I was curious how many Defencemen were drafted in the Top-18 of the draft across the last 10 years. I'm not bright enough to contextualize this with average draft rankings across the years to get a sense of whether more or less D went in the Top-18 than 'expected'. But across this 10 year sample-size,
5.5 Defencemen are picked in the Top-18 on average.
Quick notes:
- There were 3 drafts with 7 D-men picked within the Top 18 (2016, 2017, and 2024).
- The 2024 draft had the most high-value picks used on D (6 in the Top 12). Whereas with 2016 and 2017, there were large runs of D picked from 13-18.
- 2017 takes the cake for most D selected in a row with 5 in a row from picks 14-18.
- 31% of picks in the Top-18 have been used on D-men in the last 10 years.
- 28% of picks in the Top-6 are used on D-men. (1.7 picks on average)
- 32% of picks in the 7-12 range are used on D-men. (1.9 picks on average)
- 32% of picks in the 13-18 range are used on D-men. (1.9 picks on average)
- Olli Juolevi, lol.