Draft Dandies!
This is not going to be your typical “All-Time Draft Steals” post. Everyone has seen that. You know, Hasek at 199 in 1983 or Alfredson at 133 in 1994. We’ve seen that list, and frankly it’s out of date. Scouting being the way it is today, we’re not going to see steals like that. Occasionally we’ll see the Zetterberg and Datsyuks who went 210 and 171 respectively – but that was 10 years ago, and I believe that’s gone the way of the Dodo.
So here is my revised list of draft steals. I decided to focus on players who are number 1 line (elite) caliber players who fell past the top-ten picks. A different methodology sure, but one that I bet you haven’t seen!
Scott Gomez – 27th Overall 1998
Ryan Getzlaf – 19th Overall 2003
Cory Perry – 28th Overall 2003
Alexander Radulov – 15th Overall 2004
Paul Stastny – 44th Overall 2005
Patrice Bergeron – 45th Overall 2003
Anze Kopitar – 11th Overall 2005
Marian Hossa – 12th Overall 1997
Fianlly – Henrik Lundqvist – 205th overall 2000
Again, not an all-encompassing list – but just something to think about going into the draft in a few weeks. All of these players are top-line, elite NHL players that can really impact a team. You might say, well yeah but these guys were drafted pretty high. Chew on this: ahead of Kopitar were such gems as Benoit Pouliot, Jack Skille, Devin Setoguchi, and Brian Lee. And you can’t possibly tell me that Columbus would rather have their no. 6 pick (Gilbert Brule) than Anze Kopitar!
Tags: Draft Dandies, Draft Steals, NHL Entry Draft
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June 6, 2008 at 12:49 pm
That is pretty interesting. Gear up the rumors kids. We’re a couple weeks away.