Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I don’t know it has been made pretty clear by many on this forum it is absolutely impossible to win a cup without drafting 1st or 2nd overall a few times
|
No, but at least once.
STL is the closest thing to an exception with Erik Johnson being 13 years earlier, and only playing there for 3 years. Zach Sanford and 1/3 of the cost for B Schenn are what was left of that trade tree. Pietrangelo at 4, but their next highest picks were 13 and 14 (Eller and Schwartz).
TBL - I guess you could say they only had 2 - Hedman, since Stamkos was injured. But they turned 3OA Drouin into Sergachev...
LAK - 2, 4 (Hickey), 5 (Schenn --> Richards), and a bunch of 11s
BOS - 1*, 5--> 2 & 9 (in the year they won the cup), 7, 8. I don't think much was left from Thornton. Seguin was nice value on an ELC, but only played 10:30 and 13/25 PO games.
DET - built before the lockout
ANA - B Ryan wasn't yet on the roster that year. 5 (Chistov - bust), 7 (Lupul), 9 (Smid)...a few more top 10 picks further back including 2OA Tverdovsky in '94 (who helped them land Selanne 1.0)
It's not impossible, but it's pretty darn unlikely.
The last 12 cup winners all had the benefit from multiple top 4 picks in one form or another.