Rounds 2-7: Fantastic - Round 1: Badbadbadbadbad

[The Macho King]

Since Yzerman took over, here is the history of our first round selections.

2010: Brett Connolly (6th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Jeff Skinner, Cam Fowler, Vladimir Tarasenko
Results: Traded to Boston for 2 2nds in 2015

2011: Vladislav Namestnikov (27th overall - probably the best pick)
Results: Still on roster

2012: Slater Koekkoek (10th overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Filip Forsberg, Cody Ceci
Results: A few games at the NHL level, closing in on bust territory
Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th overall) - great pick it looks like

2013: Jonathan Drouin (3rd Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Seth Jones
Results - traded for 2016 9th overall pick Sergachev

2014: Anthony DeAngelo (19th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Roby Fabbri, David Pastrnak
Results - traded for 2016 37th overall pick Libor Hajek

2015: No First Round Pick

2016: Brett Howden (27th overall)

Let's face facts - our first round drafting has sucked lately. It's becoming a problem. Three top ten picks in this time frame, and only one is still with the organization and is draft+4 and hasn't done anything at the NHL level.

Click to read more...

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

I know this is beating the dead horse at this point, but boy does passing on Seth Jones look awful.

 

[The Gongshow]

I know its hard to tell who will develop and bust but man... We could have had Jones, Forsberg and Tarasanko...... our 1st rounders haven't been great for a little while

 

[The Macho King]

I would love to know how they're so good at finding Point, Palat, Kucherov, Gudas, etc., but can't pick in the ****ing first round. Makes no damn sense.

 

[Electricity]

I know this is beating the dead horse at this point, but boy does passing on Seth Jones look awful.

How awful will Sergachev look compared to Jones in five years? Because that's who we got instead.

 

[Rschmitz]

Getting picked by the Lightning in the first round is like the kiss of death for your career

 

[Rschmitz]

How awful will Sergachev look compared to Jones in five years? Because that's who we got instead.

I think the biggest difference is that good right handed defensemen are as rare as hens teeth to acquire.

 

[chasespace]

I still won't give Yzerman blame for Connolly. He came in late and went off what the existing scouting staff recommended.

But yeah, other than that we've had some suspect first round picks. Maybe we should just trade our firsts for more 2nds and 3rds.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

2013 is pretty interesting. MacKinnon hasn't really lived up to 1st overall pick expectations, Jones and Drouin have both been traded from their original teams, and Nichushkin is back playing in Russia.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Since Yzerman took over, here is the history of our first round selections.

2010: Brett Connolly (6th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Jeff Skinner, Cam Fowler, Vladimir Tarasenko
Results: Traded to Boston for 2 2nds in 2015

2011: Vladislav Namestnikov (27th overall - probably the best pick)
Results: Still on roster

2012: Slater Koekkoek (10th overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Filip Forsberg, Cody Ceci
Results: A few games at the NHL level, closing in on bust territory
Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th overall) - great pick it looks like

2013: Jonathan Drouin (3rd Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Seth Jones
Results - traded for 2016 9th overall pick Sergachev

2014: Anthony DeAngelo (19th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Roby Fabbri, David Pastrnak
Results - traded for 2016 37th overall pick Libor Hajek

2015: No First Round Pick

2016: Brett Howden (27th overall)

Let's face facts - our first round drafting has sucked lately. It's becoming a problem. Three top ten picks in this time frame, and only one is still with the organization and is draft+4 and hasn't done anything at the NHL level.

Connolly wasn't his pick, it was the scouting staff already in place pre-Yzerman (and also one of the reasons they're gone).

Koekkoek has lost nearly two full years of development, still too early to throw around "bust". Also, Ceci is kinda ****. Just because hes on the roster doesn't make him good.

DeAngelo, yeah... wasn't against the risk, the kid is obviously talented but is a bit of a ********, and his parents don't seem to be much better.

 

[The Macho King]

Yzerman was the GM who made the Connolly pick. I get that he was relying on the previous staff, but at the end of the day it happened on his watch.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Yzerman was the GM who made the Connolly pick. I get that he was relying on the previous staff, but at the end of the day it happened on his watch.

Agreed, nothing wrong with that. I just never got the impression he liked Connolly.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Pretty underwhelming when listed like that. And in drastic contrast to our late picks. I guess the sentiment now is "lesson learned", no more risky picks. At least I hope. DeAngelo was known for his personality. Koekkoek had an alarming injury history already which should be a red flag. To soon to throw the towel but it threw him back quite some time in development. Connolly had a colorful injury history as well but okay, let's give Y a pass here, trusting his former scouting team.

Let's hope they opt for the obvious picks now. Seems like they attempted to out-smart the competition by picking high potential players with questionmarks (personality, injuries).

Drouin and Vasy were obvious picks I guess. Drouin was arguably BPA. Entitled and cocky or not, he had the numbers to back it up. The way it ended is a result of a lot of things. Possibly personality (entitlement), bad advice by parents and agents. But to say they (as in Cooper) gave him every chance to succeed isn't right either. Sometimes it doesn't work out. Either way he wasn't a bad pick.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Pretty underwhelming when listed like that. And in drastic contrast to our late picks. I guess the sentiment now is "lesson learned", no more risky picks. At least I hope. DeAngelo was known for his personality. Koekkoek had an alarming injury history already which should be a red flag. To soon to throw the towel but it threw him back quite some time in development. Connolly had a colorful injury history as well but okay, let's give Y a pass here, trusting his former scouting team.

Let's hope they opt for the obvious picks now. Seems like they attempted to out-smart the competition by picking high potential players with questionmarks (personality, injuries).

Drouin and Vasy were obvious picks I guess. Drouin was arguably BPA. Entitled and cocky or not, he had the numbers to back it up. The way it ended is a result of a lot of things. Possibly personality (entitlement), bad advice by parents and agents. But to say they (as in Cooper) gave him every chance to succeed isn't right either. Sometimes it doesn't work out. Either way he wasn't a bad pick.

Have to disagree on Koekkoek again - he only had one shoulder surgery at that point and seemed to be okay. It was the second one (and subsequent botched surgery) that proved troublesome for him. He didn't really have a history, just one injury.

 

[Todd1a]

Since Yzerman took over, here is the history of our first round selections.

2010: Brett Connolly (6th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Jeff Skinner, Cam Fowler, Vladimir Tarasenko
Results: Traded to Boston for 2 2nds in 2015

2011: Vladislav Namestnikov (27th overall - probably the best pick)
Results: Still on roster

2012: Slater Koekkoek (10th overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Filip Forsberg, Cody Ceci
Results: A few games at the NHL level, closing in on bust territory
Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th overall) - great pick it looks like

2013: Jonathan Drouin (3rd Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Seth Jones
Results - traded for 2016 9th overall pick Sergachev

2014: Anthony DeAngelo (19th Overall) Notable players picked shortly after - Roby Fabbri, David Pastrnak
Results - traded for 2016 37th overall pick Libor Hajek

2015: No First Round Pick

2016: Brett Howden (27th overall)

Let's face facts - our first round drafting has sucked lately. It's becoming a problem. Three top ten picks in this time frame, and only one is still with the organization and is draft+4 and hasn't done anything at the NHL level.

Ya our first round picks have been pretty bad by yzerman and Murray! They don't count for 2010 yzerman just arrived scouting was not in place. The koekkoek over forsberg pick had me really mad! I liked drouin over jones thought he would replace Marty St. Louis at the time. Deangelo was a completely wasted pick dealt him for a 2nd rounder knew his attitude was bad.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Connolly wasn't a bad pick at the time. Tarasenko wasn't a top 10 talent, maybe 1 scouting service had him in the top 10 while mostly all had Connolly and a lot had him in the top 5. So to say we should've took Tarasenko is dumb because it would've been a huge reach at that time. Fowler you can debate but we just took Hedman and I don't think he would've been developed the same way by us, he would've most likely gone back to junior for one year instead of NHL at 18.

The jury is still out on Koekkoek but there's also Reinhart and Pouliot who went ahead of him so we weren't the only ones who screwed up. We also don't draft Swedes, besides Hedman in the last 10 years, I just don't think Forsberg was much of an option.

Drouin wasn't a bad pick, he just didn't work out and become the player we thought. We needed a Jones but we also needed a Drouin, we had no top end forward prospects, our top 6 sucked and St. Louis was aging.

DeAngelo picked sucked, not because of who was drafted behind him but because of how quick they were to trade him. He was a good pick for that spot and a huge need, still is, just not sure why they would want to move on from him so fast? If they had reservations about him they should've picked someone else or trade him after his last junior season when he was arguably the best defenseman in the CHL. They screwed up his value by benching him and suspending him before ditching him for a good prospect but not one who fills the whole left by trading him.

 

[Fro]

I would love to know how they're so good at finding Point, Palat, Kucherov, Gudas, etc., but can't pick in the ****ing first round. Makes no damn sense.

its like you know how to be a CBJ fan

Alexandre Picare
Gilbert Brule
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another Guy

 

[LightningStrikes]

Have to disagree on Koekkoek again - he only had one shoulder surgery at that point and seemed to be okay. It was the second one (and subsequent botched surgery) that proved troublesome for him. He didn't really have a history, just one injury.

You're right, I must've mixed that one up.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

its like you know how to be a CBJ fan

Alexandre Picare
Gilbert Brule
Zherdev
Guy
another Guy

You can't really complain, look at 1st round picks Jones, Werenski and Wennberg.

 

[The Macho King]

its like you know how to be a CBJ fan

Alexandre Picare
Gilbert Brule
Zherdev
Guy
another Guy

You also got RyJo and others more recently.

Actually - our first round picks have sucked for a pretty long time. Outside of 08 and 09 (which were slam dunks, of course in Stamkos and Hedman), here is the history of Tampa's first round since 98:

98 - Vinny Lecavalier (1st overall)
99 - no first
00 - Nikita Alexeev (8th overall - bust)
01 - Alexander Svitov (3rd overall - bust)
02 - No first
03 - No first
04 - Andy Rogers (30th overall - bust)
05 - Vladimir Mihalik (30th overall - bust)
06 - Riku Helenius (15th overall - bust)
07 - No first
08 - Steven Stamkos (1st overall)
09 - Victor Hedman (2nd overall)
09 - Carter Ashton (29th overall - bust)
10 - Brett Connolly (6th overall - bust)
11 - Vladislav Namestnikov (27th overall - non-bust)
12 - Slater Koekkoek (10th overall - nearing bust territory)
12 - Andrei Vasilveskiy (19th overall)
13 - Jonathan Drouin - (3rd overall - traded)
14 - Anthony DeAngelo (19th overall - traded)
15 - No first
16 - Brett Howden (27th overall)

Honestly - is there a worst first-round drafting team in that time frame? 3 hits, 2 players traded for less than their pick, and a ton of busts. And two of the hits were 1st and 2nd overall, and can't miss prospects.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Minnesota might come close...

 

[DFC]

Given the age of our core, it might be a good idea to finally start trading a few 1sts anyway, especially when they're middle or late 1sts. Because, yeah, most of our better players were chosen in later rounds (or signed), and our cornerstones are already in place. And now that every team in the league seems to be following our lead and trying to hoard draft picks, 1sts might be getting a little overvalued too. Buy low, sell high.

 

[The Macho King]

Given the age of our core, it might be a good idea to finally start trading a few 1sts anyway, especially when they're middle or late 1sts. Because, yeah, most of our better players were chosen in later rounds (or signed), and our cornerstones are already in place. And now that every team in the league seems to be following our lead and trying to hoard draft picks, 1sts might be getting a little overvalued too. Buy low, sell high.

I've been on the "trade our 14th pick" train for awhile now. I just don't see any prospect to be excited about that wouldn't have an equivalent player at ~25 anyway, and I think we could likely fill a hole (either at D or a top 6 winger).

Our prospect pool - despite where we have been drafting lately - is still really good (and now has a legit blue-chipper in Sergachev), so it's not like we're mortgaging the future or anything. We'd be dealing from a position of strength (prospects) for a position of need (roster players).

 

[DFC]

I've been on the "trade our 14th pick" train for awhile now. I just don't see any prospect to be excited about that wouldn't have an equivalent player at ~25 anyway, and I think we could likely fill a hole (either at D or a top 6 winger).

Our prospect pool - despite where we have been drafting lately - is still really good (and now has a legit blue-chipper in Sergachev), so it's not like we're mortgaging the future or anything. We'd be dealing from a position of strength (prospects) for a position of need (roster players).

Agreed. I think we have several prospects who could legitimately challenge for a spot this year too, much like Point last year. It seems like Phase 1 of the Yzerplan is to hoard youth, but Phase 2--transitioning those players into steady NHL roles--either never happens, or happens so slowly that it feels like we're not fully capitalizing. Meanwhile, we just keep hoarding and hoarding and hoarding. And I'm just not that enthused about another player who'll be developed for 3-5 years while our core enters its prime years.

So yeah, 1st + Whatever It Takes to land a missing piece.