Round by Round - HF's best draft picks

[MatthewFlames]

In our summer slump - but here's a fun new exercise. Round by round - who are the best picks you've made as GM.

Round 1 - Mat Barzal - 2015

Barzal was taken 8th overall. Svechnikov may eventually eclipse Barzal but he was 2nd overall and a simple pick. Picking in the first round has, in general, not been very good. There is a long list of busts and no impact first-line players until this recent crop, though Mikael Backlund is gonna get to 800 plus games and is one of the better defensive C in the game.

Also considered: Dylan Larkin/Jeff Skinner
Worst 1st Round pick: Val Nichushkin (though, there's still time for more redemption)

Round 2 - Anton Stralman - 2007

The only place the Flames pick worse than the first round is the second round. Virtually no elite/top-level players, though Stralman has 800 games, Anisimov has 700 games and Brian Dumoulin has turned into a player.

Also considered: Oliver Bjorkstrand, maybe eventually?
Worst 2nd Round Pick: So many, lots never even got ELC's, like Geordie Wudrick and Bryce Swan.

Round 3 - Alex Killorn - 2007

Homer pick since he just won the Cup. Andrej Sekera has almost 700 NHL games but other than that, the 3rd round isn't a strong area either. More recent picks like Brandon Hagel or Dominik Simon still have some potential.

Round 4 - Nathan Lieuwen - 2009

The Flames have never picked a full-time NHL player in the 4th round. Liewen got 7 NHL games in net. The stolen pick Eric Tangradi got 150 NHL games. Those are the only two with any NHL games.

Round 5 - Josh Anderson - 2012

Colton Sceviour and Markus Nutivaara are other NHL'ers the Flames have picked in the 5th round, with Anderson. Actually, the Flames very rarely pick in this round, often trading this pick for extra picks in the later rounds. Anderson though has become a useful NHL player with a reputation.

Round 6 - Alex Stalock - 2005

Alex Stalock has had a good career as a backup goalie - with 151 NHL appearances. Not much else to write home about in this round.

Round 7 - Anders Lee - 2008

The Islanders captain was drafted a year before the NHL did, the same with another Flames 7th rounder, Jimmy Vesey. The Flames have a few other 7th rounders who had NHL careers, including Kevin Connauton (300+ NHL games) and Mark Fayne (389 NHL games). Goalie-wise, they also drafted James Reimer (363 NHL games in net). A very productive round - better than any round except the first for some reason.

Let's see yours! Go!

Click to read more...

 

[Brock]

Awesome idea!

Round One
Best - Mike Richards, 28th OV in 2003
I've certainly had some good first round selections, but this one stands out for me, getting Richards at the back end of the first round. He helped me to my two cup victories and was one of the top two-way centers in the league before injuries and extra curriculars pushed him out.

HM - Jeff Carter (25th in 2003), Tuukka Rask (19th in 2005), Bryan Little (12th in 2006), Tyler Toffoli (29th in 2010), Trevor Zegras (7th in 2019), Moritz Seider (19th in 2019)

Worst - James Van Riemsdyk, 1st OV in 2007
I won the lottery and opted for JVR over Patrick Kane. Such a dumb decision. And even though JVR has become a long time NHL player, this one still haunts me. Even more so than taking Robbie Schremp at 6th in 2004 (because I dealt him before he busted) and Corey Trivino at 28th in 2008 (yuck).

Round Two
Best - Nikita Kucherov, 51st in 2011
This one continues to fuel my franchise to this day as Kucherov has become a superstar and one of the best players in the NHL. Sometimes it pays off to take a chance on Russian players!

HM - John Gibson (37th in 2011), Matt Murray (47th in 2012), Adam Fox (54th in 2016), Nick Robertson (38th in 2019)

Worst - TIE - Mason MacDonald (36th in 2014) & David Shantz (35th in 2004)
Wasted two high picks (early second rounders) on goaltenders who struggled to even establish themselves as pro goaltenders, let alone NHL prospects.

Round Three
Best - Brent Burns, 66th in 2003
I saw a lot of Brent live in Brampton and made him one of my main targets in 2003. Even though he was drafted as a forward and didn't put up huge stats in his draft year, I just knew that he had the potential to become a superstar. Unfortunately, I dealt him when I grew tired of his positional switches and his development was stalling a bit.

HM - TJ Brodie (90th in 2009), Dmitri Samorukov (81st in 2017), Jack Rathbone (91st in 2017), Scott Perunovich (64th in 2018)

Round Four
Best - David Savard, 99th in 2009
Unfortunately, I dealt Savard away before he became a solid top four defender, but getting him in the early fourth round was definitely an excellent selection.

HM - Tyler Bertuzzi (97th in 2014), Matt Grzelcyk (120th in 2013), Cayden Primeau (101st in 2017), Tyler Madden (102nd in 2018)

Round Five
Best -TIE - Keith Yandle, 140th in 2005 & Jake Guentzel, 150th in 2013
Unfortunately I traded away Yandle before he could make a big impact on my roster, however I was smart enough to keep Guentzel and he has become a mainstay on my roster and one of my most important offensive pieces.

HM - Casey Cizikas (137th in 2009), Michal Neuvirth (128th in 2006)

Round Six
Best - Mathieu Perreault, 161st in 2007
Perreault has become a long time middle six NHL player, even if injuries have sort of derailed his career lately. His speed was his calling card as a draft eligible player and it allowed him to become a quality NHL player too.

HM - Matt Carle (163rd in 2006), Zach Stortini (177th in 2004), Vince Hinostroza (152nd in 2014)

Round Seven
Best - Mackenzie Weegar, 192nd in 2013
Traded Weegar away, but he has since become a very good two-way NHL defender and the type of guy I could probably use on my roster now.

HM - Jake Evans (197th in 2014), Cal O'Reilly (223rd in 2005), Nick Abruzzese (196th in 2019)

BONUS
Chris Campoli - 259th in 2004 (Round 9)
Before the draft reduced to seven rounds, I snagged Campoli in the 9th round and he had a few good years before fading off into the sunset.

 

[Ohio Jones]

Columbus Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets (and Washington Capitals before that, 1999-2001) do not exactly have the most impressive “greatest hits” at the draft table.

In no small part this is because we used many picks as trade fodder to prolong our contention window, but when we do pick our success rates have been average to poor. In 21 years, there is not a single player who looks to be destined for the HHOF.

Round 1

Max Pacioretty - 1/28 2007

HM:
Ryan McDonagh - 1/13 2007
Dougie Hamilton - 1/7 2011

The Jackets’ woes over the years have had a lot to do with their poor showing in the first round. Early picks spent on marginal NHLers (e.g. Joni Pitkanen, Raffl Torres, Steve Bernier) and absolute busts (e.g. Lars Jonsson, Zach Boychuk, Dylan Olsen) left the organization struggling for years to assemble young top-end talent.

Hopefully that trend started turning around with Dante Fabbro in 2016, followed by Nick Suzuki, Ty Smith and Kaapo Kakko in recent years. Hopefully there are a couple of kids now in the system with HHOF potential in their futures.

Then, of course, I have to learn to keep them...

Snagging Pacioretty 28th puts him ahead of earlier selections McDonagh and Hamilton.

Round 2

Corey Crawford - 2/42 2003

HM:
James Neal - 2/47 2005
Justin Schultz - 2/59 2008
Jason Zucker - 2/50 2010

The second round has been a bit more productive for us, given that this list could include solid NHLers like Brian Boyle and Nikolai Kulemin. Morgan Frost is carrying the banner from recent drafts.

Crawford has had a terrific career, although it now looks to be starting to wind up. He might have an outside chance at the Hall based on his Cup wins.

Round 3

Brendan Smith - 3/86 2007

HM:
Patrik Nemeth - 3/63 2010

The third round has been even worse for us than the first. Smith and Nemeth are replacement-level NHLers, and yet are the best we can point to.

There’s reason for hope in a turnaround, though, with kids like Kirill Marchenko, Adam Beckman, Lukas Dostal and Morgan Geekie showing well so far.

Round 4

Derek Stepan - 4/103 2008

HM:
Nate Schmidt - 4/102 2009
Martin Erat - 4/99 1999

Stepan was a home run coming out of the 4th in 2008, posting five consecutive 50+ point seasons in the NHL. Schmidt and Erat both proved to be savvy picks, although Erat might be best known for going to Washington for Filip Forsberg in one of the most lopsided NHL trades in recent memory.

Round 5

Peter Budaj - 5/161 2001

We’ve had better success with goalies than skaters in later rounds. Budaj played in parts of 13 NHL seasons, but never excelled even when given starter duties - especially in his handful of playoff appearances, which were grim.

Round 6

Mike Smith - 6/162 2002

Smith by contrast has had a long and successful career as an NHL starter. Like Crawford (taken the following year) that career may be winding down, although (in large part to playing in the desert, Smith never came close to Crawford’s playoff success.

Round 7+

David Koci - 8/217 2000 - managed almost 150 NHL games as an enforcer.

 

[Hossa]

Fun idea. Kind of strange to go back to some of the earlier drafts, and to realize how poor my batting average is in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, even if there were some hits.

Round 1

Best pick: Evgeni Malkin, 2nd overall (2004)

Honourable Mention: Eric Staal, Carey Price, Kyle Palmieri, Thomas Chabot, JT Miller, Jakub Vrana and Justin Faulk.

Worst pick: Anthony Stewart, 23rd overall (2003)

I have made a number of good picks in the first, and Malkin certainly isn't top of the list on degree of difficulty, although I did get heavy pressure to trade down to three and take Cam Barker at the time. But he's been a true franchise player from start to, likely, finish, a future Hall of Famer and one of the best players of my lifetime. Price was also a gutsy pick at the time, not only because goalies usually are but because I had Maxime Ouellet and Ilya Bryzgalov already, and was convinced at least one would be a stud.

Stewart had competition for the worst first round pick, including Emile Poirier who actually had even less success, and Wes O'Neill who basically never played. But there were extenuating circumstances with Poirier at least, and the next five players taken after Stewart were Pouliot, Carter, Seabrook, Kesler and Richards. Ouch.

Round 2

Best Pick: Henri Jokiharju, 45th overall (2017)

HM: Brooks Laich, Mike Matheson, Patrick Eaves, Josh Norris, Connor Timmins, Jake Allen, Jake McCabe

Worst pick: Philippe Paradis, 41st overall (2009)

It's actually not a very impressive crop of 2nd rounders between the mid 2000s and 2017, with a lot of serious swings and misses considering how many picks I stockpiled. You could make an argument that Laich, Allen, Matheson or Eaves have accomplished more, or that Timmins or Norris might, but Jokiharju is already a good defenceman at 20 and has room to grow.

There are some strong contenders for the worst pick too. Paradis actually snuck into the first in his draft, so I wasn't the only one seeing something, but the skill simply did not develop. The exact same is true of Daultan Leveille, another wasted mid-second.

Round 3

Best pick: David Krejci, 73rd overall (2005)

Worst Pick: Jeremy Boyce-Rotevall, 81st overall (2011)

Krejci was a re-entry, having gone the year before to Boston. I was actually home in Ottawa at the time and watched a lot of him the following year with Gatineau, and was convinced that despite not being big or fast or flashy, that the hockey sense was truly high end. In our drafts now, I think he would have gone higher, as the re-entry game is strong throughout the league, but he (like Laich the year before) was considered a big swing at the time.

There really are no credible honourable mentions, but plenty of options for a bust. Boyce-Rotevall was a great skater who got lots of time on the national team in his age group, but just did not have enough skill. Worse, I debated between he and another Swede, William Karlsson, in that slot.

Round 4

Best pick: Kris Letang, 114th overall (2005)

HM: Ryan Callahan, Kyle Quincey, John Marino.

Worst pick: Alexander Naurov, 123rd overall (2003)

Letang was the third of three picks I made in 2005, after Price and Krejci, and has been my number one defenceman for a decade now. At the time, he was seen as a small offensive defenceman who played well at the U18s but was not especially productive in the Q, but his development just took off afterwards.

There were some other good hits in this range, plus an amusing collection of busts. Naurov scored a total of three goals in parts of two seasons in the ECHL, and wasn't much better in Europe. He's also now a scout for the Oilers, so likely adding a second generation of busts to this chain.

Round 5

Best pick: Mattias Ekholm, 13th overall (2008)

Worst pick: Matt Lahey, 139th overall (2006)

Unlike guys like Krejci and Letang, who I remember watching, I do not recall exactly what drew me to Ekholm, who played at the U18s that year but in a supporting role. But, I did target him and he only actually was drafted a year later in the NHL, so points for that, even if he was dealt in a tragically misguided deal with Captain Kershaw.

Not a lot of honourable mentions, but not surprisingly for this range, plenty of busts. Lahey was never drafted and never even played pro, although there was talent there - he scored at a 30 goal pace in his draft year - but injuries and skating held him back.

Round 6

Best pick: Adam Gaudette, 176th overall (2016)

Worst pick: Andrew Glass, 167th overall (2006)

Two products of the New England prep school circuit, two very different outcomes. Gaudette was a re-entry in our draft, having had a very good D+1 freshman year at Northeastern. He won the Hobey Baker two years later and is now an NHLer.

Glass, meanwhile, had some prep school hype but played sparingly over three seasons at BU before being kicked out.

Round 7

Best pick: Marcus Sorensen, 207th overall (2011)

Worst pick: Etienne St-Germain, 208th overall (2009)

There are actually a few NHLers to choose from in the seventh, but Sorensen is probably the best of the lot. Unfortunately, I actually released him due to roster size limits when he initially went unsigned by Ottawa, so I never got any value out of this good pick.

St-Germain was a Red Line pick, plucked out of some prep school with little hype. He played with three teams over two seasons in the Q and never went pro or was drafted.

 

[Ohio Jones]

He's also now a scout for the Oilers, so likely adding a second generation of busts to this chain.

Lol

 

[Ohio Jones]

Stewart had competition for the worst first round pick, including Emile Poirier who actually had even less success, and Wes O'Neill who basically never played. But there were extenuating circumstances with Poirier at least, and the next five players taken after Stewart were Pouliot, Carter, Seabrook, Kesler and Richards. Ouch.

Ouch indeed! But at least he played. That’s actually a pretty impressive record! I had plenty of guys who never played in the NHL.

 

[Dempsey]

The Kings have had one GM in their entire HFNHL history, and with that comes an awful lot of draft picks - good and bad. The vast majority of these players I've kept all the way through their prime years and many won the HFNHL Cup with the Kings in 2011.

1st Round - Patrick Kane - 2nd overall, 2007
HM's: Mark Scheifele 10th (2011), Ryan Ellis 11th (2009), Alex Pietrangelo 4th (2008), Sean Couturier 5th (2011), Travis Sanheim 25th (2014), Derick Brassard 7th (2006)

2nd Round - Cam Ward - 55th overall, 2002
HM's: Niklas Hagman 49th (1999), Janne Kuokkanen 55th (2016)

3rd Round - Brad Marchand - 81st overall, 2006
HM's: Niklas Hjalmarsson 67th (2005), Jack Studnicka 92nd (2017), Mattias Janmark 86th (2014), Mattias Norlinder 77th (2019), Dylan Gambrell 68th (2016), Jakob Cutta 79th (2000)

4th Round - Jaccob Slavin - 115th, 2012
HM's: Colton Parayko 105th (2013), Noah Cates 123rd (2017)

5th Round - Andrew Copp - 143rd, 2013
HM's: Matt Greene 127th (2002), Kevin Stenlund 133rd (2015)

6th Round - Jamie Benn - 181st, 2007
HM's: Zach Hyman 155th (2010), Clayton Stoner 151st (2004), Joey Daccord 175th (2015)

7th Round - Troy Brouwer - 181st, 2004
HM's: Tucker Poolman 200th (2013), Christoffer Ehn 205th (2015), Matt Frattin 182nd (2007)

8th Round - Jan Hejda - 214th, 2003
HM's: Karri Ramo 216th, 2004

 

[Ohio Jones]

Mike, your HMs are, I think without exception, better than my best picks by a fair margin. How has LA not won a dozen Cups?!?

 

[Dempsey]

Mike, your HMs are, I think without exception, better than my best picks by a fair margin. How has LA not won a dozen Cups?!?

Because the HFNHL Stanley Cup is the hardest to win in all sim sports.

 

[Ohio Jones]

Truth

 

[Senators GM HFNHL]

Round 1- Mitchell Marner #3 '15
Tie- Shea Theodore #28 '13
Round 2- Dillon Heatherington #45 '13
Round 3- Danton Heinen #87 '15
Round 4- Oskar Sundqvist #119 '13
Round 5- Matthew Highmore #140 '14
Round 6- Dereck Baribeau #178 '17
Round 7- Jean Sebastien-dea #205 '13

I might need to work on keeping picks averaging 3.5 selections per draft. Heatherington has been my only 2nd round selection until this year.

 

[DrSense]

A fun exercise. Good idea.

1st Anthony DeAngelo (2014)
HM Dany Heatley (2003), David Bolland (2004)
Heatley was the best player, but at 2nd overall I only get credit for not being a Milbury and taking Dipietro. Heatley was actually the only top 15 pick I ever had up until this season. DeAngelo and Bolland were both taken right at the end of the round, so consider them the best picks because of the value I got from 28-30 overall range.

2nd Roman Josi (2008)
HM Dmitri Orlov, Anthony Duclair (2013), Ian Cole (2007)
Three of these players still with my team.

3rd
Dustin Byfuglien (2003)
HM: William Karlsson (2011)
Byfuglien was part of my core for over 15 years.

4th
Will Butcher (2013)
HM: Miles Wood (2014)
Both just went to arbitration together and now likely overpaying both - weird!

5th
Blake Coleman (2011)
HM: Emil Bemstrom (2017)

6th
Nikita Zaitsev (2010)
HM: Josh Gorges (2002)

7th
Reilly Smith (2009)
HM: Cedric Paquette (2013)

Lots of worst picks to consider on my end, although the 1st round is really the only round I fret about with respect to my misses. But in an 12 year period, I picked the following players in the 1st round; Jakub Zboril, Riley Tufte, Vitali Abramov, Sebastian Collberg, Nicklas Jensen, Khoklachev and Aaron Ness. I had a few good 1st rounders in between and extracted some real stars in the later rounds, but this is really an unacceptable miss rate with my 1st rounders.

In looking at this, interesting to see I've been overall, much better at getting value from drafting d-men than forwards. Also been more patient, as 5 of my 6 current d-men I drafted, where as only 4 of my 15 pro forwards I drafted. Making me feel a bit better about my latest draft, where I went d-man with my first 4 picks and took 7 rearguards in total. Maybe I'm just better at picking D (or luckier).

 

[Lord Stanley]

This looks like a fun exercise to look back at my draft picks. My first draft was back in 2010 with the Carolina Hurricanes. I’ve done 7 drafts with the Hurricanes and 4 with the Vegas Golden Knights. Here are my best picks round by round.

Round 1: Alexander Barkov 2013, Elias Pettersson F 2017, It’s hard to screw up when you’re drafting as high in the draft as where I selected these two players. I’ve had a handful of other decent first rounders but none that match these two stars.

Round 2: Maxime Comtois F 2017, I have pretty much mostly dropped the ball in the 2nd round of the draft. Comtois is young and just breaking into the league. I believe he has the upside to be a very good player. However this speaks to the how bad I’ve drafted in the 2nd round that in 11 drafts I haven’t selected a regular NHLer in the 2nd round.

Round 3: Sebastian Aho F 2015, Getting a first line player in the 3rd round doesn’t happen all that often. I drafted him thinking his ceiling was really high, but given his size wasn’t likely to ever reach it. I’m happy now that I took the chance on a guy like him.

Round 4: Anthony Cirelli F 2015, I was pretty excited to land Cirelli in the 4th round and he hasn’t disappointed. I thought he had a fairly good ceiling when I picked him, but I would never expect anybody to actually reach it this late in the draft.

Round 5: Petr Mrazek G 2010, He was the second goalie I selected in 2010. Jack Campbell was the first and my first ever pick. Mrazek has had a solid career as a 1a/b starter. Certainly can’t complain about that kind of result from a 5th round pick.

Round 6: Kenny Agostino F 2010, I haven’t made many picks in the 6th round over the year and this would appear to be the best of them. He’s played 85 career NHL games and over 300 AHL games. He is close to a point per game player in the AHL but it’s never translated to the NHL.

Round 7: Antonin Honejsek F 2010, I’ve only ever made 2 or 3 picks in the 7th round as I have a tendency to give these picks away, Honejsek is the only one that has any sort of relevant professional career. He’s played almost exclusively in the Czech league and last year may have been his best season putting up 37 points in 51 games.

From doing this exercise I’ve learned that I really suck at drafting. I’ve hit some home runs in the middle rounds, but the first 2 rounds especially the 2nd round haven’t produced the way they should. The 2015 draft was far and away the high point in my drafting hitting home runs with Aho and Cirelli in the middle rounds. I also selected Timo Meier, Colin White and Joel Eriksson EK. As well as Joe Hicketts who’s had a handful of games in the NHL.