I think you could give Minnesota a thank you gift for going slightly off the board for Pouliot. From what I recall, Pouliot didn't put up huge numbers but was an intriguing combination of size and hypothetical skill.
I kinda disavowed hockey that year due to the lockout, so I didn't follow prospects as closely as other years. But I do remember the heated Crosby vs. Brule discussions. It was funny to see the western Canadian fans hype up Brule as if their league's reputation depended on it. I remember an injured Crosby opted to skip the top prospect's game that year which was in Vancouver. Brule starred in the game with a hat trick and suddenly some overzealous posters were claiming Crosby was scared since he knew he was going to get upstaged.
Interesting to think if anything would have changed if Anaheim had taken Jack Johnson at #2 like many (including myself) assumed. Carolina allegedly was going to reach for Marc Staal at #3, but they changed their plans when Anaheim took Bobby Ryan.
If I ever got a few minutes to talk to a scout/GM, I'd probably ask about how the dynamics around the 2005 Draft might have been different than typical years. Nobody knew the draft order until a week before the draft. I can only imagine how that would mess up your prep if you don't know if you're picking 5th or 25th. And typically teams might know the ballpark area of the draft where they'd be picking in the 1st round, so they might focus on a handful of guys in the final months. But maybe teams had to cast a wider net and thus watched more total prospects but at a cost of not watching enough of individual guys.
