Most controversial draft picks

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Form and Substance

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Jun 11, 2004
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CurtisJD13 said:
What about Joe Murphy going number 1 overall in his draft year? I would consider that controversial...

And also, Patrick Stefan...do I have to say more?

Well I suppose Craig Simpson was more highly touted back in 85. I know he got to the NCAA at 16. Wendel Clark kinda came out of nowhere and claimed the #1 spot.
 

RJ8812*

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Stephen said:
1971: Larry Wright and Pierre Plante instead of Terry O'Reilly, Larry Robinson
1976: Mark Suzor instead of Kent Nilsson
1980: Mike Sothers instead of Jari Kurri, Bernie Nicholls
1981: Steve Smith instead of Chris Chelios
1984: Greg Smith instead of Patrick Roy
1985: Glen Seabrooke instead of Joe Nieuwendyk, Mike Richter, Kirk McLean
1987: Darren Rumble instead of John Leclair, Mathieu Schneider or Eric Desjardins
1988: Claude Boivin instead of Rob Blake, Tony Amonte or Mark Recchi
1989: Greg Johnson instead of Sergei Fedorov, Nik Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Pavel Bure
1990: Mike Ricci at instead of Jaromir Jagr, Martin Brodeur
1992: Ryan Sittler at instead of Sergei Gonchar, Mike Peca
1996: Dainius Zubrus at instead of Zdeno Chara
1997: Jean Marc Pelletier instead of Kristian Huselius, Mike York, Ladislav Nagy
1999: Maxime Ouellet instead of Martin Havlat


kinda sad that u probably looked all these up on your own to try and get me back, i just copied it from a site
 

turnbuckle*

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Lawton was a good call; I remember many being stunned with his selection, especially with Yzerman and Lafontaine being available. I had played against Yzerman throughout minor hockey and briefly in Junior A and had witnessed his abilities first hand. I thought Minny was nuts to pass over both him and Lafontaine, especially after the season Pat had in junior.

California caused a stir when, in keeping with its tradition, made a big reach with its top pick in 1976, selecting Swedish defenceman Bjorn Johanssen fifth overall. He was the first European taken in the first round, and when he went fifth overall it was quite a shock. Of course, he ended up being mediocre, playing a grand total of 15 NHL games with the legendary Cleveland Barons. Detroit didn't fare any better with the fourth pick in hindsight, and he was also highly questioned at the time - Fred Williams. I remember thinking Detroit was nuts not to be picking Bernie Derlago, or my favourite player at the time, Peter Lee.

Montreal had people scratching their heads with the selection of Robin Sadler ninth overall in 1975, only for him to announce soon after that he had no intention of playing for the Habs. Might not have hurt to interview him before the draft - he never played a game in the NHL.

Los Angeles caused a stir by selecting Doug Smith 2nd overall in 1981. Being a 67's fan growing up I saw plenty of Smitty and the OHL, and I was shocked to see him picked 2nd overall, when IMO there were better OHLers in cirella, Francis, Tanti, and McInnis, let alone the rest of the world. Smitty never lived up to his second selection status. Carpenter was another surprise that year - the first high schooler ever taken so high in the draft, third overall. He ended up having some decent seasons at least.

Vancouver's selection of Jere Gillis fourth overall in the 1977 draft was questioned by many of the experts, especially with the likes of Brad Maxwell, Doug Wilson, Mike Bossy and Mark Napier available. One of many poor draft picks by the Canucks in those days.

New Jersey surprised the experts by picking Neil Brady third overall in 1986. they weren't alone in picking flops that season however.

Daniel Dore was a surpise pick at fifth overall in 1988 - never a highly skilled player, back woes put a quick end to his career.

Dave Chyzowski, Warren Babe, and Scott Scissons are other players I recall being picked earlier than projected.
 

Hughes J Laffy

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Mar 22, 2002
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Leachmeister2000 said:
Well I suppose Craig Simpson was more highly touted back in 85. I know he got to the NCAA at 16. Wendel Clark kinda came out of nowhere and claimed the #1 spot.

Craig Simpson was considered to be the best player and offensive player in the draft 85. But he refused to play for the Leafs. So the Leafs drafted a d-men from WHL, Wendel Clark and turn him into a winger in NHL. It looks like it worked out well for the Leafs after all :)
 

Kirk- NEHJ

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More of a hindsight is 20/20 pick, but when the Bruins opted for Gord Kluzak over the highly-touted Brian Bellows, it caused a stir in Boston.

The North Stars traded a couple of journeyman players to the B's in exchange for Boston not picking Bellows (Brad Palmer was one, don't recall the other off the top of my head), but Harry Sinden has since said that even without that trade offer, the Bruins would have taken Kluzak.

It was a risk that didn't pay off. Kluzak had known knee problems, and even though he had a couple of good years in Boston, a lot of people brought up what could have been, especially when Bellows was scoring 50+ for the North Stars.

The interesting thing though, is that Bellows wasn't the big prize from that draft. Scott Stevens was. Now, B's fans can only imagine what might have been with in-their-primes Ray Bourque and Scott Stevens anchoring the defensive corps of the very good but not quite good enough Bruins teams of the late 80's/early 90's.
 

GB

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How about Barasso, the highest goalie picked (at the time, lasted until Di Pietro) and he was from High School.
 

Montrealer

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I remember specifically Nikolai Antropov being a pretty big shocker in '98 for the Leafs - he was projected to go much later in the first round or in the early second round, IIRC.
 
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