That Smirnov draft (2000) was weird. I was a hockey fan but was not at all into the draft at that time, so this is just from looking at the draft page on hockey reference.
Smirnov was picked 12th overall. From picks 7 - 17, there was exactly one guy who played more than 250 games in the NHL: Ron Hainsey, who carved out a decent career for himself as a solid defensive d-man.
There were only two other guys in that stretch whose names might even be familiar: Nikita Alexeev and some guy name Hossa. But not that one. His brother, Marcel. Marcel only played 237 games in the NHL. Perhaps not coincidentally, that portion of the draft included only two North Americans, and one was Hainsey.
I wonder how often there is such a large stretch of busts in a given draft.