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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
He was far from consensus.
There's quotes that CGY had Galchenyuk #1.
Burke tells Bettman in a behind scenes video that TOR had Reilly #1 as he's walking off the podium after the pick.
Seems like CBJ had Murray ahead Yakupov to me.
I've heard that EDM's scouts actually liked Murray more, and that a couple of their key management guys liked Reinhart more. They took Yakupov because of Daryl Katz.
Just because CSS and Bob Mackenzie had Yakupov #1 doesn't really mean crap that year. It was a weird year in that a couple of the top 5 guys missed most of the season due to injury (Galchenyuk and Reilly).
If you did the draft 30 times with each team picking #1 I'd be shocked if Yakupov was taken by even half the teams at that time. Opinions differ. Not everyone is gonna take a one dimensional goal scorer #1 in a bad draft year.
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I understand all of this. Like I said "Yak was pretty much the best player available" for that draft at that time. Columbus wanted Yakupov in that draft, they were upset they lost out on him at the time.