Thought this might be an interesting thread idea, name the players your favorite team has drafted in recent years and who could have been had with that same pick...if only the GM's knew then what they know now.

I'll start with a couple of high Buffalo picks that went absolutely nowhere:

1999 - Buffalo Sabres select Barrett Heisten (28 points in 34 games for the University of Maine) with the 20th overall pick. He never signed with Buffalo and ultimately only played 10 NHL games in his career, registering a grand total of zero points with the NY Rangers. He now plays for the Alaska Aces of the ECHL.

Six picks later a little known Czech forward named Martin Havlat (5 points in 24 games in the Czech League) was selected by Ottawa. Two full rounds after that Mike Comrie was selected (44 points in 42 games with the University of Michigan) was selected by Edmonton with the 91st overall pick. The Sabres did redeem themselves in the '99 draft by selecting Ryan Miller with the 138th overall pick, he is the only player from that draft who has made any kind of real impact with the Sabres.

2000 - Buffalo Sabres select Artem Kryukov (No points in 3 games in the Russian Premier League) with the 15th overall pick. He has never played a single game in North America, choosing instead to spend his entire career in Russia. In ten seasons he has registered a grand total of 11 goals.

5 picks later, the Los Angeles Kings select Alexander Frolov (no stats available for his draft season, no points registered in the season before that, played in the Russian Leagues). 3 full rounds after that, Los Angeles again flexes their scouting muscle and selects Lubomir Visnovsky (45 points in 52 games with the Slovak leagues) with the 118th overall pick. One round later, JM Liles is selected by Colorado with the 159th overall pick (scored 28 points in 40 games for Michigan State University in his draft year). Ultimately the Sabres only regular roster player from this draft was Paul Gaustad, who was selected with the 220th overall pick.

1980 Draft

With the 1st overall selection Montreal chooses Doug Wickenheiser

Chicago selects Denis Savard with the 3rd pick.

Blah!

RIP Doug.

You don't want to lament about Montreal taking Eric Choinard #16 overall in 1998 when they could have had Simon Gagne (#22 overall - Philadelphia), Scott Gomez (29th overall - New Jersey) or Brad Richards (#64 overall) in the same spot? Not to mention the whole host of other NHL FutureStars that went late in that particular draft (Gionta, Erik Cole, Horcoff, Spacek, Datsyuk)

<grin>

Brad Richards falling to the 3rd Round in the '98 draft is a travesty, kid scored 115 points for Rimouski in his draft year and another 32 points in 19 playoffs games and still was the 17th center taken in the draft. He scored exactly the same number of points as Vincent Lecavalier (his Rimouski teammate) and Vinny was taken #1 overall.

Nah, I'll stick with the Wickenheiser pick. It was at the end of their late 70's run of cup wins and Savard with the Habs then would have made a huge difference.

Plus, there's still time for Chouinard to develop.

Heh, yeah...lots of "development" going on in the German Elite League, especially when you're a forward that's getting outscored by 7 of your teammates...3 of whom are defensemen.

San Jose Sharks select......

Pat Falloon

Scott Niedermayer (or Peter Forsberg whichever)

You can't really complain about picking a bust with a top 10 pick when you could have had a 76th overall pick that was a star. The ones that hurt is when you take someone over a superstar who was just a few picks away.

The one that sticks out for me was in 1990 (I think) the Canucks took Peter Nedved over Jaromir Jagr. NNNOOOOOO!!

Well, let's see:


in 1988, the Pens selected Darrin Shannon 4th overall and missed out on Roenick (8th), Brind'Amour (9th), and Selanne (10th).

In 1996, they took Craig Hillier 23rd overall. Briere was taken 1 pick later.

In 1998, they took Milan Kraft 23rd overall. They passed on Gomez (27th) and Cheechoo (29th).

In 1999, they took Koltsov 18th overall. They passed on Ouellet, but they got him back. They also passed on Havlat (26th).

Thankfully, I've liked their picks from then on, although they took Orpik before taking Frolov. We'll see how that pans out as Orpik improves and matures.

Blues:
98 - Christian Backman over Gomez.
99 - Barret Jackman (17th) over Havlat (26th).

These aren't even that bad. They only had 4 first round draft picks from 1992 to 2002, though...

They had 2 1st round picks that year and took Shawn Antoski at 18, 1 pick later Keith Tchachuk, 2 picks later Martin Brodeur. The first round drafting by the Canucks in the early 90's was horrible. Jason Herter , Libor Polichek, Alec Stojanov(although they did trade him for Naslund).

The late 90s drafting got a bit better, but not by much. For every Sedin Brother there is a Josh Holden.

Did I really read this whole thread and not see Lindros mentioned once?

Sens should have drafted a bucket of hockey pucks instead of Daigle! At least one of the other 'busts', Bonk, ended up being a decent energy line player.

No Flyers fans around here.

Mad Mike (Tulane) is, but he doesn't post here all that often.

Did the Flyers draft Lindros, or was the trade made after the Nordiques drafted? I don't recall.

1990

Red Wings select Keith Primeau

Players selected after him?

Jaromir Jagr
Darryl Sydor
Derian Hatcher
Keith Tkachuk
Martin Brodeur
Felix Potvin
Doug Weight
Sergei Zubov
Peter Bondra

I win.

I would rather Primeau than Nedved.

I would also take Primeau over Sydor, Potvin and Weight. Probably even Bondra and Tkachuk if you already have a team that will make the playoffs.

Zach, good one

Felix Potvin.........BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

didn't they trade Primeau for Shanahan? I believe they won the cup a year or two after that.


I still say Pat Falloon instead of Niedermayer or Forsberg is the 'winner' so far

Tottally forgot about Holden. Nathan Smith also looks like a bust. Umberger is a decent player but was traded for a rental. Kessler is solid and schneider is a good prospect who will likely be traded. Canucks drafting as a whole is sub par. would love to have Detroit or New Jeresys scouting staff. Also to rub salt into the Nedved wound they were offered Scott mellanby to trade down to 4 that year where thwey could have picked up Jagr.

I was actually serious, lol, I can't remember if the trade was before or after the draft.

It was after, Lindros swore up and down that he would never sign with Quebec if they picked him, and they took him anyway.

k, that's what I thought, lol.

So, that brings me to what was my original point. A Philly fan can't complain about the Lindros pick, within the context of this thread, lol. Maybe an Avs/Nordiques fan can, though.

I think the Lindros pick turned out okay for the Nordiques/Avalanche.

That's a good point.

What are you guys talking about? Lindros was no where close to a bust. He won a Hart trophy for **** sakes.

No way.. we have Mr. "I'm glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two."

Daigle #1 vs Pronger #2 or Kariya #4

Not only was his contract allegedly one of the reasons the rookie cap was added but perhaps the cancer known as Yashin wouldn't have been such a jealous frussy.

7 long years later.

Daigle was traded for Falloon and someone else I should remember. Checkmate!


I say Forsberg and Niedermayer are better than Pronger and Kariya. But, to each his own sir!

This thread only brings about bad thoughts for all of us.


Well 7 years with him for 1 cup. I'd take that every single time. I checked too. they won the cup that next year. pretty good deal if I say.

Falloon, Vinny Prospal and a 2nd round pick. lol, the Flyers were ripped off.

The Leafs have had PLENTY!!


That same year the Leafs took Scott Pearson (who?) 6th overall....

And who can forget their 8th overall pick in 1992.....Brandon Convery.
He of the massive 72 NHL games played.....

Okay, not a draft pick but a real screwy trade:

Leafs trade their first round pick in 1991 for Tom Kurvers...
...The Devils used that pick (3rd overall) to get Scott Neidermayer (same year as 1. Lindros 2. Falloon)

I'm sure there are lots more I've missed.....

Not so's you'd notice...lol

The Leafs have made a point of drafting the least viable prospects in the 1st round, it's almost policy at this point. Kenny Johnsson at 12th overall and Landon Wilson at 19th overall in '93 (granted, that was a terrible draft year), Eric Fichaud 16th overall in '94, Jeff Ware 15th overall in '95, then they seemed to realize that the first round picks weren't helping anyway so they traded the next two years worth before taking Antropov at 10th overall in '98 (ahead of Tanguay, Brad Richards, Simon Gagne, Scott Gomez, Cheechoo, Erik Cole, Brian Gionta...blahblahblah).