Quote:
Originally Posted by Ped
You don't need to win a lottery, although it helps.
I mean, just taking the NHL's list top 20 centers in the league:
Kopitar
Barzal
Couturier
Stamkos
Petterson
O'Reilly
Tavares
Aho
Schiefele
Barkov
Zibanejad
Point
Malkin
Bergeron
Eichel
Matthews
Crosby
Draisatl
McKinnon
McDavid
McDavid, McKinnon, Crosby, Matthews, Eichel, Malkin, Barkov, Tavares, and Stamkos could all be considered lottery wins, even if the team that picked them technically lost, but they were behind a better prospect.
Over half the list was not a lottery win. You can plug and play different players, but the Canucks lost the lottery and got Petterson. Kopitar and Barzal were drafted out of the top 10. O'Reilly, Bergeron, and Aho weren't even first round picks.
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So 13 of the top 20 centers in the league were top 10 picks.
And the 7 that weren't top 10 picks are probably the worst centers on the list (I'm assuming you got the list from
here).
Seems like having a top 10 pick -but not necessarily a lottery win- is what matters.
Even Lindholm, Monahan, and Bennett were top 10 picks.
Also interesting that Point is the only center in the top 20 who wasn't drafted in the first or second round.