How in the world was Jared Cowen picked above Ryan Ellis?

[Gnashville]

People don’t like human rocket ships

 

[Zaddy]

Back then size was still king.

 

[Armourboy]

Ottawa sucks at drafting. Nobody drafts defensemen better than Nashville since they've been in the league. Hamhuis, Weber, Suter, Jones, Josi, Ekholm, Ellis. Am I missing anyone?

Klein was pretty solid. Not sure where we got him but we had Timmonen as well before being traded to Philly. Also had the guy who would eventually pass away on that airplane crash in Russia ( I can't believe his name is slipping my mind, he eventually got traded to Colorado I think) but once again that may have been the entry draft.

 

[Maukkis]

Ottawa sucks at drafting. Nobody drafts defensemen better than Nashville since they've been in the league. Hamhuis, Weber, Suter, Jones, Josi, Ekholm, Ellis. Am I missing anyone?

Girard.

You can probably add Fabbro to the list sooner rather than later.

 

[Fazkovsky]

Because big size doesn’t mean you are good at hockey

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

I think the Preds only hit defenders well. Feel like every offensive prospect that goes to NSH will never break the 70 point mark in their career for some reason. I feel like Forsberg would have had more success elsewhere pointwise along with Fiala.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Sammy Girard hmmmm

 

[Iapyi]

The draft is a crap shoot. These players are not even physically fully developed. Not to be mean but threads like these are not very exciting for more experienced fans.

 

[Stephen]

Why was Erik Gudbranson drafted so high? Cause GM's will always fall in love with big projectable defensemen.

 

[CuriousGeorge]

Jared Cowen
Ryan Ellis

Ellis absolutely killed it in his draft season. Sure he was on a great team, but Ellis made the team great. Cowen was also on a very stacked Spokane team and yet had almost zero offense. Yes size mattered especially back then, but still size didn't matter to the point where a player who outscored another player 7x would be picked lower. Ellis was also only a little over 3 weeks older than Cowen so age is irrelevant.

Was it attitude? Maybe it's just me but I remember Ellis was considered a very humble, polite, intelligent on and off the ice, and gentlemanly person on a TSN/Sportsnet (Forget which one) show back in 2009. Cowen was practically unheard of. Sure Cowen wasn't considered a person with a bad attitude, but there was nothing to prove he was a better person than Ellis either, so that can't be the factor can it?

The team thought he would become the better player. There is no other reason.

 

[Rorschach]

Hindsight is 20/20.

2008 NHL Draft
3 - Zach Bogosian
5 - Luke Schenn
6 - Nikita Filatov
10 - Cody Hodgson
13 - Colten Teubert
15 - Erik Karlsson

I know you bolded to make it easier to read since we're in HF and all, but even if you didn't, I got it.

 

[Rorschach]

Size was a thing...

...and yet look at the list of guys taken after Crosby and before Kopitar.

 

[ImNeverWrong]

teams are going to smarten up and start taking skill over size...
unless you're marc bergevin.

 

[HSF]

Cowen was good. He just got rocked by injuries. He was big and could move and play the puck. won a memorial cup and won a calder cup in the AHL. He just had really bad injuries and lost his movement

 

[joe dirte]

Cowen before he tore his acl would have probably gone higher. He was an absolute stud in the minors.

he wasn't really. 21 points in 48 games leading into the draft isn't really impressive. when you say stud referring to dmen in juniors I generally think you should be referring to point per game dmen, or close to.

when you're a dominant dman in juniors you're putting up a lot of points. even if points isn't your game. last year's draft, thevtop dmen from the CHL were cal Foote, 57 points in 71 games. and juuso valimaki, 61 in 60. and neither were top 10.

I think you would have to go back many years to find a top 10 pick dman from the CHL that scored so few points. luke schenn maybe?

I'm not saying he wasn't highly touted. but he was seen as a high potential project. he wasn't really a stud in juniors.

size meant much more then than it does now.

 

[Cassano]

As people mentioned, he was a projected top 5 pick before his draft year injury. He somewhat bounced back and put a superb run in the AHL playoffs as a 19 year old. Then had an excellent season as a rookie defender - I believe he played on the 2nd pairing with Gonchar a lot. Then injuries and inability to adjust to the game slowly deteriorated his level of play. It's a shame really.

 

[DuckedUpOnQuack]

I think part of it was also the suspensions he received which were partially due to his size. He stopped focusing on playing the hard hitting defensive style that he was good at, and began thinking he could be an offensive stud.