The Very Best of 4th pick overall in NHL History.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by FlameZilla

5/10 are defencemen, including the latest 3 selections. Fingers crossed for another one!

Wait... I thought you should never pick defensemen in the top 4

[Sylvanfan]

This pick has gotten a lot better over the years. In the 90's there were a lot of awful guys picked at the #4 overall slot. I made a post in another thread a while back showing that three times in 30+ years the guy picked at 4 was better than all of the top 3 guys so maybe it's worth paying to move up to the top spot if it's available.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

Potentially signature-worthy there!

I'd make a pubes bet but that's gross so you can just make fun of me if I'm wrong.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Wait... I thought you should never pick defensemen in the top 4

You have it all wrong. It's top 5. You should never draft a defenseman in the top 5. But top 4 is fine.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm hoping for the next Pavel Brendl

I have a Brendl Hitmen jersey hanging in my closet

What a huge bust he turned out to be. Success came to easy for him in junior and the word is he ego grew that big also.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by Bourque's Twin

Here are the last 10 years of 4th overall pick:

2004 - Andrew Ladd
2005 - Benoit Pouliot
2006 - Nicklas Backstrom
2007 - Thomas Hickey
2008 - Alex Pietrangelo
2009 - Evander Kane
2010 - Ryan Johansen
2011 - Adam Larsson
2012 - Griffin Reinhart
2013 - Seth Jones

2/10 of the picks are not impact players (Pouliot and Hickey) but still play full-time.
1/10 hasn't played in the NHL (Griffin Reinhart) but is projecting to be an impact player.
The remaining 7 are impact players and some are franchise players.

Well Larsson is definitely not an impact player quite yet, as he spent most of last year in the AHL. Of course that means little right now, and I'd love to have him on the Flames since he could very well be an impact player eventually (just not yet). 6 of 10 is still pretty good though.

[FAN]

Some great players selected at #4 come from drafts with some really good players coming out of it. E.g. Pietrangelo and Backstrom come from really strong drafts. I wouldn't move Pietrangelo up more than one. Backstrom can be #2 but he's not clearcut the 2nd best player in the draft.

For me, I would go all the way back to the 1993 draft: Paul Kariya. Pre-concussion, Kariya was clear-cut the best forward available and up there with Pronger.