Would Dahlin crack top 10 all time draft prospects ?

[alko]

Ranked by most pre-draft hype surrounding a first overall prospect:

1. Lemieux
2. Crosby
3. Lindros
4. McDavid
5. Kovalchuk
6. Daigle
7. Lafleur
8. Hawerchuk
9. Matthews
10. Potvin

Kovalchuk so high? And no Oveckin? Common!

 

[Pominville Knows]

Luckily Dahlin is not as hyped as some others, instead he is the real deal.
When i say 'Bobby Orr' i'm not referring to greatness but style, everything from being able to prefer RD as a left handed shooter to his pirouettes in the defensive zone before rushing the puck.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I don’t recall the Chris Phillips and Wade Redden hype being particulary strong. Even in the pages of THN at the time they were considered safe picks in a down year but not necessarily franchise guys. Same for Hamrlik. Jovanovski had a decent level of hype to him but also wasn’t considered a franchise guy.

Berard if I recall correctly was called at the time the greatest defensive prospect in 20 years by a scout to THN.

For d-men I’d rate it:

1. Potvin
2. Pronger
3. Dahlin
4. Berard
5. Doughty

came here to mention Berard. He was very hyped up pre draft, to the point of being called the 2nd coming of Coffey

 

[arrbez]

Ranked by most pre-draft hype surrounding a first overall prospect:

1. Lemieux
2. Crosby
3. Lindros
4. McDavid
5. Kovalchuk
6. Daigle
7. Lafleur
8. Hawerchuk
9. Matthews
10. Potvin

I really don't recall Matthews being that hyped relative to the other guys on this list. All the scouting services had him rated really highly, but most fans really hadn't had a chance to watch him play. He's not a guy like Tavares or Kane that people had been tracking since he was 14. Matthews just kinda emerged from the desert like Moses, tore the USNTDP a new one, and then disappeared to a 2nd-tier men's league overseas for his draft year. As a Leaf fan after the draft, I knew almost nothing about him except for a few WJC and Swiss League highlight packs. If he had been in the CHL scoring like 65 goals I think the hype would have been off the charts.

 

[Habsfan18]

Kovalchuk so high? And no Oveckin? Common!

Kovalchuk was actually at the time alleged to be a mixture of Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure. A superstar Russian goal scoring machine with a power forward style and a mean streak. Many scouts believed he’d be the best Russian NHLer ever and he was called the best prospect since Lindros.

The Ovechkin hype machine was real, but it wasn’t on the level of Kovalchuk’s.

 

[alko]

The Ovechkin hype machine was real, but it wasn’t on the level of Kovalchuk’s.

Still cant believe this.
But that time the info here in Slovakia weren't so detailed like nowadays. So, maybe you true. Others?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i remember kovalchuk coming on very suddenly. for a long long time that was the jason spezza draft. i think kovalchuk wasn’t really well known (at least in north america) until the wjc, when he trolled the canadian team on his EN goal.

ovechkin was known for much longer, partially because he was very old for his draft. we know that he would have been first overall in the 2003 draft had he been eligible. and he already had two wjcs under his belt, both more impressive that kovy’s, going into the draft.

i think as prospects, you can compare kovy to malkin, though. and you can maybe also argue that ovechkin got a bit of a boost because he was so similar to kovy and kovy proved he was the real deal stepping into the league at 18 and by the 2004 draft had already won a rocket. and ovy was demonstrably better than him at the same age so how unbelievably good was this kid?

 

[JackSlater]

I recall Ovechkin receiving more hype than Kovalchuk did, though it was decently close. I remember there being comparisons between them and most favouring Ovechkin. Ovechkin's hype was somewhat overshadowed by the Crosby hype.

 

[tony d]

Nope, I mean it's close and I think he's going to be a superstar but there've been quite a few more prospects than Dahlin for this list.

 

[wetcoast]

Dahlin is possibly the 2nd or 3rd biggest defenseman draft prospect of all-time.I feel he's behind Potvin, and maybe behind Pronger and Doughty too.

I agree but my first thought was that he is the most hyped Dman prospect since Potvin and then Orr before him.

Pronger didn't even go first in his draft and there were some doubts on doughty translating and having the work ethic for the NHL.

Dahlin had scouts drooling since the WJC in 2016-17

 

[arrbez]

Kovalchuk was actually at the time alleged to be a mixture of Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure. A superstar Russian goal scoring machine with a power forward style and a mean streak. Many scouts believed he’d be the best Russian NHLer ever and he was called the best prospect since Lindros.

The Ovechkin hype machine was real, but it wasn’t on the level of Kovalchuk’s.

I don't remember that level of hype for Kovalchuk. I wouldn't be surprised if most scouts still had Spezza as the #1 pick going into their draft year. That's a far cry from Ovechkin who was being called the future #1 overall pick when he was 16. From my recollection, I don't think this was even that close.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Wasn't Bryan Fogarty hyped like no tomorrow?

EDIT: Well, I think his substance abuse issues cooled the hype.

 

[VancouverFanInNYC]

i remember kovalchuk coming on very suddenly. for a long long time that was the jason spezza draft. i think kovalchuk wasn’t really well known (at least in north america) until the wjc, when he trolled the canadian team on his EN goal.

ovechkin was known for much longer, partially because he was very old for his draft. we know that he would have been first overall in the 2003 draft had he been eligible. and he already had two wjcs under his belt, both more impressive that kovy’s, going into the draft.

i think as prospects, you can compare kovy to malkin, though. and you can maybe also argue that ovechkin got a bit of a boost because he was so similar to kovy and kovy proved he was the real deal stepping into the league at 18 and by the 2004 draft had already won a rocket. and ovy was demonstrably better than him at the same age so how unbelievably good was this kid?

I was in high school at the time and still remember that draft / WJC. There was a lot of drama as Jason Spezza was the consensus #1 pick at the beginning of the year but by draft day, Kovalchuk was taken #1 and even your stereotypical anti-Russians like Bobby Clarke claimed it wasn't close between Kovalchuk and Spezza. A lot of mystery surrounded Kovalchuk at the time (mostly due to a lack of information) but that WJC was the coming out party for the Russians (so much so that Kovalchuk went 1st overall, Svitov who went 3rd overall and Chistov who went 5th overall). Aside from the empty net goal Kovalchuk scored, there was a lot of on-ice drama too as I recall Svitov spat on Sutherby and Danny Hamhuis got injured by a tough Russian check.

The Kovalchuk pick was surprising because of how good Spezza was - he had the size and he had the stats, without any noticeable flaws to his game. Also, Spezza was one of four Canadian players at the time to ever make the Canada WJC team as a 16 year old. The other three were Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros and Jay Bouwmeester, another candidate for this thread. Although Bouwmeester didn't end up going first overall and actually had a great (despite never becoming a superstar), the hype he was receiving as a 16 / 17 year old was pretty incredible. He was a smooth-skating 6'4'' defenseman who was head and shoulders above his peers as a 16/17 year old and it was kind of a shame his growth trajectory never accelerated the way it was expected.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

am i right to say that usually top draft eligible dmen are late risers? from memory, hamrlik, jovo, tivo, phillips, e johnson, hedman, and ekblad all made big late season climbs.

in that sense, dahlin was a rare consensus #1 for a long long time. niedermayer was never number one but for a long time he was the easy #2 behind a very special case top guy, berard, bouwmeester, those are the only “early” top dmen that come to mind since i started paying close attention. maybe doughty? but i feel like he was always pretty solidly behind stamkos.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Top 100 yes, but not top 10.

 

[Ctrain2k]

am i right to say that usually top draft eligible dmen are late risers? from memory, hamrlik, jovo, tivo, phillips, e johnson, hedman, and ekblad all made big late season climbs.

in that sense, dahlin was a rare consensus #1 for a long long time. niedermayer was never number one but for a long time he was the easy #2 behind a very special case top guy, berard, bouwmeester, those are the only “early” top dmen that come to mind since i started paying close attention. maybe doughty? but i feel like he was always pretty solidly behind stamkos.

I can’t speak for the other guys, but Ekblad was 1st at the start of his draft year (Reinhart a close 2nd) and pulled away pretty comfortably by mid season.

 

[PurpleMouse]

i remember kovalchuk coming on very suddenly. for a long long time that was the jason spezza draft. i think kovalchuk wasn’t really well known (at least in north america) until the wjc, when he trolled the canadian team on his EN goal.

I agree with this post and am surprised to see Kovalchuk ranking so high on these lists. I don't think Kovalchuk was considered a consensus #1 pick until the last few months of the season. Certainly nothing comparable to Crosby, Lindros, presumably Lemieux, Daigle, and even McDavid.

Of course these types of comparisons are tough because as time goes on there is more media, hence more hype, so you have to grade relatively. But me to when I think Kovalchuk I don't even think of a guy who was a consenus #1.