[Table 5]

I wanted to go back and take a look to see how the Top dman picked each years compares to the rest of their defensive draft class. I looked at a period from 2000-2010 (2000 seemed like a nice place to start, and beyond 2010 seems too raw).

I looked at top point getters, highest amount of games played, and listed some other notable Dmen picked that year. Obviously points and games played are just one aspect of the game for a defenseman, but I feel like they give a good idea to how much a player can contribute to their team. If I screwed up some numbers or left anyone out, my apologies!

Spoiler!

2000
Top Drafted D: Rostislav Klesla (4th overall) 159 points in 655 games
Leader in Points: Lubomir Visnovsky (118th overall)
Leader in Games: Nick Shultz (33rd overall)
Other Notable D: Brooks Orpik (18), JM Liles (159th), Niklas Kronwall (29th), Paul Martin (62nd), Ron Hainsey (13), Kurtis Foster (40), Anton Volchenkov (21), Andreas Lilja (54)

Conclusion: Klesla has been a solid serviceable defenseman, but I don't think has every really lived up to potential considering where he was picked.

2001
Top Drafted D: Mike Komisarek (7th overall) 77 points in 532 games)
Leader in Points: Marek Zidlicky (176th overall)
Leader in Games: Dan Hamhuis (12th overall)
Other Notable D: Christian Erhoff (106), Fedor Tyutin (40), Kevin Bieksa (151), Dennis Seindenberg (172), Carlo Colaiacovo (17), Johnny Oduya (221)

Conclusion: The best dmen of this drafted were picked fairly late in the draft.

2002
Top Drafted D: Jay Bouwmeester (3rd overall) 334 points in 806 games
Leader in Points: Duncan Keith (54th overall)
Leader in Games: Bowumeester
Other Notable D: Joni Pitkanen (4), Ryan Whitney (5), Trevor Daley (43), Dennis Wideman (241), Keith Ballard (11),

Conclusion: While I think most would easily take Keith, Bouwmeester has had a solid career, and it wasn't the strongest draft overall.

2003
Top Drafted D: Ryan Suter (299 points in 635 games)
Leader in Points: Dion Phaneuf (!) 9th overall
Leader in Games: Brent Seabrook 14th overall
Other notable D: Shea Weber (49th), Brent Burns (20th), Matt Carle (47th), Braydon Coburn (8th), Dustin Byfuglien (245), Tobias Enstrom (239), Jan Hejda (106)

Conclusion: Lots of solid Dmen, but arguably the best of them (Weber) was picked in the 2nd round.

2004
Top Drafted D: Cam Barker - 3rd overall - (96 pts in 310 games)
Leader in Points: Mark Streit - 262nd overall - 9th round!
Leader in Points: Andrej Meszaros - 23rd overall
Other notable D: Mike Green, Alex Edler, Chris Campoli, Alex Goligoski

Conclusion: Not an amazing draft, but the best dman was picked in the 9th round.

2005
Top Drafted D: Jack Johnson - 3rd overall (168 pts to date).
Leader in Points: Keith Yandle (105th)
Leader in Games: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (35)
Other notable D: Kris Letang (62nd), Marc Staal (12th), Matt Niskanen (28), Kris Russel (67)

Conclusion: Not a terrible strong draft for dmen, but again the best guys were picked out of the top.

2006
Top Drafted D: Erik Johhson - 1st overall (151 pts to date).
Leader in Points: Erik Johhson
Leader in Games: Erik Johhson
Other notable D: Andy MacDonald (160), Jamie McBain (63)

Conclusion: Erik Johnson was the best dman to pick this draft….but with Backstrom, Toews, Kessel, Giroux, Lucic, J. Staal, Okposo, Stewart, Berglund…there were lots of great forwards available after him that make it a pretty questionable pick overall.

2007
Top Drafted D: Thomas Hickey - 4th overall (15 pts to date and 84 games played).
Leader in Points: P.K Subban - 43rd overall (2nd round) (147 pts)
Leader in Games Played: Karl Altzner 5th overall (305 games played).
Other notable D: Kevin Shatenkirk (14), Ryan McDonagh (12),

Conclusion: Hickey was clearly a bust….but some decent options outside of the Top 10.

2008
Top Drafted D: Drew Doughty - 2nd overall (207 points and 408 games played)
Leader in Points: Doughty
Leader in Games Played: Doughty
Other notable D: Erik Karlsson (15), Alex Pietrangelo (4), Tyler Myers (12), Michael Del Zotto (20), John Carlson (27), Zach Bogosian (3), Luke Schenn (5), Vyacheslav Voynov (32), Tarvis Hamonic (53), Roman Josi (38), Jake Gardiner (17), T.J Brodie (114), Luca Sbisa (19).

Conclusion: What a great year for Dmen! The best one was picked at the top, but Karlsson and Pietrangelo are right up there too…and a ton of other solid guys behind them.

2009
Top Drafted D: Victor Hedman - 2nd overall (112pts and 295 games played)
Leader in Points: Victor Hedman
Leader in Games Played: Victor Hedman
Other notable D: Oliver Ekman-Larson (6), Dmitri Kulikov (14), Nick Leddy (16).

Conclusion: The top Dman picked leads in Games and Points…but there are many GMs' who would rather have Ekman-Larson (although he was picked pretty high too at 6).

2010
Top Drafted D: Erik Gudbranson - 3rd overall (19 points and 142 games played)
Leader in Points: Cam Fowler (12th)
Leader in Games Played: Cam Fowler
Other notable D: Justin Faulk (37th), Radko Gudas (66)

Conclusion: Hard to draw any conclusions this early, but Cam Fowler is making a strong showing to be the best amongst his peers.

Some observations I reached:

• Only 3 out of the 11 Top-dmen picked lead their defensive-class in Points.. I would imagine most people would hope for better than 27% chance of being the best point getter.

• 4 out of 11 (36%) lead in Games-played compared to their class. The three points leaders (Doughty, Hedman, and Erik Johnson), plus Bouwmeester who is also the current iron-man holder.

• 6 out of the 11 Top point-getters (54%) in each draft class were picked outside of the 1st round. 4 (36%) of them were picked outside the 4th round. This suggests that finding high scoring dmen is pretty damn unpredictable.

• 7 out of the 11 (63%) top Dmen in games played were picked in the 1st round...suggesting that a lot of solid dmen are picked in the first round, but they are usually not the top guy picked!

I'd be curious to see how this compares for Centers and Wingers, but I've already wasted an hour of the work day doing this, so I will leave that a mystery for now.