http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2005e.html

The Lockout helped.

yup the year Bettman rigged the ping pong balls to save a franchise...

Montreal's picks

Round - Pick - Name - Position

1 - 5 - Carey Price - G
2 - 45 - Guillaume Latendresse - R
4 - 121 - Juraj Mikus - D
5 - 130 - Mathieu Aubin - C
6 - 190 - Matt D'Agostini - R
7 - 200 - Sergei Kostitsyn - R
7 - 229 - Phillippe Paquet - D

I'm really liking that 200th pick.

That 5th pick aint to bad either!

Pens had a solid 3rd rounder in Letang that year. Oh, and the 1st rounder was decent as well.


Not sure who the other guys are, to be honest. (Gergen, Leinonen, Crowder, Paquet, Vitale)

ya, lol, that was exactly my thought process as I went through the Pens' picks... lolol

still think the class of 1990 is the best especially the top ten


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_NHL_Entry_Draft

Pick Player Nationality NHL Team College/Junior/Club Team
1 Owen Nolan ® Canada Quebec Nordiques Cornwall Royals (OHL)
2 Petr Nedved (L) Czechoslovakia Vancouver Canucks Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
3 Keith Primeau © Canada Detroit Red Wings Niagara Falls Thunder (OHL)
4 Mike Ricci © Canada Philadelphia Flyers Peterborough Petes (OHL)
5 Jaromir Jagr ® Czechoslovakia Pittsburgh Penguins HC Kladno (Czechoslovakia)
6 Scott Scissons © Canada New York Islanders Saskatoon Blades (WHL)
7 Darryl Sydor (D) Canada Los Angeles Kings Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
8 Derian Hatcher (D) United States Minnesota North Stars North Bay Centennials (OHL)
9 John Slaney (D) Canada Washington Capitals Cornwall Royals (OHL)
10 Drake Berehowsky (D) Canada Toronto Maple Leafs Kingston Frontenacs (OHL)


Trevor Kidd and Brodeur were also in the 1st round

Other notables

Geoff Sanderson 2nd round
Doug Weight 2nd round
Michael Renberg 2nd round
Alexei Zhamnov 4th round
Sergei Zubov 5th round
Peter Bondra 8th round
Ken Klee 9th round

I never let my friend, a huge Islanders fan, live this one down.

The Islanders made the playoffs on the last day of the 89-90 season thanks to a goal by Uwe Krupp, just barely beating out the Pens for the final playoff spot. My friend could not be happier at the time.
Months later, thanks to not making the playoffs, the Pens took Jagr. The Islanders took Scott Scissons. Yeah, him.

NOTE TO LEAFS FANS. Sometimes not making the playoffs isnt such a bad thing.

I agree, this was one of the best draft years.

Wow at Bondra being an 8th rounder.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Fedorov drafted really late in this year?

Edit: Nevermind, '89.

Edit: Wrong topic.

How did the lockout help?

Did they change the eligibility rules for the draft?

They had 2 years worth of draft eligible kids to choose from.

that's what I thought at first...but 04 was Ovechkin / Malkin. Am I missing something?

why?

they never skipped a draft. the "ovechkin draft" was before the lockout, and lockout was settled before the "crosby draft"

True, I forgot that. Not much I can think of then that helped the draft itself be so strong except teams maybe could put more energy into scouting and pick better.

the only real effect that the lockout had on the draft was allowing teams... like Pittsburgh... to get 2 draft years based on 1 season. Based on previous season results, you could effectively combine the 2004/2005 drafts as one class, because they were the same rookie class.

I'm kinda confused about what you're trying to say.

When you say, "get 2 draft years based on 1 season" it sounds like your saying because you finished poorly in one season you get low picks in two drafts. But, it was four teams with three balls and 10 with two balls. Everyone had a chance. Yes, some had better chances than others but it's nowhere near as close to any normal draft.

The rest of your posts just seems to say that their rookies that season were just that much better because of time to develop.

The rookie class in the season immediately following the lockout was extra strong because two draft classes had the opportunity to have their rookie season. I think some people are getting this confused with the draft, which wasn't affected by the lockout outside of the fancy lottery system, at least to my knowledge.

I'm sure this draft will look better over the years and maybe compare more favorably to the 1990 draft, but it'll take time for these guys to develop. I'm sure the 1990 draft didn't look near as great in 1993.

I'd say that draft was "ok" for the Cheap Thieves. We had about 7 or 8 picks and got these guys from the 1st RD:

2. Bobby Ryan
4. Benoit Pouliot
7. Jack Skille
11.Anze Kopitar
23.Nicklas Bergfors
24.T.J. Oshie

Oshie might end up being the best of the bunch, although I'd have to say that getting Kopitar when I did was the steal of the draft. Got him with the 10th pick in the draft.

A lot of hockey people will agree that the 1979 draft was the best ever...

http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1979e.html

Rob Ramage...Great dman...unfortunately in jail now
Mike Foligno...355 career goals
Mike Gartner...708 career goals
Rick Vaive ---441 career goals
Ray Bourque
Kevin Lowe
Brian Propp
Michel Goulet
Mats Naslund
Dale Hunter
Mark Messier in the THIRD ROUND
Glenn Anderson 4th ROUND


Some huge names there

The draft was only seven rounds in length, compared to nine rounds in years past. The labor dispute caused the shortened draft.

This is one reason why I think "the lockout" helped." I think fewer rounds meant more quality. I also think the lockout allowed teams to focus more on scouting than they probably would have if a season had happened. I may be wrong.

And I think if the NHL was really going to rig the lottery Crosby would be a Ranger.

Wow, I just realized how many d-men I have on the Canadian Gothic from this draft.

Marc Staal - NYR
Matt Niskanen - DAL
Vladimir Mihalik - TAM
Brendan Mikkelson - ANA
Oskars Bartulis - PHI
Ray Macias - COL
Kyle Cumiskey - COL

As much as he can be credited to saving the franchise (which I'm not really willing to give him total credit for), like DM said I think the NHL would have been better off having their future star in a large media center, not Pittsburgh.

I'm still holding my breath.

I think this was the best recent draft. At least in terms of the 1st round. Most had a big impact on their clubs.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html

I still love looking at these draft picks.


1989
Pick 53; Nick Lidstrom
Pick 74: Sergei Fedorov

1998
Pick 171: Pavel Datsyuk

1999
Pick 210: Henrik Zetterberg

i agree, getting guys like parise, getzlaf and richards that low in the 1st in disgusting, let alone guys like Weber and Carle in the 2nd.

that makes no sense

fewer rounds doesnt mean more quality. Its the same quality. The same guys would get picked in the first seven rounds, there would just be sixty less guys picked after those exact same guys.

you could just say, you thought they skipped a draft due to the lockout and were mistaken.

I could just say that but it wouldn't be true.

With fewer rounds teams take less chances.

LOL

thats funny.

youre right, they probably picked the sure things in the 6th round rather than gambling on a higher risk choice.

good stuff

Great argument.

I dont get this either.

You think its a good draft because rounds 6-9 lacked risky picks?

No I think it's a good draft because of the quality of players taken.

1979 still the best

AINEC
IMO
FWIW

We'll see in a couple of years.

I dont think the lockout really had anything to do with the quality of the draft. Think we disagree on that one.
Anyone taken in the first 4/5 rounds would have been taken no matter how deep the draft was, 7 or 9 rounds. The lack of a 8th or 9th round probably only affected the 7th round, and maybe the 6th. I don't see anything there that makes me go "wow, thats much better than other years".

So the quality of the draft really in my opinion just comes from the calibre of players that turned 18 that year.

To be honest, I too thought you had just forgotten they had had a draft during the lockout, and were mistaken.

You don't think it's possible that teams went with the surefire "65 NHL point guy" over the "10% chance of a superstar 90% chance of a bust player" knowing they had fewer draft picks and that developing your own talent is more important than ever in a salary capped league?

Do you think there was anyone drafted in the first 5 rounds that would not have been drafted if it was a 9 round draft?

I dont think there is anything such as a "surefire 65 NHL point guy" in the draft outside the 1st/ maybe 2nd rounds. I dont think you would find any scout who would tell you there are surefires in drafts beyond the first round.

I'm not sure why you picked the 5th round, but I do think there were players taken in this draft that may not have been picked had teams been more willing to take a chance on longshots (i.e Russians).

Bookmark this...we'll have to revisit in a few years to see how things work out.

Your not getting my point. I didn't say the 5th round, I said the first 5 rounds.
I dont think the lockout had much effect on the players taken, as the first 5 rounds went pretty much as the draft would have gone if it was 9 rounds.

I guess we agree to disagree then. I think teams would have taken more chances and gone with a longshot Russian over a solid player who does everything well but nothing great.

I think we'll see more solid NHL players from this draft than maybe any other. Like I said, we'll see.

You might have a point with the Russian players due to the lack of an agreement with the Russian Federation. But I don't see what that has to do with the lockout, I think this was in place pre lockout as well.
And for what its worth, I never disagreed with the quality of the draft, only with the reasons why. I actually agree with you in that it is a very good draft, one of the best in the last 15years.

If your right about the number of solid NHL players, ironically, in my opinion, it might even make it a weaker draft. What I mean is, it might show a lot of 3rd and 4th liners, but a real lack of top end talent, which I personally feel showcases a draft better. I might be wrong on that one, but I guess I look more to see if a team drafted and hit gold with a 5th rounder who turned into a 40goal scorer, instead of the draft that shows a few 3rd and 4th liners taken in the 5th round.

just my 2 cents.

What would there be to revisit?

No one is saying its not a good/great draft. Just saying it had zero to do with the lockout. Revisiting in a few years would be irrelevant to that point.

And from what you said in other posts, "surefire 65 point guys" would be drafted 100% of the time whether the draft was 7 rounds or 9 rounds, whether there was a lockout or not. A "surefire" guy like that, if there was such a thing, is a first rounder every year.

Like I said before I think teams would be more willing to draft the hit or miss guys with a longer draft and more choices. With a shorter draft I think teams were taking the safer route.