Surprisingly high picks? a look back.

[zeus3007*]

I'm pretty sure Michael Grabner was ranked in the second or third round, but the Canucks took him at 14. Looking like a good selection.

I believe the Sens reached for Lee and took him at 9 in 2005. Don't think that was a great pick..

Jesse Niinimaki by the Oilers was pretty terrible.

Thomas Hickey at 4? Was ranked in the mid 20's.

Teemu Riihijivari (12) by San Jose in 1995 was a disaster of a selection. He never played a professional game in NA..

Wasn't Marcel Goc going at 20 a stretch? Not a bad pick though.

Grabner and Hickey both saw their stock rise tremendously in the month before the draft for some reason. Not sure why, maybe they outshone everyone at the combine?

Oh, and in 5 years, I'm sure people will be saying "The Rangers took McIlrath over Fowler, lolz". Heck, some are saying it already.

 

[rt]

Derek Morris was huge suprise pick. Completely off the board. He's been a solid number three guy for like ten years now. Fantastic pick.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Wow, never noticed that. I wonder why that happened, he had good junior stats and everything..

Ok I looked it up and it was because before the lockout players in NCAA had to declare for the draft after their freshman year if they wanted to be in the draft, and wern't automatically eligible until after their 2nd year at college, and if they declared after freshman year they would lose eligibility. Apparently he was ranked 199th for the 99 draft though so good move on his part for not declaring and going 2nd the next year

 

[smitty10]

Ok I looked it up and it was because before the lockout players in NCAA had to declare for the draft after their freshman year if they wanted to be in the draft, and wern't automatically eligible until after their 2nd year at college, and if they declared after freshman year they would lose eligibility. Apparently he was ranked 199th for the 99 draft though so good move on his part for not declaring and going 2nd the next year

Thanks for looking that up. What a remarkable pick he would have been if a team had grabbed him in the late rounds of the terrible '99 draft. He was a great pick anyway, but wow, great story.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Mark Stuart. sigh.

Stuart wasn't such a reach at 21. Obviously there were players on the board who turned out better, but there always are. Going with a conservative pick at that stage of the draft is not a bad strategy.

Gonna say Jeff Skinner. Carolina reached for this guy and drafted him above his rated position. Seems they knew something others didn't.

It came down to a couple of things:

1) They were willing to look past the (unfounded) criticism of his skating and the fact that he isn't a huge body.

and

2) He fits the organization character-wise.

 

[PumpkinBombX]

There was a period in the mid to late 90's to about 2004 where the drafts weren't very good.

The fault was on Canada's lack of development. They had fallen behind in young player development. To combat this Canada instituted their program of excellence starting with kids very young.

I'm not saying it was the full problem but as back then a majority of players drafted were canadian (and still are) it led to some pretty bad drafts.

It was also around this time that more american kids started getting drafted (around 2004). In the states hockey is still very much a rich kid's sport, but I think with Gretzky going to the kings, ~15 years later you started to see more US kids being drafted. This also helped improve the quality of draft.

 

[Passthedonuts]

Derek Morris was huge suprise pick. Completely off the board. He's been a solid number three guy for like ten years now. Fantastic pick.

This one stands out for me as well. This was when I just starting getting really into the draft as a teenager.

I had my Top 100 from The Hockey News in front of me while all the selections were made. When Calgary called Morris' name in the first round, the audience gasped and I looked up and down my top 100 for his name and couldn't find it. Even the TSN crew didn't have a scouting report and video readily available when the selection was made

In hindsight, probably one of the top picks of a very weak draft.

 

[Chrass]

Wow, never noticed that. I wonder why that happened, he had good junior stats and everything..

Probably because Heatley's an a-hole.

 

[birddog*]

Stuart wasn't such a reach at 21. Obviously there were players on the board who turned out better, but there always are. Going with a conservative pick at that stage of the draft is not a bad strategy.



It came down to a couple of things:

1) They were willing to look past the (unfounded) criticism of his skating and the fact that he isn't a huge body.

and

2) He fits the organization character-wise.

One of the best picks in a long time. I saw this kid play in Minor hockey and he played on the same team as Seguin. We always used to remark how Skinner seemed to be the better of the two. Even though Seguin was higher rated. The logic was that he just did more.

Seguin always got the props becuase he was bigger and had a better looking stride.

 

[Booba]

Ok I have a question, not really related to this topic but why was Danny Heatley not taken in the 1999 draft? He is a complete year older than other guys taken in the 2000 draft like Gaborik who is Feb 82' and heatley is born in Jan 81', and he was taken 2nd overall? I know guys can be passed over and drafted a year later but ive never heard of anyone going that high after being passed over, is there a reason for this?

No idea. However, same thing happenned to Mike Komisarek who was drafted 7th overall at 19 yo.

Back to topic, I remember Brent Burns being a really surprising pick by the Wild. He went 20 overall in 2003 but he was ranked to go in the third. They didn't know at that time if he was a forward or a defenseman

I guess the fact that he made the NHL at 18 might be even more surprising.

 

[pooleboy]

i know he hasn't played yet but Jake Gardiner wasn't even ranked in the 1st round and he was taken like 18th, (just looking back at mock drafts)

 

[Garo]

Heatley (and Komisarek) were drafted under the old NCAA rules. Basically, if you wanted to keep playing in the NCAA, you had to play at least your Freshman year before declaring for the draft.

I'm sure someone could explain it better than I did, but that was the main point.

 

[Akonite]

Don't know if this counts, but Ovechkin being drafted in the seventh round of the 2003 draft was pretty surprising.

 

[mrzeigler]

Bryan Berard. Won a Calder and never played a game for Ottawa.

Was Berard selected suprisingly high?

My recollection is that he was touted as the next Paul Coffey but drank his future away.

edit: I was thinking of Brian Fogarty.

 

[mrzeigler]

Robert Dome, 17th overall by the Penguins in 1997. Raised a LOT of eyebrows at the time, and history affirms those eyebrows.

 

[periferal]

Bryan Berard. Won a Calder and never played a game for Ottawa.

He never played a game for Ottawa because he was traded for Wade Redden.

 

[SensFan26]

Wasn't Mark Visentin ranked in the 7th round?

 

[VikingAv]

I believe TJ Oshie was picked much earlier than expected. There's one headscratcher that paid off.

 

[birddog*]

Was Berard selected suprisingly high?

My recollection is that he was touted as the next Paul Coffey but drank his future away.

poor Berard. Newsflash he never drank his carrer away. He wasn't a surprise, he was touted number one, and went number one. He didn't want to play in Ottawa because they were the worst team in the league for years--so was traded to Long Island for Wade Redden.

He won rookie of the year and was getting better and better. Was traded for Felix Potvin -- because that's what Milbury does. FYI Potvin was a sensation prior to getting dealt. He proceeded to light it up for the Maple Leafs and progress very well. Until Marian Hossa almost took out his eye with a careless highstick. He almost lost his eye and his eyesight went to 15% which is basically the lowest level you can have and still be allowed to play.

He came back and played with one eye getting 40 points a couple times but struggled defensively and was never the same. All in all he was worthy of the pick and had as good a career as you can have being almost blind in one eye.

Stop saying **** like he drank his career away.

 

[mrzeigler]

poor Berard. Newsflash he never drank his carrer away. He wasn't a surprise, he was touted number one, and went number one. He didn't want to play in Ottawa because they were the worst team in the league for years--so was traded to Long Island for Wade Redden.

He won rookie of the year and was getting better and better. Was traded for Felix Potvin -- because that's what Milbury does. FYI Potvin was a sensation prior to getting dealt. He proceeded to light it up for the Maple Leafs and progress very well. Until Marian Hossa almost took out his eye with a careless highstick. He almost lost his eye and his eyesight went to 15% which is basically the lowest level you can have and still be allowed to play.

He came back and played with one eye getting 40 points a couple times but struggled defensively and was never the same. All in all he was worthy of the pick and had as good a career as you can have being almost blind in one eye.

Stop saying **** like he drank his career away.

My apologies. Confused him with Bryan Fogarty. Don't know where my head was on that one.

 

[Brodeur]

Thomas Hickey - drafted 4th overall - way off the board. People were wondering if L.A. knew something they didn't. Guess not.

Still time for Hickey to develop, he lost most of last year to a shoulder injury. Most expected the Kings at the time to take Karl Alzner. Alzner was a late birthday, so he's gotten a couple extra years on Hickey to get to where he's at.

JP Dumont was a surprise at 3rd overall - Isles went way off the board - but he worked out well. Not for the Island or Buffalo but finally in Nashville.

I was young for this draft, but I seemed to remember the story for the Islanders being that they were undecided between Volchkov/Dumont. I recall one of the TSN relaying a story about Milbury asking the cab driver on the way to the draft if they should take the safe bet (Dumont) or the higher upside guy with attitude problems (Volchkov). The cab driver said take the guy with attitude.

(insert joke about Milbury soliciting draft advice from a random cabbie)

Peter Sykora was ranked #1 overall in some mid-season polls and slid all the way to the middle of the first round. Everyone and their Mom thought CLiff Fletcher was going to draft him but instead Cliff Fletcher went way off the board to draft Jeff Ware. His explanation was that he had NHL mobility right now. The Leafs tried Ware in the NHL the very next year - he lasted less than a year and was never seen again. Sykora won a cup in NJ part of the Elias, Arnott, Sykora trio.

Sykora had a couple shoulder injuries which scared folks off. Perhaps a lesson to remember regarding Matt Puempel this year. From what I recall, Jeff Ware was a family friend of Leafs assistant GM Bill Watters. So there may have been some level of nepotism involved.

Ok I looked it up and it was because before the lockout players in NCAA had to declare for the draft after their freshman year if they wanted to be in the draft, and wern't automatically eligible until after their 2nd year at college, and if they declared after freshman year they would lose eligibility. Apparently he was ranked 199th for the 99 draft though so good move on his part for not declaring and going 2nd the next year

Yup, different rules in the pre-lockout days regarding college guys. Rick Nash ('02), Thomas Vanek ('03), and Zach Parise ('03) are the same age. The latter two went to NCAA, so they had to wait a year.

Rick DiPietro opted into the 2000 Draft, partially out of fear that he'd be the 3rd goaltender taken in 2001 after Pascal Leclaire and Dan Blackburn. Imagine a world where DiPietro stayed in school?

i know he hasn't played yet but Jake Gardiner wasn't even ranked in the 1st round and he was taken like 18th, (just looking back at mock drafts)

Gardiner was a wild card. He had recently converted to defense and was playing in Minnesota high school, so there was more of an unknown commodity.

Bob McKenzie's ranking had him at #21: http://tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=7125

Central had him at #23 amongst North Americans.

Wasn't Mark Visentin ranked in the 7th round?

TSN's list had him at the end of the 2nd round: http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=7323

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Wasn't Mark Visentin ranked in the 7th round?

Do you honestly believe he was ranked that low and the coyotes reached for him in the first round? He was the 4th ranked NA goalie by CSB. Can't remember where else anyone had him ranked but I think he was expected to go late 2nd. I could be wrong on that but he definitely wasn't ranked in the 7th round or anywhere near that late.

 

[smitty10]

How about Alexander Volchkov (4th overall in 1996)? Serious attitude issues and I remember reading somewhere that he requested that coach's/teammates refer to him as "the Volchinator" or something ridiculous like that.

 

[Next Best Thing*]

Isn't McIlrath having a good season in the WHL? Definitely too soon to assess him.

 

[6 8 5 13]

Sjostrom?