[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by handgroen

Hackey posted a list in the craig's list thread 4th overall picks since 2000, i thought it might be fun to compare them to the 1st overall picks, to gauge our organization's appetite to move up.

2000: 4th Rostislav Klesla ----1st Rick DiPietro
2001: 4th Stephen Weiss-----1st Ilya Kovalchuk
2002: 4th Joni Pitkanen------1st Rick Nash
2003: 4th Nikolai Zherdev---1st M.A. Fluery
2004: 4th Andrew Ladd------1st Alex Ovechkin
2005: 4th Benoit Pouliot-----1st Sidney Crosby
2006: 4th Nicklas Backstrom-1st Erik Johnson
2007: 4th Thomas Hickey----1st Patrick Kane
2008: 4th Alex Pietrangelo---1st Steven Stamkos
2009: 4th Evander Kane------1st John Tavares
2010: 4th Ryan Johansen-----1st Taylor Hall
2011: 4th Adam Larsson-----1st Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2012: 4th Griffin Reinhart---1st Nail Yakupov
2013: 4th Seth Jones----------1st Nathan MacKinnon

So it looks like you still need to make the right pick at 1st overall, but if our scouting staff sees the man they want, they'de be wise to try to move up and pick him.
I may be in the minority but i hope we trade the 4th+ for 1st overall.

The Ovechkins, Crosbys, Stamkos' and MacKinnons aren't a function of good scouting, they are a function of there being a very special player available that year.

As has been pointed out several times, the 1st overall is a different entity each year. And this year there is no such beast available as there was in some of those years.

The fact that Crosby was available once does not change the fact that there is little to choose from between the top 5 this year.