[Knalus]

Originally Posted by Claeren

I was just looking at Ladd's profile and was shocked to see he was drafted 4th overall! Wow, way higher than I would have guessed.

Then you look at the draft that year (still a bit early granted, but not by much) and see how few really good players it produced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_NHL_Entry_Draft

Ovechkin, Malkin, Green and Streit are big exceptions, and Radulov if he had stuck it out, but it drops off fast after that. Cam Barker went 3rd, and there a bunch of other names in the first round that are becoming regular career NHLers, but the biggest point to me is that Calgary did pretty well considering how lean it is: Boyd, Prust and Pardy are absolute steals at their draft positions. Chucko is certainly no worse a pick than many teams made around that spot (only Mike Green really stands out as a missed opportunity), and even the Spratt's and Cracknall's of the world have been useful depth picks considering how late they were picked.


Nemisz certainly compares well with Ladd though, and he has now grown taller, bigger and has more WHL experience/production than Ladd ever had (Ladd dropped off Giants first year in WHL, then played in BCHL and only managed 2 senior seasons in WHL). Shall be interesting to see if he can pull it together at the pro level.... fingers crossed!



Claeren.

As much as I hate the guy, you kinda missed Johan Franzen in your list of impact players that were in that draft - one draft position below Dustin Boyd.