Your Team's Worst Draft Picks

[Brodeur]

Jeff Ware was aggregiously bad for the Leafs. Apparently he was drafted in the first round by Cliff Fletcher because Ware's dad was a friend.

So while other teams were busy drafting for the future, he was picking a kid with zero upside because of family ties.

Ware's family was friends with Bill Watters who was part of Toronto's assistant GM: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-04-11/sports/9904110004_1_florida-panthers-maple-leafs-toronto

It was a controversial decision to draft Ware so high four years ago. The Toronto media criticized the deal because Petr Sykora was still there for the taking, accusing the Maple Leafs of just picking a local kid who was neighbors with Bill Watters, now the Leafs assistant to President Ken Dryden.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/302/maple_leafs_training_camp_report/

Jeff Ware – 21, 6’4″ 220 lbs – Quick, name three Maple Leaf first round picks who are still with the organization! Antropov is only the second, the other being Jeff Ware. One of the factors that led to the dismissal of Cliff Fletcher was the popular belief that Ware had been drafted because of his father’s friendship with assistant GM Bill Watters, who is still with the organization.

If I recall correctly, Watters had kid(s) in the same school as Ware and personally vouched for his character. I'll have to check the old THN rankings to see if the Ware pick was off the board.

 

[Hobnobs]

Um, what?

Sillinger in particular was a great pick in a bad draft.

Curtis Bowen, Max Kuznetsov, Yan Golubovsky, and Jesse Wallin would all be up there for Detroit. Kocur is the worst, though - was a 3rd-4th round prospect picked in the 1st because he was related to a Wings player.

Talking about weak drafts and then saying late 1st rounders Bowen, Kuznetsov and Golubovsky should be on there, is ironic. Sillinger was a 11th overall. Complete bust.

Jesse Wallin was good. His career got derailed by injuries. Not a bad selection.

 

[The Panther]

Hey, this post made me laugh!:

For the Devils, there have been many as of late unfortunately for us fans.

1. You have to start with their 1st ever pick, Rocky Trottier #8 overall in 1982.
A total bust.
He ended up playing in only 38 career games.
Only had 1 noteworthy goal, a penalty shot vs Edmonton.

But 'Rocky' gave the Devils 38 more games than the Oilers entire draft from 1990!

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

may he rest in peace, but luc bourdon. it was terrible at the time, and he would have had to wildly overachieve based on all reasonable expectations to not have been the wrong pick.

the guy we should have picked, and whom we all were begging nonis to pick leading up to the draft if he were to magically fall to us, is now a living, skating hall of fame franchise center.

imagine the sedins on the first line, kopitar on the second line, and kesler on the third. until the cap forces you to break that up, that's multiple cups right?

 

[Scorvat]

may he rest in peace, but luc bourdon. it was terrible at the time, and he would have had to wildly overachieve based on all reasonable expectations to not have been the wrong pick.

the guy we should have picked, and whom we all were begging nonis to pick leading up to the draft if he were to magically fall to us, is now a living, skating hall of fame franchise center.

imagine the sedins on the first line, kopitar on the second line, and kesler on the third. until the cap forces you to break that up, that's multiple cups right?

Yes at the time it was a bad pick, but Luc was still projecting to be a solid bottom 4 Dman and easily should not be in this thread

Guys like White(playing in a Norwegian league) Woodley, Polasek and Herter all should be mentioned not Luc

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

and just to add to that:

ima recap my '05 draft, which is probably identical to all other canucks fans' experience watching that draft:

- from the moment our ball came up for #10, the whole draft is about hoping brule or kopitar somehow fall to us. i didn't think for a second either would actually happen, because this is the canucks on draft day; nothing good ever happens when it's the canucks on draft day. but you watch to find out anyway.

- so gainey goes off the board and takes price. i have no idea what he's doing, as theodore was still considered a top guy in the league (joke's on me now). but i was glad because that meant whoever needed a center between that pick and us at #10 was almost certainly going to take brule and not kopitar, leaving us with the franchise center we sorely needed at the time.

- columbus takes brule. i pray that the next few teams aren't also going after centers.

- chicago takes skille. breathe a sigh of relief.

- san jose goes off the board and takes setoguchi. so now i actually believe there's a chance we could get kopitar. please please ottawa, take marc staal. he's awesome, i swear.

- ottawa takes brian lee. i am laughing. then i am praying to god that nonis doesn't take staal. don't do it nonis. i'll kill you, don't take staal. don't look for the guaranteed double, go for the home run.

- luc bourdon. i am completely beside myself in shock. at this point, i was mad that we didn't even get staal. like i don't even care about kopitar anymore. how could you not take staal? this quickly escalates to throwing stuff at the tv angry. **** you nonis. no seriously **** you.

and the requisite caveat:

look, we all feel bad about luc. and we all have felt a little weird over the last seven-odd years cursing nonis for passing up kopitar. hence why whenever this comes up on the canucks board, it's always referred to as "kopitar over bourdon (rip)."

but kopitar was the right pick. period. bourdon would have had to turn out as good as brian leetch to have been the right pick. there is practically no chance he was going to hit that level. reminds me of a conversation i had about ten years ago:

me: but what if garnett had gone to college and was in duncan's draft? would you take garnett first overall?

my brother: absolutely everything would have had to go right for garnett to even equal duncan's career. look at what duncan has done; you almost can't even imagine a better fantasy scenario career for duncan up to this point (at the time, 3 titles, 3 finals MVPs, first team all-star every season of his career).

obviously kopi is not a top ten player all-time like timmy, but i think the same logic applies here: at that #10 pick in that draft, you couldn't even dream up a better player than kopitar has become, or better accomplishments than kopitar has amassed. there is no reasonable what-if for bourdon (rip) that could have justified passing up kopitar.

 

[Brodeur]

Unintentionally funny moment looking back at the 2005 Draft. Since the lockout pushed into July, the Draft didn't have its usual fanfare and team scouts were sequestered in hotel rooms rather than being on the draft floor.



Columbus had a film crew with their scouts to chronicle the selection. When Minnesota took Benoit Pouliot at #4, the Columbus scouts got excited. I believe one scout says "Brule or Kopitar [at #6]. Beautiful!" If only Montreal had taken Brule like everybody expected, maybe the last ten years would have been completely different for Columbus as well.

 

[Hawksfan2828]

may he rest in peace, but luc bourdon. it was terrible at the time, and he would have had to wildly overachieve based on all reasonable expectations to not have been the wrong pick.

the guy we should have picked, and whom we all were begging nonis to pick leading up to the draft if he were to magically fall to us, is now a living, skating hall of fame franchise center.

imagine the sedins on the first line, kopitar on the second line, and kesler on the third. until the cap forces you to break that up, that's multiple cups right?

No.....

That kid ran his bike into the back of a semi or something...

He never had a chance so it wasn't a bad pick...

 

[Ishdul]

No.....

That kid ran his bike into the back of a semi or something...

He never had a chance so it wasn't a bad pick...

I think the point is less about Bourdon and more about Kopitar. The treatment of Kopitar in the draft media was really bizarre. When scouts described him you'd think he was going 1B after Crosby, he was mostly projected to go 5/6 but seemed to have a lot of skepticism that apparently several teams bought into.

The scouting reports were all:
PROS: Gigantic, speedy centre with great hands, great puck handling, great vision, a very good shot, great hockey IQ, outstanding defensive ability, tireless work ethic, natural leader, dominated internationally, performed great at all levels in Sweden
CONS: Is from Slovenia

I remember Brian Burke was on TSN doing draft coverage at that point and his explanation was that there were a few guys from Switzerland who looked good as prospects but never looked good in the NHL.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Columbus had a film crew with their scouts to chronicle the selection. When Minnesota took Benoit Pouliot at #4, the Columbus scouts got excited. I believe one scout says "Brule or Kopitar [at #6]. Beautiful!" If only Montreal had taken Brule like everybody expected, maybe the last ten years would have been completely different for Columbus as well.

ouch.

but carey price, what an incredible off the board pick by gainey.

 

[Brodeur]

It's too bad, the 2005 Draft was the only one since 1995 that I haven't watched in some fashion. Since the lockout had just ended, the NHL didn't have a TV deal in place yet so they were stuck broadcasting it on NHL Network which wasn't offered in my neck of the woods.

If I ever got to have a conversation with a GM or scout, I think I would ask about the 2005 Draft and whether the uncertainty affected them. The lottery was conducted on July 22 and the Draft was held on July 30.

Typically, a team would have had a reasonable ballpark of where they'd be picking by March/April. So they might focus on a smaller group of players. But with 2005, you kinda had to have your eye on everybody since you didn't know the draft order. [/slightlyofftopic]

 

[Oscar Acosta]

Edmonton Oilers:

1994 #4 Overall Jason Bonsignore: 79 games played, 16 points
1998 #13 Overall Michael Henrich: 0 games played
2002 #15 Overall Jesse Niinimaki: 0 games played
1989 #15 Overall Jason Soules: 0 games played
2007 #15 Overall Alex Plante: 10 games played, two points

On games played absolutely but the one that will always sting is

2003 #22 Marc-Antoine Pouliot

Best draft in recent history, picks upcoming soon after him: Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Corey Perry, Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Shea Weber....


And I never use emoticons.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

On games played absolutely but the one that will always sting is

2003 #22 Marc-Antoine Pouliot

Best draft in recent history, picks upcoming soon after him: Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Corey Perry, Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Shea Weber....


And I never use emoticons.

The Blues took Shawn Belle 30th that year...so don't feel too bad.

 

[Stephen]

Ware's family was friends with Bill Watters who was part of Toronto's assistant GM: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-04-11/sports/9904110004_1_florida-panthers-maple-leafs-toronto



http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/302/maple_leafs_training_camp_report/



If I recall correctly, Watters had kid(s) in the same school as Ware and personally vouched for his character. I'll have to check the old THN rankings to see if the Ware pick was off the board.

Yep, looks like you got this one covered. Just an ugly, ugly case of cronyism.

Weirdly enough, he was then traded to Florida, whose assistant GM was Chuck Fletcher at the time. Anyway, such a slug.

 

[Moose Head]

Ware's family was friends with Bill Watters who was part of Toronto's assistant GM: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-04-11/sports/9904110004_1_florida-panthers-maple-leafs-toronto



http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/302/maple_leafs_training_camp_report/



If I recall correctly, Watters had kid(s) in the same school as Ware and personally vouched for his character. I'll have to check the old THN rankings to see if the Ware pick was off the board.

The Habs have a similar one. Back in the Eric Chouinard/Simon Gagne draft, they were torn between the two players. The reason Chouinard was picked was because Rejean Houle was friends with Eric's dad, former NHLer, Guy Chouinard.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Based on where they were picked vs available players at the time

2000 Entry 7 1 Lars Jonsson
2003 Entry 21 1 Mark Stuart
2007 Entry 8 1 Zach Hamill
2015 Entry 15 1 Zachary Senyshyn

 

[hototogisu]

ouch.

but carey price, what an incredible off the board pick by gainey.

The story goes that our head scout, Trevor Timmins, asked Gainey whether he wanted a franchise defenseman (referring to Marc Staal) or a franchise goalie (Price). Gainey told him to go with the goalie, the rest is history.

 

[MXD]

I'll give it a try for the Habs. Due to the draft nature, I won't bother with pre-70.

1. David Fischer, 20th, 2006 : Can we change topic?

2. Doug Wickenheiser, 1st, 1980 : Everything probably has been said on this.

3. Brent Bilodeau, 17th, 1991 : No NHL games, and physical stay at home type for assorted AHL, IHL and ECHL teams.

4. Lindsay Vallis, 13th, 1989 : Regardless of not much coming up afterwards in the 1st round (though Foote was drafted 22nd, 1st pick of the 2nd round), 1 career game for a 13th overall is bad. Partially compunded with the drafting of Patrice Brisebois.

5. Eric Chouinard, 16th, 1998. Wrong Rempart. Pure hindsight.

HM

Cam Connor, 5th, 1974 : The first round for this draft... isn't that great, and I'd go as far as to say that the top-5 players were picked in round 2 and beyond. But... Connor? The Habs ended up snagging Risebrough, Chartraw and Tremblay, support parts of the dynasty. The pick is bad, very bad, but it's not like the Habs didn't come up with something.

Robin Sadler, 9th, 1975 : See Cam Connor. Except that this first round was worst, and then again, the Habs didn't come out if it empty (Pierre Mondou, arguably the best player of the round with Bridgman and Halward, whose career was cut short).

Dan Geoffrion, 9th, 1978 : This one was very bad, but mostly because it smelled like nepotism. But the best player drafted after him is arguably Stan Smyl and Anton Stastny, both drafted way later.

Mark Napier, 10th, 1977 : Player of Napier's caliber usually make good 10th overall picks. But there was this very good kid playing right in the backyard... A bit of the Giroux effect, but closer (and a much better player being picked who was turned into a 1st Center afterwards).

Andrei Kostitsyn : 2003, 10th. See Napier. Nobody in the backyard, except with QUITE A FEW HHVG/HHOF after him, as opposed to a very, very obvious guy.


Omitted : Louis Leblanc. Too much reasons to think a severe injury suffered during the last lockout derailed his career. Wouldn't have been the best pick ever, but would basically have been an average pick from 2001 and 2010 (Tinordi, Kostitsyn and Fisher were worst)

 

[AVsTimeOut]

NYR, in the past 20 years in no order for me:
1) Jeff Brown - 22nd Overall -1996
2) Bobby Sanguinetti - 21st Overall -2007
3) Do I need to say this one?

Honorable mention goes to Cherneski and Brendl. Can't really blame Cherneski with the freak knee injury, and Brendl was logical at the time considering how he man handled the WHL that year, but damn... lol.

 

[bigwillie]

For the San Jose Sharks:

Teemu Riihijarvi - 12th overall, 1995; Never made the NHL. Sandwiched between Jarome Iginla and J.S. Giguere, although admittedly that draft was anything super special.

Devin Setoguchi - 8th overall, 2005; Although Setoguchi had a fairly decent NHL career, including a 30 goal season, this pick is particularly terrible given the fact that many wanted the Sharks to draft Anze Kopitar, but the Sharks' Tim Burke declared decisively that Kopitar was "overrated" and went with Setoguchi instead. Setoguchi helped get the Sharks Brent Burns later on, but Kopitar has been part of a Kings mini-dynasty.

Milan Michalek, Steve Bernier, Josh Hennessy, and Matt Carle - 6th, 16th, 43rd, and 47th overall, 2003; Michalek has had a decent career as a two-way winger, especially early in his career with the Sharks. Bernier utterly failed to meet expectations as a potential brutalizing power forward before carving a decent career as a 4th liner. Hennessy was a flop, appearing in less than two dozen games and potting a single NHL goal, while Matt Carle made a strong rookie showing before becoming an albatross contract with the Lightning later on - he has no points in 30 games, despite being an offense-first defenseman this year.

But what makes these four picks so brutal was the woulda, coulda, shoulda of the 2003 draft. At their best, these guys were just decent trade bait, with Michalek being traded for a washed-up Dany Heatley, and Carle as part of a package for Dan Boyle. However, with these four picks, the Sharks could have had:

1st pick: Ryan Suter/Jeff Carer/Brent Seabrook
2nd pick: Zach Parise/Ryan Getzlaf/Corey Perry/Brent Burns/Ryan Kesler
3rd pick: Patrice Bergeron
4th pick: Shea Weber

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

I'll give it a try for the Habs. Due to the draft nature, I won't bother with pre-70.

2. Doug Wickenheiser, 1st, 1980 : Everything probably has been said on this.

I think Wickenheiser's legacy is also easier in hindsight. He had all the tools to be a great center for Lafleur. It just never panned out like nearly everybody was thinking. Sure, not picking Savard has kept me up at nights and he was the home town favorite, but there was history on Wickenheiser's side with Big Pete as Lafleur's centerman; the best offensively.

Mark Napier, 10th, 1977 : Player of Napier's caliber usually make good 10th overall picks. But there was this very good kid playing right in the backyard... A bit of the Giroux effect, but closer (and a much better player being picked who was turned into a 1st Center afterwards).

The big miss was Bossy being drafted long after Napier. Despite Claude Ruel's pleas to Pollock ("He's the first player I've seen to bring me out of my seat since Lafleur!"), Pollock went with Napier for who knows what reasons.

 

[Brodeur]

Milan Michalek, Steve Bernier, Josh Hennessy, and Matt Carle - 6th, 16th, 43rd, and 47th overall, 2003

Right after that draft, I can remember going on vacation and picking up a copy of The Sporting News to read on the plane. There was a headline "Draft plan makes Sharks a winner" which at the time really did feel like counting your chickens before they hatched. I found an archived version here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-06-29/sports/0306290211_1_sharks-milan-michalek-nhl-draft

I didn't have anything particularly against the Sharks picks, but it was just one of those times when I felt like it was futile to declare a winner/loser. Although re-reading the article now, the Sharks paid a very cheap price to move up for Carle at #47. Didn't realize that Calgary moved for the pick for #97, #143, and #173. If anything, kudos on Wilson for pulling that one off.

I'm sure plenty of teams were kicking themselves about Weber, but it's easy to forget that Weber was a 3rd pairing D on a very stacked Kelowna squad that year. I seem to recall that he was a bit of a string bean and gradually put on 40 pounds.

Of the picks, Bernier was the one that stuck out. This quote from Tim Burke was memorable:

"Once the baby fat comes off and there's muscle strength, then you've got something," Burke says. "He knows it, and we know it going in. But he has a gift."

At the time, that was an aspect of scouting I didn't think was taken into consideration. Another example was the Kings debating between Doughty/Bogosian in 2008. Dean Lombardi admitted that Bogosian was by far the superior physical specimen and that Doughty had a ways to go. But they also thought Bogosian might already be close to his physical peak whereas Doughty maybe had some untapped upside if he hit the gym.

 

[NessFreaK]

Let's look at our first 5 opening picks. We were on a real winning streak there for a while:

97, 22nd: Nikos Tselios - 2 NHL games
98, 11th: Jeff Heerema - 32 NHL games
99, 16h: Dave Tanabe ... at least we go 1 NHL player.
00, 32nd (1st pick): Tomas Kurka - 17 NHL games
01, 15th: Igor Knyazev - 0 NHL games

Don't forget:
09, 27: Philippe Paradis - 0 NHL games

 

[Brodeur]

Let's look at our first 5 opening picks. We were on a real winning streak there for a while:

97, 22nd: Nikos Tselios - 2 NHL games
98, 11th: Jeff Heerema - 32 NHL games
99, 16h: Dave Tanabe ... at least we go 1 NHL player.
00, 32nd (1st pick): Tomas Kurka - 17 NHL games
01, 15th: Igor Knyazev - 0 NHL games

Don't forget:
09, 27: Philippe Paradis - 0 NHL games

In Carolina's defense, 96-02 drafts had below average depth for whatever reason. We could do a similar list for a lot of teams that would be groan inducing.

Tanabe in particular had a knack for scoring against the Devils. Even the brief time he was a Coyote, I distinctly remember him having a two point game against us.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

The story goes that our head scout, Trevor Timmins, asked Gainey whether he wanted a franchise defenseman (referring to Marc Staal) or a franchise goalie (Price). Gainey told him to go with the goalie, the rest is history.

that pick still amazes me. i mean, this is 2005. jose theodore was recent hart winner who had a bad post-MVP year and then had a major bounce back where he didn't contend for the vezina but you'd still probably have him on your top five goalies in the league list. the '04 playoffs especially, with his ridiculous 40+ save performance facing elimination in game 5 to spark the comeback from 3-1 against first place boston, capped off by a game 7 shutout where his team only put one goal behind the guy on the other side of the ice. then of course they got outclassed by the presidents trophy/cup winners but still, theo was a star. what did gainey know that the rest of us didn't yet?

Michalek being traded for a washed-up Dany Heatley

washed up? heatley scored 40 goals for you guys and went to the olympics.

Another example was the Kings debating between Doughty/Bogosian in 2008. Dean Lombardi admitted that Bogosian was by far the superior physical specimen and that Doughty had a ways to go. But they also thought Bogosian might already be close to his physical peak whereas Doughty maybe had some untapped upside if he hit the gym.

shows what lombari knows. DD is well on his way to a hall of fame career and he still hasn't hit the gym.