if it's even close it has to be the center, a much higher success rate in drafting, and they seem to mature faster
A. Look at the TSN top 20 from this year, cutting out wingers/goalies
1. Crosby (1st)
2. Malkin (2nd)
3. Giroux (22nd)
4. Stamkos (1st)
5. Datsyuk (171st)
6. Toews (3rd)
7. Weber (49th)
9. H.Sedin (3rd)
10. Kopitar (11th)
11. Karlsson (15th)
12. Chara (56th)
17. Doughty (2nd)
20. Tavares (1st)
9 centres, 4 d men
if you want to make a list of the top 10 centres you may add the next center from the list (Eric Stall, 2nd)
so of arguably the top 10 centers in the league
1st (3)
2nd (2)
3rd (2)
11th (1)
22nd (1)
171st (1)
adding in the rest of the d men from the top 50 to make a top 8
(adding Suter, Pietrangelo, Letang, Keith)
2nd (1)
4th (1)
7th (1)
15th (1)
49th (1)
54th (1)
56th (1)
62nd (1)
7 of 10 top centers are picked in the top 3
4 of the top 8 d men were drafted in the late 2nd round
top 5 picks from 2006-2010 drafts
d
Erik Johnson
Karl Alzner
Thomas Hickey
Drew Doughty
Zach Bogosian
Luke Schenn
Alex Pietrangelo
Victor Hedman
Erik Gudbranson
arguably only 2 have lived up to the hype of a top 5 pick (Doughty and Petro)
two have been very solid (Hedman and Gudbranson), 1 has been solid (Bogosian)
4 rest of been mildly to severely disappointing
c
Jon Toews
Eric Stall
Nick Backstrom
Kyle Turris
Steven Stamkos
John Tavares
Matt Duchene
Brayden Schenn
Tyler Seguin
Ryan Johansen
6 have lived up the hype of a top 5 pick (Toews, Stall, Backstrom, Stamkos, Tavares, Seguin)
3 are still debatable as to be worth it and couldn't really be judged yet based on a few reasons, mostly consistency or playing time (Turris, Schenn, Duchene)
1 could be classified as a major dissapointment so far (Johansen)
It's just a safer pick to take the center, elite centers are less likely to be found later in the draft and and picking in the top 5 lately you have a much higher success rate in not only picking an elite player but avoiding a bust
|