Quote:
Originally Posted by Da_Chief
1999 is one of the worst drafts.
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yup. Plus Connolly and Pyatt have a combined 1500 NHL games, that's not too shaby. The Isles just blew it because they packaged those two and traded them for Mike friggin Peca a year later or so. Mezei was pretty meh though and Kudroc was a complete bust.
The Avs did pretty well though. Also, most of the teams with three picks in the 1st have done well (I also posted this in the drive for 30th thread two days ago):
Ottawa in 2011
# 6 - Mika Zibanejad
# 21 - Stefan Noesen
# 24 - Matt Puempel
Florida in 2010
# 3 - Erik Gudbranson
# 19 - Nick Bjugstad
# 25 - Quinton Howden
Edmonton in 2007
# 6 - Sam Gagner
# 15 - Alex Plante
# 21 - Riley Nash
St Louis in 2007
# 13 - Lars Eller
# 18 - Ian Cole
# 26 - David Perron
Washington in 2004
# 1 - Alex Ovechkin
# 27 - Jeff Schultz
# 29 - Mike Green
Los Angeles in 2003
# 13 - Dustin Brown
# 26 - Brian Boyle
# 27 - Jeff Tambellini
Washington in 2002
# 12 - Steve Eminger
# 13 - Alex Semin
# 17 - Boyd Gordon
Really good drafting by the Caps here. All 6 guys are full-time NHLers ... well, Ovechkin was a no-brainer, but to get the other 5 ones right as well is not bad at all. Nearly every team has got at least one impact player out of it ... the Kings got their captain, St Louis got Perron and used Eller to get their #1 goalie. Looking at Florida, I'm not sold on Gudbranson, but Bjugstad is looking really good. The Oilers are probably the worst in this list ... Gagner is okay, but not outstanding. They had a complete bust in Plante and traded Nash for a 2nd later.
The closest comparable to our picks (5-7; 20-25; 25-30) is probably Ottawa two years ago. The jury is still out on Noesen and Puempel obviously, but Zibanejad is looking good so far.