Best Drafting Teams in the NHL

[Stewie Griffin]

Yeah right now it's LA without a doubt. HM to Carolina who seems to be killing it lately too though.

Happy my sharks are finally starting to improve drafting too

 

[Golden_Jet]

Canes, Sens and the Kings,
HM to TB

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Easy LA on top for me

Canes have done great considering their positioning in these drafts
Ducks prob giving LA a bit of a run for their money
Sens have done well

 

[shao01]

Great attempt

That being said I'd like to see a value assigned to each drafted players in terms of expected contribution or value based on the position drafted; i.e #1 overall would have a much higher value than 30th overall

Another column representing their actual contribution/value a few years later based on games played; points produced and other factors

And a 3rd column representing the difference between the 1st and 2nd.

The team with the biggest positive differentials in 1st place and vice versa

 

[MichaelFarrell]

I love Carolina’s drafts. They pick a lot and they pick players with skill. I loved their draft this year and last year in particular.

I just love their ability to get the most value wherever they seem to pick. Drury (42), Geekie (67), Kuokkanen (43), Aho (35), Foegele (67), Pesce (66), Slavin (120), and the list goes on.

All of those players were drafted on separate years as well. Some of those players may not be great, but they always find at least one player after the 1st round to be a serviceable NHL player and that is very impressive.

 

[Yog S'loth]

It is definitely the team that I support.

As evidence, I present a list of names of prospects that haven't actually played in the NHL yet.

 

[Pavels Dog]

What big draft successes does LA have recently?

 

[AD1066]

Carolina for me.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Ottawa is definitely up there, but they're weird.

They'll get gems like Batherson and Stone in late rounds but then make super obvious misses like White over Boeser/Konecny or Thomson over Heinola/Tomasino/McMichael

They can get tunnel vision for certain prospects and go way off the board, sometimes to their detriment.

Under head scout Trent Mann they've gone off the board for Batherson, JBD, Thomson, Pinto, Lodin, Jarventie, Sokolov, Merilainen, Daoust and basically the entire 2021 draft.

Overall definitely more positives than negatives there. All those guys with the exception of Thomson and possibly Jarventie look like good picks where they were made.

Their day 2 drafting is probably the best in the league.

 

[DJJones]

I like this. Some guy was saying that under no metric could one prove that Treliving is good at drafting in the Coleman thread.

Well he got the job in 2015...

 

[SmytheKing]

What big draft successes does LA have recently?

Over the time period they covered (2008+), the players the Kings have drafted have played 2049 more games in the NHL than the Red Wings. That's the equivalent of 25 seasons. I'd say that's a pretty good job.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Over the time period they covered (2008+), the players the Kings have drafted have played 2049 more games in the NHL than the Red Wings. That's the equivalent of 25 seasons. I'd say that's a pretty good job.

I was more responding to the people saying that "right now" or "recently" it's Kings.

What great draft picks have they made in the last 8-10 years?

Half of those 2000 NHL games are Doughty who was a 2nd overall pick in the same year that the Wings won the cup.. lol.

 

[majormajor]

Over the time period they covered (2008+), the players the Kings have drafted have played 2049 more games in the NHL than the Red Wings. That's the equivalent of 25 seasons. I'd say that's a pretty good job.

Patting yourself on the back after comparing yourself to the Red Wings?

Going back over the last six drafts we don't know yet if the Kings are successful. A lot of promise and hype and that's about it.

 

[majormajor]

The two best I can see are the Canes and Sens.

They've drafted studs in just about every round in recent years, including guys that are currently good NHLers.

 

[keglu]

TOP 4 i also consider good drafting organizations.
Suprises: Calgary (too high), Winnipeg, Carolina , St Louis (too low)

 

[Habs Halifax]

Best drafting team to me has to be the Senators, simply from how effective they've been as of late with their picks, their actual development, and how they've gotten many later round players as well. They are arguably the team that play's perfectly with the draft, and made themselves better through the draft after their firesale in 2019. I fear what they can do when they have a proper owner for once

The best drafting teams changed depending on the years you look at.

I have the Sens dominating from 08-11 but not so good from 12-16 (for example).

 

[Habs Halifax]

Ducks are the best.

Jets, Kings, Canes and Sens probably round out the top 5.

From 12-19 drafts, I also have the Ducks 1st. But Caps, Preds, Leafs, Bruins, Lightning are next. Here is my research I did back in 2019 and I'm working on updating it to include the last two years. Interested to see the movement.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Kings are the best drafting team in the league right now.

That's subjective to how you project players, not actual results. They appear to be doing very well and I have them with the 6th highest draft power over the last 5 drafts. With me, drafting is about three things..

1) Draft Power
vs
2) Hits vs Busts
vs
3) Actual Production in the NHL

I've created some interesting formulas to tie them all together.

Draft Power Formula: #1 OA(x100) + 2-5(x50) + 6-10(x25) + 11-31(x15) + 32-75(x5) + 76-125(x2) + 126-217(x1)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Draft Pick Hit Score Formula: Elite(x50) + Top 9F/4D(x25) + Starting Goalie(x25) + Depth (x1) / Bust

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Rating Score Formula: Games(x1) + Points(x25) / Draft Power x Draft Pick Hit Score

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[SmytheKing]

Patting yourself on the back after comparing yourself to the Red Wings?

Going back over the last six drafts we don't know yet if the Kings are successful. A lot of promise and hype and that's about it.

I'm not patting myself on the back. This thread started with someone who decided to do an exercise on the past 12 years of drafts. I put the numbers out to someone who is a Red Wings fan that asked what the Kings have done. They have since started cherry picking to minimize how the Kings have drafted in an effort to "prove" something. Just like you are with the "last six drafts". Did you not want to go back a couple more because then there's seven or eight full time NHL players instead of three?

No one said the Kings have the best players of all-time. It's merely stating that they've done a good job drafting. It's pretty much a consensus among the pros. You're free to call it out if you want. Worst that will happen is people will end up laughing at you a couple of years down the line when this thread inevitably gets brought back up.

 

[SmytheKing]

I was more responding to the people saying that "right now" or "recently" it's Kings.

What great draft picks have they made in the last 8-10 years?

Half of those 2000 NHL games are Doughty who was a 2nd overall pick in the same year that the Wings won the cup.. lol.

So because they picked a HOF defenseman instead of Bogosian that doesn't count? How about the fact that they picked a 2nd pairing defenseman two picks after the Red Wings picked a goalie who played 3 games in the NHL?

But since you asked about the last 8-10 years how about these guys? They may not be sexy, but they're players in the NHL and contributing:
Colin Miller (5th round)
Tanner Pearson (last pick of the first)
Dominik Kubalik (7th round)
Erik Cernak (2nd round)
Mikey Anderson (4th round)
Jaret Anderson-Dolan (2nd round)

After that you're talking about the most recent three drafts. Bjornfot is going to be a regular in the NHL moving forward (was all of last season basically) and Kaliyev is likely to be on the team full-time next season as well. Byfield doesn't count I guess because he too was a 2nd overall (I preferred Stutzle but the jury is still out obviously). Turcotte and Fagemo are going to get looks this year and are likely NHL players (on the Kings or somewhere else) within another two years. Sure, those last two are "hype" or whatever you want to call it, but it's also likely to be true. You're free to define "great" drafts, but getting results is all that matters. If you draft NHL players, and another team does not, you're doing a better job at drafting. It isn't that difficult really.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

Jets got a bleh team from Atlanta and drafted these guys:
Scheifele
Ehlers
Connor
Morrissey
Hellebuyck
Stanley
Lowry
Copp

Add in prospects like:
Perfetti
Heinola
Samberg
Luciuz
Chibrikov
Vesalainen
Kuzmin
Kovacevic
Gustafsson
Torgersson
Nikkannen
Chisholm
Lundmark
Smith
Berdin
Holm

With the overwhelming majority of free agents refusing to sign in Winnipeg we HAVE to draft and develop, and we do a pretty good job. Now if only our coach would play some of them

Drafting hits when you have consistent top 10/15 selection isn't that difficult. After round one it looks about average?

 

[majormajor]

I'm not patting myself on the back. This thread started with someone who decided to do an exercise on the past 12 years of drafts. I put the numbers out to someone who is a Red Wings fan that asked what the Kings have done. They have since started cherry picking to minimize how the Kings have drafted in an effort to "prove" something. Just like you are with the "last six drafts". Did you not want to go back a couple more because then there's seven or eight full time NHL players instead of three?

No one said the Kings have the best players of all-time. It's merely stating that they've done a good job drafting. It's pretty much a consensus among the pros. You're free to call it out if you want. Worst that will happen is people will end up laughing at you a couple of years down the line when this thread inevitably gets brought back up.

I'm more interested in the last five or six drafts because that is going to tell you who is currently drafting well. A lot of clubs did a great job from 2008-2013 but that is a different topic. The scouts are often not even with the same club.

 

[majormajor]

Drafting hits when you have consistent top 10/15 selection isn't that difficult.

Sure but to get those hits every time with no misses is also a bit rare. I'm sure you remember Scott Glennie and Julius Honka.

 

[Pavels Dog]

So because they picked a HOF defenseman instead of Bogosian that doesn't count? How about the fact that they picked a 2nd pairing defenseman two picks after the Red Wings picked a goalie who played 3 games in the NHL?

But since you asked about the last 8-10 years how about these guys? They may not be sexy, but they're players in the NHL and contributing:
Colin Miller (5th round)
Tanner Pearson (last pick of the first)
Dominik Kubalik (7th round)
Erik Cernak (2nd round)
Mikey Anderson (4th round)
Jaret Anderson-Dolan (2nd round)

After that you're talking about the most recent three drafts. Bjornfot is going to be a regular in the NHL moving forward (was all of last season basically) and Kaliyev is likely to be on the team full-time next season as well. Byfield doesn't count I guess because he too was a 2nd overall (I preferred Stutzle but the jury is still out obviously). Turcotte and Fagemo are going to get looks this year and are likely NHL players (on the Kings or somewhere else) within another two years. Sure, those last two are "hype" or whatever you want to call it, but it's also likely to be true. You're free to define "great" drafts, but getting results is all that matters. If you draft NHL players, and another team does not, you're doing a better job at drafting. It isn't that difficult really.

"Doesn't count" isn't exactly how I'd put it, but I'd be sad, angry, disappointed and extremely bummed out if the Wings from 2017-2022 were unable to outdraft for example the Tampa Bay Lightning.
And sure, Doughty was a better choice than Bogosian but if the metric is simply NHL games played, Bogosian still has 600+. It's haaaaard to miss on long-time NHLers at #2OA. Much easier in the late 1st.

Last 10 years is definitely not that impressive to me from Kings *shrugs*.

 

[BigKing]

"Doesn't count" isn't exactly how I'd put it, but I'd be sad, angry, disappointed and extremely bummed out if the Wings from 2017-2022 were unable to outdraft for example the Tampa Bay Lightning.
And sure, Doughty was a better choice than Bogosian but if the metric is simply NHL games played, Bogosian still has 600+. It's haaaaard to miss on long-time NHLers at #2OA. Much easier in the late 1st.

Last 10 years is definitely not that impressive to me from Kings *shrugs*.

The last ten years are not impressive since they were routinely trading first round picks and drafting in the low 1st if they held on to them from 2011 through the 2016 draft. Not a bad job during that period in the 7th round with Kubalik and Roy.

Anyways, the idea that they are the best drafting team right now is based on projections since there isn't a lot of NHL games from Blake's drafts from 2017 to present. People like their prospect pool and the strength of this pool is mostly based on 2019 to the present.