it's funny too look at what we came away with in the other loaded drafts, which really makes kesler, great as he obviously was, not a great haul at all in 2003
1979
GM: jake milford
5th: rick vaive, 50 goal scorer
26th: brent ashton, well traveled top six winger, peaked with 40 goals, played 998 games
89th: dirk graham, captained a cup finalist, won a selke, average 25 goals, 55 points over a six year prime as an elite defensive forward
note: we pissed all three guys away. 2/3 were future O6 captains and they combined for 171 games, 39 goals, and 69 pts as canucks.
1990
GM: pat quinn
2nd: petr nedved, not the ideal pick obviously but a good enough pick at that position
18th: shawn antoski
23rd: jiri slegr
86th: gino odjick
note: with so much talent available, you'd like a lot more than antoski and slegr at those positions but at least all three top 25 picks played. after gino in the fifth round (one pick after zubov), nobody we picked played; a year after stealing bure, quinn seems to have missed the memo that this draft was stocked with good soviet and czechoslovakian players.
2008
GM: mike gillis
10th: cody hodgson
note: in a first round stacked with norris-calibre defencemen, we once unsuccessfully tried to trade hodgson for john carlson, and later did acquire sbisa, del zaster, schenn, and myers.