Pittsburgh's Poor Drafting History

[THall4]

Toews has always been better at everything except being tall.

In comparison to Jordan Staal yah...but hes 6'2 210lbs

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

A little off-topic, but here's a list of handpicked defencemen that Shero drafted*

*was either AGM or GM of the team, so no it wasn't all him, but still a cool list.

- Stanislav Neckar
- Bryan Berard
- Chris Phillips
- Karel Rachunek
- Karlis Skrastins
- Dan Hamhuis
- Ryan Suter
- Kevin Klein
- Shea Weber
- Ryan Parent
- Cody Franson
- Jake Muzzin
- Robert Bortuzzo
- Simon Despres
- Joe Morrow
- Scott Harrington
- Derrick Pouliot
- Olli Maatta

It's no secret that Shero brought the Nashville model to Pittsburgh. Too bad Nashville hasn't won **** in this history and the Pens have Sid and Geno and not Weber and Suter.

IIRC, NSH are one of 3 teams who have never won a divisional or conference title since they were added to the league and have never made it out of the 2nd round of the POs. Talk about a winning model!

 

[MovesLikeJagr68]

Kessel was a centre in junior ? Wow, last guy I could imagine playing centre. He has no idea on how to play defense.

Guys like Kessel, Stamkos and Ovechkin were born to be wingers.

Anyway, who was the best winger available in the draft ? Giroux ?

Probably Frolik, as he had a bunch of hype the year before his draft I believe.

It was pretty much expected E.Johnson was going first, then your choice of centre for the next handful of picks. Before his draft year Kessel was being labelled the 'American Crosby' by some in the media, but by draft day had slipped into the pack with Toews/Staal/Backstrom.

And ya, Kessel in the NHL would be awkward at centre, but growing up if you're that dominant of a player over your peers, you're usually put in at centre.

 

[wgknestrick]

A little off-topic, but here's a list of handpicked defencemen that Shero drafted*

*was either AGM or GM of the team, so no it wasn't all him, but still a cool list.

- Stanislav Neckar
- Bryan Berard
- Chris Phillips
- Karel Rachunek
- Karlis Skrastins
- Dan Hamhuis
- Ryan Suter
- Kevin Klein
- Shea Weber
- Ryan Parent
- Cody Franson
- Jake Muzzin
- Robert Bortuzzo
- Simon Despres
- Joe Morrow
- Scott Harrington
- Derrick Pouliot
- Olli Maatta

oooops

 

[SchennSational1022*]

Quoted for truth.

It amazes me in hindsight that they picked Jordan Staal when they could've had Jonathan Toews, Nick Backstrom, Claude Giroux or Phil Kessel. Kessel would be the perfect winger for Sid or Geno.

Look at the Cup winning roster of 2009 and compare it to today's roster. Shero just destroyed that team.

Christ, don't even mention Giroux as a Penguin as a possibility . They would have been laughed at if they picked Giroux at #2 that year though, he had serious concerns.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Christ, don't even mention Giroux as a Penguin as a possibility . They would have been laughed at if they picked Giroux at #2 that year though, he had serious concerns.

Anyone would've been laughed at in 1998 if they picked Pavel Datsyuk in the 1st round.
Quoting Alexandre Daigle : "I am glad I got drafted first, no one remembers number two."

They sure as hell remember Claude Giroux or Pavel Datsyuk.

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

Definitely. Even if you go back to his Sens/Preds days there isn't a whole lot of success up front. Guy either learned this philosophy, or he had

uhhh... for the sens theres a lot of success


Pavol Demitra
Alexandre Daigle
Daniel Alfredsson
Radek Bonk
Magnus Arvedson
Marian Hossa
+ a few lowr tier role players

not sure if he was still AGM when Fisher and Neil were drafted

 

[MovesLikeJagr68]

Definitely. Even if you go back to his Sens/Preds days there isn't a whole lot of success up front. Guy either learned this philosophy, or he had

uhhh... for the sens theres a lot of success


Pavol Demitra
Alexandre Daigle
Daniel Alfredsson
Radek Bonk
Magnus Arvedson
Marian Hossa
+ a few lowr tier role players

not sure if he was still AGM when Fisher and Neil were drafted

Demitra and Alfie for sure. But Daigle was the consensus #1 that year, Bonk and Hossa were early 1st round picks, and Arvedson was pretty much a defenceman haha

 

[Jesus Vitale]

Hey. At least the Penguins don't have a first, third, or fourth round pick this year! Oh wait. That isn't good at all. Man they were probably a 2nd round rental away from winning it all this year. Probably should have traded that too.

 

[theFiGS]

Crosby,malkin,letang,fluery, don't complain about the penguins drafting. The reason they don't draft stud prospects is because teams like Pittsburgh move their picks through our the season to add vet talent for a playoff run.

 

[Jackpot Jaret]

Crosby,malkin,letang,fluery, don't complain about the penguins drafting. The reason they don't draft stud prospects is because teams like Pittsburgh move their picks through our the season to add vet talent for a playoff run.

Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Staal were all first or 2nd picks, you usually can't go wrong in those spots. Letang is the only quality pick past the 2 round in the past 15 years easily if not more. Their drafting record is terrible. More busts then players developed, some high picks just off the top of my head, Chris Welch, Robert Dome, Milan Kraft (I actually liked him), Ondrei Nemec, Brian Gaffaney, Beau Bennett, Angelo Espisito, Johannes Salmonsson, Carl Sneep.....im sure I could google and find so many more

Not sure if theres a worse team in the league at drafting

 

[Pyrophorus]

Two years ago, they were considered to have the best drafted D for the future?

 

[StroShow]

Maatta
Pouliot
Harrington
J.Morrow
Jarry
M.Murray
Kapanen
Sundqvist
Wilson

Bolded have played in the NHL , all of them have great pottential as well , might see a lot of these as regulars next season if not almost all of them

 

[penguins2946*]

Two years ago, they were considered to have the best drafted D for the future?

Which was entirely true. They had all of Morrow, Despres, Pouliot, Maatta, Harrington and Dumoulin in their system, which was 4 1st round picks and 2 2nd round picks. Then they pissed away 2 of those for veterans.

 

[Bennett Brauer]

Maatta
Pouliot
Harrington
J.Morrow
Jarry
M.Murray
Kapanen
Sundqvist
Wilson

Bolded have played in the NHL , all of them have great pottential as well , might see a lot of these as regulars next season if not almost all of them

I think the idea is overall, probably going all the way back to the 90's, which is poor drafting but I think 2011, 2012 and 2013 have potential for the Penguins. 2012 Looks like a really solid draft, which is awesome considering it was at the Consol

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Letang, Muzzin, and Goligoski were pretty incredible picks. Maatta was as well, he may have been a 1st rounder, but he was a late 1st who could play as a top 4 dman in the NHL as a teenager.

All defencemen, sure, but still very good value picks. The Leafs havent drafted a player close to Letangs calibre outside the 1st round since Kaberle in the 90s. The best two players the Oilers have drafted outside the 1st round in the past decade are Petry + Lander, which is much worse than Pittsburgh.

So sure, Pittsburgh has struggled at drafting forwards, but overall their drafting has been decent. Theyve also only drafted 55 times since 2006 through nine drafts, which is 8 fewer than default (9X7). With many teams drafting even more than default, and using 75+ picks since then, Pens are at a clear disadvantage before they even start drafting due to overall fewer picks than most teams.

Best post in the thread.

Pens haven't developed many forwards, but they've had fewer and later picks than most teams. They also took a BPA philosophy at the draft that resulted in a lot of good value picks on defense, even if it resulted in an unbalanced pipeline and management threw away some of those good value picks (ie Despres).