Wild's best and worst draft selections?

[TaLoN]

Im not saying he was good or what we wanted. But in a discussion of worst picks ever, a player with 200+ games in a wild sweater and 400 total isnt in the conversation when there are 3 first round picks who never suited up and Colton Gillies, who was drafted to be a grinder and couldnt even manage that.

I will not agree with your assessment. Hype is a factor, and Sheppard came loaded with hype around here.

It's the reason Daigle is arguably one of the biggest busts in NHL history, and it's a reason Sheppard is one of the Wild's beggest busts in franchise history. He's not THE worst, but he's in the conversation.

 

[Engebretson]

Since we're on the topic of first round busts and Sheppard, Russo had a good story about Jacques Lemaire and James Sheppard in his latest podcast.

Lemaire came into the training room one day and Sheppard was sitting down, eating an ice cream cone and watching TV. Next to him, Wes Walz was full sprinting on a treadmill. I guess this bothered Lemaire so much that he went to Mike Ramsey and told him he was going to lay into Sheppard. Ramsey tried to get him to let it go, but Jacques was too pissed. He went back and basically told Sheppard that's why Walz is a NHL veteran and why Sheppard's clear lack of effort/dedication is why he'd be out of the league in a few years. Russo was paraphrasing, but I guess we know why Sheppard was always in Lemaire's doghouse.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Since we're on the topic of first round busts and Sheppard, Russo had a good story about Jacques Lemaire and James Sheppard in his latest podcast.

Lemaire came into the training room one day and Sheppard was sitting down, eating an ice cream cone and watching TV. Next to him, Wes Walz was full sprinting on a treadmill. I guess this bothered Lemaire so much that he went to Mike Ramsey and told him he was going to lay into Sheppard. Ramsey tried to get him to let it go, but Jacques was too pissed. He went back and basically told Sheppard that's why Walz is a NHL veteran and why Sheppard's clear lack of effort/dedication is why he'd be out of the league in a few years. Russo was paraphrasing, but I guess we know why Sheppard was always in Lemaire's doghouse.

I remember Russo saying this a while ago.

Lemaire was clearly right. Knee injury hurt Sheppard. As did skipping the AHL. But looking back it was clear the drive was never there with Shep. He always did the bare minimum to get by. Too bad for a guy with good size and vision.

 

[MN_Gopher]

My worst are Gillies, Kassian and Gabriel

Not so much on talent alone. They all made the NHL. I remember all of them being reaches. Maybe we got the player we wanted but we maybe could've got the player and something else.


Haula as the best. 7th rounder solid NHLer.

 

[DANOZ28]

gabriel would be fine if we used a 6th or 7th rnd pick on him but a 3rd was crazy. i think he went undrafted the prior year. a player i thought we were getting a steal on in the 2nd that completely busted was ondjre fiala? (not sure spelling) he was ranked in the 1st but broke his leg & dropped. aj thelen pick was bad. no sugar coating that one.

 

[DANOZ28]

the thing with pouliot ; sheppard & even gillies is they all had good jr #'s plus were big guys who could skate so i kinda understand why we picked them they just didnt pan out. i will always believe we rushed pouliot & didnt give him a fair chance to develop here.

 

[TaLoN]

the thing with pouliot ; sheppard & even gillies is they all had good jr #'s plus were big guys who could skate so i kinda understand why we picked them they just didnt pan out. i will always believe we rushed pouliot & didnt give him a fair chance to develop here.

Agreed... Pouliot was completely mishandled. DR was too worried about his own personal grudge with him instead of what the team needed. Lemaire almost publicly begged for Pouliot to make the team the way he talked about him one preseason...yet DR sent him down without a thought...

Yes, he never became the player we hoped, but the way he was handled in his development years may have stunted his ceiling.

Thank goodness we got Nino out of the Isles organization before too much of his development time passed!

 

[MuckOG]

Where is Riser these days? Assistant skate sharpener for a junior b team?

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Anyone still following Mario Lucia? How is he progressing? He seems to be an okay 2nd rounder.

 

[nickschultzfan]

My worst are Gillies, Kassian and Gabriel

Not so much on talent alone. They all made the NHL. I remember all of them being reaches. Maybe we got the player we wanted but we maybe could've got the player and something else.

Haula as the best. 7th rounder solid NHLer.

Gillies hockey IQ was very questionable, but he was the definition of rushed. Dude was tossed in the NHL at least 4 years early.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Gillies and Lucia and Cuma are interesting because as much as they haven't worked out, the Wild also traded up and traded away picks to get them.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...ed_numerous_depth_players_for_minnesota_wild/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...rom-minnesota-wilds-defense-heavy-2008-draft/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/138487/2011-nhl-draft-minnesota-wild-good-outing-might/

So while it's interesting to play the game of which player might have been available instead it's more fair to see who was actually picked. By that criterion, the Wild basically won all those trades (except Joseph Labate has played a few NHL games). Lucia might still pan out as something.

Surprised no one has brought up the Nanne kid. No offense to him, and he's a decent college player and probably a nice guy to boot, but using a draft pick on nepotism instead of looking for the Erik Haula of the draft is bad hockey management.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Gillies and Lucia and Cuma are interesting because as much as they haven't worked out, the Wild also traded up and traded away picks to get them.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...ed_numerous_depth_players_for_minnesota_wild/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...rom-minnesota-wilds-defense-heavy-2008-draft/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/138487/2011-nhl-draft-minnesota-wild-good-outing-might/

So while it's interesting to play the game of which player might have been available instead it's more fair to see who was actually picked. By that criterion, the Wild basically won all those trades (except Joseph Labate has played a few NHL games). Lucia might still pan out as something.

Surprised no one has brought up the Nanne kid. No offense to him, and he's a decent college player and probably a nice guy to boot, but using a draft pick on nepotism instead of looking for the Erik Haula of the draft is bad hockey management.

I think the nepotism angle is overblown. Nanne's got a number of grandkids, and the year before they let Lettieri go undrafted. Didn't select Tyler when they had a pick around where he was expected to go(and 3 spots before he was drafted).

It might have had a part, but I think they saw his one probably high level skill (skating, the kid can fly on the ice), and hoped he could turn develop the rest of the of his game. Which is basically what they did with Erik Haula as well. Grabbed a kid that can skate, and hope the rest of the game matures.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I think the nepotism angle is overblown. Nanne's got a number of grandkids, and the year before they let Lettieri go undrafted. Didn't select Tyler when they had a pick around where he was expected to go(and 3 spots before he was drafted).

It might have had a part, but I think they saw his one probably high level skill (skating, the kid can fly on the ice), and hoped he could turn develop the rest of the of his game. Which is basically what they did with Erik Haula as well. Grabbed a kid that can skate, and hope the rest of the game matures.

Huh? Talking about Marty, unless Lou is on some secret payroll. As I said, it's not an indefensible pick by any stretch, and at some level who really cares about a 7th rounder.

The Wild's drafting has always been solid, but could still be better.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Gillies and Lucia and Cuma are interesting because as much as they haven't worked out, the Wild also traded up and traded away picks to get them.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...ed_numerous_depth_players_for_minnesota_wild/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articl...rom-minnesota-wilds-defense-heavy-2008-draft/

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/138487/2011-nhl-draft-minnesota-wild-good-outing-might/

So while it's interesting to play the game of which player might have been available instead it's more fair to see who was actually picked. By that criterion, the Wild basically won all those trades (except Joseph Labate has played a few NHL games). Lucia might still pan out as something.

Surprised no one has brought up the Nanne kid. No offense to him, and he's a decent college player and probably a nice guy to boot, but using a draft pick on nepotism instead of looking for the Erik Haula of the draft is bad hockey management.

Nanne was more a gamble on a local kid than nepotism.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Nanne was more a gamble on a local kid than nepotism.

guys, when you pick a kid when his dad is on the payroll, it's nepotism. Grab a dictionary. If he couldn't skate or play hockey it would be just absurd.

 

[MuckOG]

guys, when you pick a kid when his dad is on the payroll, it's nepotism. Grab a dictionary. If he couldn't skate or play hockey it would be just absurd.

Or genetics could have factored in as well. If you're going to take a flyer in the 6th round, grab one that has a family history of playing in the NHL.

I didn't realize that Lou was/is on the Wild payroll....in what capacity?

 

[ThatGuy22]

guys, when you pick a kid when his dad is on the payroll, it's nepotism. Grab a dictionary. If he couldn't skate or play hockey it would be just absurd.

I'm just saying, it probably wasn't the deciding factor. They've passed on other Nanne related kids.

Heck, they passed on all three Reilly boys who's dad is a minority owner. The list of D1 college bound players with ties to the Wild that they haven't selected is at worst 6 times longers than those that they selected.

Edina had a number of high picks, and it wouldn't be shocking if Nanne caught their eye.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Or genetics could have factored in as well. If you're going to take a flyer in the 6th round, grab one that has a family history of playing in the NHL.

I didn't realize that Lou was/is on the Wild payroll....in what capacity?

Marty (Louis Nanne's dad) is a Scout for the Wild.

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

Nanne was a nepotism pick clearly, he was a third liner in high school and never showed any sort of elite skill. It was a bad pick but at least it was a 7th rounder. Also for anyone who thinks Haula was some sort of great pick or piece of scouting by us, look no further than the fact that we drafted his line mate, Alex Fallstrom 3 rounds earlier that year. Anyone who saw a single Shattuck game that year could have told you Haula was the best player there. Even people on this board had him pegged as a 2-4th rounder and would be a good value pick at those spots.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Nanne was a nepotism pick clearly, he was a third liner in high school and never showed any sort of elite skill. It was a bad pick but at least it was a 7th rounder. Also for anyone who thinks Haula was some sort of great pick or piece of scouting by us, look no further than the fact that we drafted his line mate, Alex Fallstrom 3 rounds earlier that year. Anyone who saw a single Shattuck game that year could have told you Haula was the best player there. Even people on this board had him pegged as a 2-4th rounder and would be a good value pick at those spots.

You make some good points.

Nanne aside, I still think the Wild's competitive advantage is taking an under-scouted Minnesota kid in the 6th or 7th round. Other teams just don't look at those guys enough. Or maybe Finland when we had good connections there.

And I am not saying that as some Minnesotan since I have never been one.

 

[123TripleDoge]

If Nanne turns out to be an NHLer then it wasn't nepotism it was good scouting

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

If Nanne turns out to be an NHLer then it wasn't nepotism it was good scouting

Hahahaha

 

[Bronson]

I followed Wild extensively during the first ten years and I'd say that Patrick O'Sullivan, Roman Voloshenko and Maxim Sushinski were some of the biggest disappointments. I thought at least one of them would turn into a 30+ goal-scorer. Of the picks from later years I'd say Bussieres, Phillips and Bulmer, of which none turned into anything.

I'd nominate Nick Schultz as one of the best picks. A really steady player who's the first and so far only player the Wild has drafted who has played in over 1000 NHL games.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Best: Koivu
Worst: Pouliot

 

[MuckOG]

Best: Koivu
Worst: Thelen and Phillips