, at least looking at stats. kaspar: 24 games, 9 points. zhitnik (now on the red army team): 36 games, 9 points. ozo: 30 games, 6 points. they all played in the WJC and kaspar was top defenseman, he and ozo each had 6 points, zhitnik had 2. kaspar and zhitnik both played on the olympic team, but seemingly in minor roles. ozo didn't (did he make it? did he decline because of latvian independence? he and zholtok both played on the WJC team, so i'm guessing it wasn't politics the way it was for irbe when he refused to play for the soviet union in the world championships a year earlier; plus by '92 latvia was pretty solidly independent while during the '91 WCs they were only four months removed from the attempted soviet coup)

so kaspar did probably raise his stock with his dominant WJC performance. but he really should have been taken in '91 shouldn't he? winnipeg took a different defenseman from dynamo moscow, dmitri filimonov, in the third round. he was a year older than kaspar but had never played in the WJC and unlike kaspar he wasn't getting pro games at 16, 17, or even 18 (tbf, filimonov did play on the '91 canada cup team that zhitnik was on but kaspar was not). also, at the under 18s, kaspar led defensemen in scoring with 7 points in 6 games. zhitnik had 4 points—ozo didn't wasn't on the team but zholtok was. he should have been a known commodity in '91.

all to say, i wonder if there was an eligibility thing we didn't know about with kaspar in '91. or, given that he was on dynamo moscow, maybe it was a contractual issue.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

man, this sent me down a wormhole.

re: eligibility, what we know for sure is that there was the rule where an 18 year old player could only be drafted in the first three rounds. and we also know that there was the "bure exemption," where an 18 year old player who had played eleven professional games in each of two seasons could be drafted in later rounds.

slava kozlov was the first 18 year old soviet union player drafted in the first three rounds, in the 1990 draft. kozlov was a march '72 birthday, born the same week as brodeur and ten days before sydor (both 1990 first rounders out of the CHL). pre-car accident kozlov was a hugely hyped prospect and i've read one scout saying he was better than mogilny, fedorov, and bure at the same age. i take that with a grain of salt, but still, he almost certainly would have been a high first round pick a few years later.

alex kovalev (feb '73 birthday) was the first 18 year old soviet union-trained player taken in the first round, 15th overall in the 1991 draft. he was the only 18 year old soviet taken in that draft. the next soviet player taken was sandis ozolinsh, who was a year older. he was in the second round. ozo was a late birthday (august 1972) and his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are karl dykhuis (july '72) and derian hatcher (june '72), both first rounders in the 1990 draft.

in 1992, there were four 18 year old soviet union-trained players taken in the first round: yashin, nazarov, krivokrasov, and gonchar. plus kasparaitis, who was a year older than them. kaspar was an october '72 birthday, so theoretically an early birthday for his draft year. his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are falloon (september 22, 1972) and glen murray (november '72).

so i'm trying to figure out how it was that kaspar wasn't drafted in 1991. ozolinsh, kasparaitis, and alexei zhitnik were born a month apart. assuming the draft cut off has always been september 15, ozolinsh would be on one side of it, kaspar and zhitnik (who were born days apart in october 1972) would be on the other side.

all three were also on the 1991 WJC team and while i admittedly have no memory of any of them in that tournament, none of them seemed to distinguish himself. kaspar had 4 points, ozo had 3, zhitnik had 2. nobody made the all-tournament team. the top three defensemen seem to have been jiri slegr and dmitri yushkevich (both 1971 birthdays, slegr was drafted in 1990, yushkevich was taken later than both ozo and zhitnik in '91), and scott lachance (born the week after zhitnik and kaspar, was in his freshman year of college, 4th overall in the '91 draft—which raises a whole other set of questions about NCAA opt-in/eligibility).

so ozo was drafted in '91, a year after he theoretically should have been eligible. as of the 1991 draft, he had just finished his first pro season, with riga. he only would have been eligible for the first three rounds of the 1990 draft and being that kozlov was the only guy taken early it probably makes sense that ozo had to wait a year given that he hadn't even turned pro yet (as far as we know). jack ferreira, who was san jose's first GM, gloated that he was happy to pass over niedermayer with the #2 pick in '91 because he had ozo, who he said was just as good, lined up for the second round. and ozo wasn't even his first second round pick; he took ray whitney with the first pick of the second round and waited until mid-round to take ozo (eight pick of the second round, 30th overalll). his actions suggest that ozo was probably an under the radar pick at that point, or at least that among guys who had been passed over the year before, the undersized but WHL-proven whitney was more likely to have gotten picked by #30.

i do think it's weird that ozo would have been drafted in the second round and zhitnik in the fourth round, while kaspar doesn't go in the first three rounds, which is what he theoretically would have been eligible for. (kaspar had played 3 games with dynamo moscow at 16, and 1 game at 17. in his theoretical draft-eligible year of '91, he played 17 games, so he would only have been eligible in the first three rounds. zhitnik had played 31 games with kiev in his 17 year old season, and another 46 in his draft-eligible year. so he qualified for the bure exemption.) they don't seem especially far apart as prospects, especially given that a year later kaspar was touted as a potential first overall pick and was taken 5th overall.

there is the sense that zhitnik might have proven himself more, and by this point ozo too. but kaspar was challenging for minutes as a youngster on a legitimately good dynamo moscow team (filled with future NHLers semak, lomakin, zhamnov, kovalev, korolev, tatarinov, karpovtsev, bautin, and goalies trefilov and shtalenkov), while ozo and zhitnik's teams were weaker (riga only had irbe and a young just-draft-eligible zholtok, while kiev had alexander godynyuk and half a season of khristich before he went to washington).

what happened in the year between ozo and zhitnik getting drafted and kaspar going 5th overall?

all three guys stayed overseas and they had not especially dynamic domestic league seasons in '92, at least looking at stats. kaspar: 24 games, 9 points. zhitnik (now on the red army team): 36 games, 9 points. ozo: 30 games, 6 points. they all played in the WJC and kaspar was top defenseman, he and ozo each had 6 points, zhitnik had 2. kaspar and zhitnik both played on the olympic team, but seemingly in minor roles. ozo didn't (did he make it? did he decline because of latvian independence? he and zholtok both played on the WJC team, so i'm guessing it wasn't politics the way it was for irbe when he refused to play for the soviet union in the world championships a year earlier; plus by '92 latvia was pretty solidly independent while during the '91 WCs they were only four months removed from the attempted soviet coup)

so kaspar did probably raise his stock with his dominant WJC performance. but he really should have been taken in '91 shouldn't he? winnipeg took a different defenseman from dynamo moscow, dmitri filimonov, in the third round. he was a year older than kaspar but had never played in the WJC and unlike kaspar he wasn't getting pro games at 16, 17, or even 18 (tbf, filimonov did play on the '91 canada cup team that zhitnik was on but kaspar was not). also, at the under 18s, kaspar led defensemen in scoring with 7 points in 6 games. zhitnik had 4 points—ozo didn't wasn't on the team but zholtok was. he should have been a known commodity in '91.

all to say, i wonder if there was an eligibility thing we didn't know about with kaspar in '91. or, given that he was on dynamo moscow, maybe it was a contractual issue.

Good post and I can't answer any of those questions but interested to see if anyone else can

 

[Staniowski]

man, this sent me down a wormhole.

re: eligibility, what we know for sure is that there was the rule where an 18 year old player could only be drafted in the first three rounds. and we also know that there was the "bure exemption," where an 18 year old player who had played eleven professional games in each of two seasons could be drafted in later rounds.

slava kozlov was the first 18 year old soviet union player drafted in the first three rounds, in the 1990 draft. kozlov was a march '72 birthday, born the same week as brodeur and ten days before sydor (both 1990 first rounders out of the CHL). pre-car accident kozlov was a hugely hyped prospect and i've read one scout saying he was better than mogilny, fedorov, and bure at the same age. i take that with a grain of salt, but still, he almost certainly would have been a high first round pick a few years later.

alex kovalev (feb '73 birthday) was the first 18 year old soviet union-trained player taken in the first round, 15th overall in the 1991 draft. he was the only 18 year old soviet taken in that draft. the next soviet player taken was sandis ozolinsh, who was a year older. he was in the second round. ozo was a late birthday (august 1972) and his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are karl dykhuis (july '72) and derian hatcher (june '72), both first rounders in the 1990 draft.

in 1992, there were four 18 year old soviet union-trained players taken in the first round: yashin, nazarov, krivokrasov, and gonchar. plus kasparaitis, who was a year older than them. kaspar was an october '72 birthday, so theoretically an early birthday for his draft year. his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are falloon (september 22, 1972) and glen murray (november '72).

so i'm trying to figure out how it was that kaspar wasn't drafted in 1991. ozolinsh, kasparaitis, and alexei zhitnik were born a month apart. assuming the draft cut off has always been september 15, ozolinsh would be on one side of it, kaspar and zhitnik (who were born days apart in october 1972) would be on the other side.

all three were also on the 1991 WJC team and while i admittedly have no memory of any of them in that tournament, none of them seemed to distinguish himself. kaspar had 4 points, ozo had 3, zhitnik had 2. nobody made the all-tournament team. the top three defensemen seem to have been jiri slegr and dmitri yushkevich (both 1971 birthdays, slegr was drafted in 1990, yushkevich was taken later than both ozo and zhitnik in '91), and scott lachance (born the week after zhitnik and kaspar, was in his freshman year of college, 4th overall in the '91 draft—which raises a whole other set of questions about NCAA opt-in/eligibility).

so ozo was drafted in '91, a year after he theoretically should have been eligible. as of the 1991 draft, he had just finished his first pro season, with riga. he only would have been eligible for the first three rounds of the 1990 draft and being that kozlov was the only guy taken early it probably makes sense that ozo had to wait a year given that he hadn't even turned pro yet (as far as we know). jack ferreira, who was san jose's first GM, gloated that he was happy to pass over niedermayer with the #2 pick in '91 because he had ozo, who he said was just as good, lined up for the second round. and ozo wasn't even his first second round pick; he took ray whitney with the first pick of the second round and waited until mid-round to take ozo (eight pick of the second round, 30th overalll). his actions suggest that ozo was probably an under the radar pick at that point, or at least that among guys who had been passed over the year before, the undersized but WHL-proven whitney was more likely to have gotten picked by #30.

i do think it's weird that ozo would have been drafted in the second round and zhitnik in the fourth round, while kaspar doesn't go in the first three rounds, which is what he theoretically would have been eligible for. (kaspar had played 3 games with dynamo moscow at 16, and 1 game at 17. in his theoretical draft-eligible year of '91, he played 17 games, so he would only have been eligible in the first three rounds. zhitnik had played 31 games with kiev in his 17 year old season, and another 46 in his draft-eligible year. so he qualified for the bure exemption.) they don't seem especially far apart as prospects, especially given that a year later kaspar was touted as a potential first overall pick and was taken 5th overall.

there is the sense that zhitnik might have proven himself more, and by this point ozo too. but kaspar was challenging for minutes as a youngster on a legitimately good dynamo moscow team (filled with future NHLers semak, lomakin, zhamnov, kovalev, korolev, tatarinov, karpovtsev, bautin, and goalies trefilov and shtalenkov), while ozo and zhitnik's teams were weaker (riga only had irbe and a young just-draft-eligible zholtok, while kiev had alexander godynyuk and half a season of khristich before he went to washington).

what happened in the year between ozo and zhitnik getting drafted and kaspar going 5th overall?

all three guys stayed overseas and they had not especially dynamic domestic league seasons in '92, at least looking at stats. kaspar: 24 games, 9 points. zhitnik (now on the red army team): 36 games, 9 points. ozo: 30 games, 6 points. they all played in the WJC and kaspar was top defenseman, he and ozo each had 6 points, zhitnik had 2. kaspar and zhitnik both played on the olympic team, but seemingly in minor roles. ozo didn't (did he make it? did he decline because of latvian independence? he and zholtok both played on the WJC team, so i'm guessing it wasn't politics the way it was for irbe when he refused to play for the soviet union in the world championships a year earlier; plus by '92 latvia was pretty solidly independent while during the '91 WCs they were only four months removed from the attempted soviet coup)

so kaspar did probably raise his stock with his dominant WJC performance. but he really should have been taken in '91 shouldn't he? winnipeg took a different defenseman from dynamo moscow, dmitri filimonov, in the third round. he was a year older than kaspar but had never played in the WJC and unlike kaspar he wasn't getting pro games at 16, 17, or even 18 (tbf, filimonov did play on the '91 canada cup team that zhitnik was on but kaspar was not). also, at the under 18s, kaspar led defensemen in scoring with 7 points in 6 games. zhitnik had 4 points—ozo didn't wasn't on the team but zholtok was. he should have been a known commodity in '91.

all to say, i wonder if there was an eligibility thing we didn't know about with kaspar in '91. or, given that he was on dynamo moscow, maybe it was a contractual issue.

The late 80s and early 90s was a huge transition period for the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. By 1990, Jagr, Reichel, Holik, the big young Czech stars, were playing in the NHL. But Fedorov still needed to defect in 1990. Czechoslovakia was open, but Soviet Union was still closed. At the 91 WJC, Bure and Kozlov were the 2 big stars of their team. I don't believe they were free to leave at the time of this tournament either. A lot changed in the year 1991 for the Soviet Union, and this can explain a lot of it. The draft rules can explain some, and scouting, etc. can explain some. By 1992, things were a lot different.

 

[Staniowski]

man, this sent me down a wormhole.

re: eligibility, what we know for sure is that there was the rule where an 18 year old player could only be drafted in the first three rounds. and we also know that there was the "bure exemption," where an 18 year old player who had played eleven professional games in each of two seasons could be drafted in later rounds.

slava kozlov was the first 18 year old soviet union player drafted in the first three rounds, in the 1990 draft. kozlov was a march '72 birthday, born the same week as brodeur and ten days before sydor (both 1990 first rounders out of the CHL). pre-car accident kozlov was a hugely hyped prospect and i've read one scout saying he was better than mogilny, fedorov, and bure at the same age. i take that with a grain of salt, but still, he almost certainly would have been a high first round pick a few years later.

alex kovalev (feb '73 birthday) was the first 18 year old soviet union-trained player taken in the first round, 15th overall in the 1991 draft. he was the only 18 year old soviet taken in that draft. the next soviet player taken was sandis ozolinsh, who was a year older. he was in the second round. ozo was a late birthday (august 1972) and his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are karl dykhuis (july '72) and derian hatcher (june '72), both first rounders in the 1990 draft.

in 1992, there were four 18 year old soviet union-trained players taken in the first round: yashin, nazarov, krivokrasov, and gonchar. plus kasparaitis, who was a year older than them. kaspar was an october '72 birthday, so theoretically an early birthday for his draft year. his closest CHL first rounder birthdays are falloon (september 22, 1972) and glen murray (november '72).

so i'm trying to figure out how it was that kaspar wasn't drafted in 1991. ozolinsh, kasparaitis, and alexei zhitnik were born a month apart. assuming the draft cut off has always been september 15, ozolinsh would be on one side of it, kaspar and zhitnik (who were born days apart in october 1972) would be on the other side.

all three were also on the 1991 WJC team and while i admittedly have no memory of any of them in that tournament, none of them seemed to distinguish himself. kaspar had 4 points, ozo had 3, zhitnik had 2. nobody made the all-tournament team. the top three defensemen seem to have been jiri slegr and dmitri yushkevich (both 1971 birthdays, slegr was drafted in 1990, yushkevich was taken later than both ozo and zhitnik in '91), and scott lachance (born the week after zhitnik and kaspar, was in his freshman year of college, 4th overall in the '91 draft—which raises a whole other set of questions about NCAA opt-in/eligibility).

so ozo was drafted in '91, a year after he theoretically should have been eligible. as of the 1991 draft, he had just finished his first pro season, with riga. he only would have been eligible for the first three rounds of the 1990 draft and being that kozlov was the only guy taken early it probably makes sense that ozo had to wait a year given that he hadn't even turned pro yet (as far as we know). jack ferreira, who was san jose's first GM, gloated that he was happy to pass over niedermayer with the #2 pick in '91 because he had ozo, who he said was just as good, lined up for the second round. and ozo wasn't even his first second round pick; he took ray whitney with the first pick of the second round and waited until mid-round to take ozo (eight pick of the second round, 30th overalll). his actions suggest that ozo was probably an under the radar pick at that point, or at least that among guys who had been passed over the year before, the undersized but WHL-proven whitney was more likely to have gotten picked by #30.

i do think it's weird that ozo would have been drafted in the second round and zhitnik in the fourth round, while kaspar doesn't go in the first three rounds, which is what he theoretically would have been eligible for. (kaspar had played 3 games with dynamo moscow at 16, and 1 game at 17. in his theoretical draft-eligible year of '91, he played 17 games, so he would only have been eligible in the first three rounds. zhitnik had played 31 games with kiev in his 17 year old season, and another 46 in his draft-eligible year. so he qualified for the bure exemption.) they don't seem especially far apart as prospects, especially given that a year later kaspar was touted as a potential first overall pick and was taken 5th overall.

there is the sense that zhitnik might have proven himself more, and by this point ozo too. but kaspar was challenging for minutes as a youngster on a legitimately good dynamo moscow team (filled with future NHLers semak, lomakin, zhamnov, kovalev, korolev, tatarinov, karpovtsev, bautin, and goalies trefilov and shtalenkov), while ozo and zhitnik's teams were weaker (riga only had irbe and a young just-draft-eligible zholtok, while kiev had alexander godynyuk and half a season of khristich before he went to washington).

what happened in the year between ozo and zhitnik getting drafted and kaspar going 5th overall?

all three guys stayed overseas and they had not especially dynamic domestic league seasons in '92, at least looking at stats. kaspar: 24 games, 9 points. zhitnik (now on the red army team): 36 games, 9 points. ozo: 30 games, 6 points. they all played in the WJC and kaspar was top defenseman, he and ozo each had 6 points, zhitnik had 2. kaspar and zhitnik both played on the olympic team, but seemingly in minor roles. ozo didn't (did he make it? did he decline because of latvian independence? he and zholtok both played on the WJC team, so i'm guessing it wasn't politics the way it was for irbe when he refused to play for the soviet union in the world championships a year earlier; plus by '92 latvia was pretty solidly independent while during the '91 WCs they were only four months removed from the attempted soviet coup)

so kaspar did probably raise his stock with his dominant WJC performance. but he really should have been taken in '91 shouldn't he? winnipeg took a different defenseman from dynamo moscow, dmitri filimonov, in the third round. he was a year older than kaspar but had never played in the WJC and unlike kaspar he wasn't getting pro games at 16, 17, or even 18 (tbf, filimonov did play on the '91 canada cup team that zhitnik was on but kaspar was not). also, at the under 18s, kaspar led defensemen in scoring with 7 points in 6 games. zhitnik had 4 points—ozo didn't wasn't on the team but zholtok was. he should have been a known commodity in '91.

all to say, i wonder if there was an eligibility thing we didn't know about with kaspar in '91. or, given that he was on dynamo moscow, maybe it was a contractual issue.

Re: Slava Kozlov
Yes, he was an all-time great Soviet prospect. At the time, he was the youngest player - at 15 - to ever play in the top Soviet League. He was at least close to Mogilny, Fedorov, Bure (Fedorov was the 3rd biggest prospect of these 3). I think Kozlov was more talented with the puck than Bure was, but Bure made up for it with his speed. Kozlov definitely would've been a high 1st round pick if available to NHL teams at the time of his draft.

 

[Brodeur]

There was the strange example of the Devils taking Adrian Foster with a late first rounder in 2001. Foster's original draft year was 2000, but he only played in 7 WHL games in 1999-00 due to injury. Then he only played 5 games in 2000-01. I'm not sure, but it's possible that Foster didn't opt in to the 2000 Draft?

The backstory was that Foster grew up playing with Dany Heatley and Krys Kolanos (both 1st rounders in 2000) and Foster was highly regarded before injuries crept in.

According to Gare Joyce's book Future Greats and Heartbreaks, the Devils weren't really high on anybody so they decided to take a home run swing on Foster. The New Jersey staff figured they could possibly get a 2003 2nd round compensatory pick if Foster didn't recover and went unsigned. They'd end up signing him but his development was perpetually hampered. Beer league buddy of mine also grew up with Foster and mentioned that he played a little too recklessly.

 

[Theokritos]

What about guys like Mark Streit and Dimitry Kvartalnov, they were drafted in their mid 20s. Kvartalnov was 16th overall, Streit was a 9th rounder but had a nice career.

Streit was puzzling, he had one season in the AHL and then came back to Switzerland, played there as if this was going to be his career and then at the age of 26 he suddenly gets drafted. No idea what caused the Canadiens to pick him.

Kvartalnov is less puzzling. The Iron Curtain was crumbling and NHL clubs were drafting every Soviet who seemed to be able to skate and who hadn't been picked yet.

alex kovalev (feb '73 birthday)

Who?

 

[Jumptheshark]

European draft picks fall into a different category

 

[Jyssy]

Henrik Borgström, 23rd overall in 2016. Huge reach by Florida but it seems to be paying off.

 

[crobro]

Dennis Maruk

Passed over his first two years of eligibility eventually drafted very high in 2 Nd round by the Oakland Seals.

 

[Tarantula]

Dennis Maruk

Passed over his first two years of eligibility eventually drafted very high in 2 Nd round by the Oakland Seals.

Draft had different rules when he was in junior.

Junior-aged players became eligible for the draft once they graduate from junior hockey, or to be signed as a free agent in the year the player reaches his 20th birthday.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

digging deeper into this...

1978 - 201 fetisov (12) - 19 years old (montreal) / first year of eligibility

1982 - 132 victor nechaev (7) - 28 years old (LA) / already living in the US when he was drafted
1982 - 141 sergei kapustin (7) - 29 years old, helmut balderis' former linemate (rangers)
1982 - 143 viktor shluktov (7) - 28 years old (minnesota)

1983 - 138 tretiak (7) - 30 years old, a year from retirement (montreal)
1983 - 145 fetisov again (8) - now 24 years old (new jersey)
1983 - 185 alexander chernyk (10) - turning 18 that september (new jersey)
1983 - 225 kasatonov (12) - 23 years old (new jersey) / third new jersey pick in five rounds
1983 - 231 makarov (12) - 25 years old (calgary)

1984 - 225 mikhail tatarinov (11) - 18 years old (washington)

1985 - 214 larionov (11) - 23 years old (vancouver)
1985 - 227 alexander kozhevnikov - turning 27 (calgary)

1986 - 238 krutov (12) - 26 years old (vancouver)

1987 - 150 viktor tyumenev (8) - 29 years old (vancouver) / third vancouver pick in three years
1987 - 252 igor vyazmikin (12) - 20 years old (edmonton) / last pick of the draft

1988 - 89 mogilny (5) - 19 years old (buffalo) / new record for highest drafted soviet player
1988 - 120 khristich (6) - turning 19 that july (washington) / also unprecedentedly high
1988 - 180 sergei svetlov (9) - 27 years old (new jersey)
1988 - 188 harijs vitolinsh (9) - 20 yeras old (montreal)
1988 - 199 pavel kostitschkin (10) - 19 years old (winnipeg)
1988 - 207 semak (10) - 22 years old (new jersey)
1988 - 208 vladimir zubkov (10) - 30 years old (edmonton)
1988 - 209 yuri krivokhija (10) - 20 years old (montreal) / third consecutive soviet player taken
1988 - 213 gusarov (11) - turning 24 that july (quebec)
1988 - 252 sergei pryakhin (12) - 24 years old (calgary) / last pick of the draft

1989 - 74 fedorov (4) - 19 years old (detroit) / new record for highest drafted soviet player
1989 - 113 bure (6) - 18 years old (vancouver) / shenanigans
1989 - 120 anatoli semenov (6) - 27 years old (edmonton)
1989 - 127 sergei mylnikov (7) - 30 years old (quebec)
1989 - 152 sergei starikov (8) - 30 years old (new jersey)
1989 - 169 vyacheslav bykov (9) - turning 29 (quebec)
1989 - 189 sergei gomolyako (9) - 29 years old (calgary)
1989 - 190 andrei khomutov (10) - 28 years old (quebec)
1989 - 191 malakhov (10) - turning 20 (islanders) / third consecutive soviet player taken
1989 - 202 roman oksiuta (10) - turning 19 (rangers)
1989 - 221 konstantinov (11) - 22 years old (detroit)
1989 - 229 andrei sidorov (11) - 20 years old (washington)
1989 - 231 alexander yudin (11) - 18 years old (calgary) / no idea how this guy was eligible
1989 - 235 davydov (12) - 22 years old (winnipeg)
1989 - 238 baleris (12) - turning 37 (minnesota)
1989 - 240 sergei kharin (12) - 26 years old (winnipeg)

1990 - 45 kozlov (3) - 18 years old (detroit) / first soviet player drafted in the first three rounds
1990 - 77 zhamnov (4) - 19 years old (winnipeg)
1990 - 85 zubov (5) - turning 20 (rangers)
1990 - 109 slava butsayev (6) - turning 20 (philadelphia)
1990 - 114 andrei kovalev (6) - 24 years old (washington)
1990 - 115 alex godynyuk (6) - 20 years old (toronto)
1990 - 142 viktor gordiouk (7) - 20 years old (buffalo)
1990 - 146 dmitri frolov (7) - turning 24 (calgary)
1990 - 148 kovalenko (8) - 20 years old (quebec)
1990 - 158 karpovtsev (8) - 20 years old (quebec)
1990 - 221 zelepukin (11) - 21 years old (new jersey)
1990 - 224 sergei selyanin (11) - 23 years old (winnipeg)
1990 - 244 nemchinov (12) - 26 years old (rangers)
1990 - 249 sergei martynyuk (12) - 19 years old (montreal) / eleventh player taken from that year's WJC team

1991 - 15 kovalev (1) - 18 years old (rangers) / first soviet player drafted in the first round
...to be continued

 

[sr edler]

Of course, for Canucks fans, Perron went one spot after the Canucks selected Patrick White, one of the biggest busts in a Canucks drafting history full of busts.

To be a bust there must be some kind of widespread expectations that said player's going to succeed. Otherwise it's just a bad pick, or a disappointing pick. Were there any such expectations (perhaps outside of a few people) that Patrick White was going to be a legit NHLer?

 

[Voight]

Johan Franzen was drafted when he was 25, always found that odd because wouldn't he of been an Undrafted UFA at that point? Or did the regarding that change after the lockout? (drafted in 2004)

Of course, for Canucks fans, Perron went one spot after the Canucks selected Patrick White, one of the biggest busts in a Canucks drafting history full of busts.

No exactly related, but my team went Seabrook-Barker (bust)-Sille(Bust)-Toews-Kane-Beach(bust).

If even one of those picks was used on a decent player.....