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Greatest Draft Ever?

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Loto68

Loto68

Registered User
Aug 12, 2006
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Boston
Forgive me if this has been brought up here, but I was having a hard time finding such a thread. In anycase, I was examining the 1979 Entry draft, and after really looking at not just how good some of the players selected were, but also how important to their teams successes these player were, is this the greatest draft in NHL history?

1979 Entry Draft
Click to read more...
 
Loto68 said:
Forgive me if this has been brought up here, but I was having a hard time finding such a thread. In anycase, I was examining the 1979 Entry draft, and after really looking at not just how good some of the players selected were, but also how important to their teams successes these player were, is this the greatest draft in NHL history?

1979 Entry Draft
Click to expand...

If not for the WHA/NHL merger rules where WHA clubs could keep 4 players, Wayne Gretzky would have been eligible for the 1979 draft.
 
Loto68 said:
Forgive me if this has been brought up here, but I was having a hard time finding such a thread. In anycase, I was examining the 1979 Entry draft, and after really looking at not just how good some of the players selected were, but also how important to their teams successes these player were, is this the greatest draft in NHL history?

1979 Entry Draft
Click to expand...

Yeah, '79 is probably the best draft class ever.

That was the first year they lowered the age from 19 to 18, so that meant you had all the 19yos who would have been the '79 draft class anyway plus a fresh group of 18yos that wouldn't have been eligible before.
 
1984?

[table="css=transp;head"]Player|POS|Draft Year|Draft Round|Draft #|Drafted By Franch.|Drafted From
Luc "Lucky Luc" Robitaille |LW|1984|Round 9|171|LA|Hull Olympiques (QMJHL/CHL)
Gary "Scary Gary" Roberts |LW|1984|Round 1|12|CGY|Ottawa 67's (OHL/CHL)
Shayne "Corse" Corson |LW|1984|Round 1|8|MTL|Brantford Alexanders (OHL/CHL)
Shawn Burr |LW|1984|Round 1|7|DET|Kitchener Rangers (OHL/CHL)
Mario "The Magnificent" Lemieux |C|1984|Round 1|1|PIT|Laval Voisins (QMJHL/CHL)
Kirk "Mulzy" Muller |C|1984|Round 1|2|NJ|Guelph Platers (OHL/CHL)
Cliff "Rat" Ronning |C|1984|Round 7|134|STL|New Westminster Bruins (WHL/CHL)
Michal Pivonka |C|1984|Round 3|59|WAS|Czech National Team (Intl)
Brett "The Golden Brett" Hull |RW|1984|Round 6|117|CGY|Penticton (BCJHL)
Stephane J.J. Richer |RW|1984|Round 2|29|MTL|Granby Bisons (QMJHL/CHL)
Scott "Scooter" Mellanby |RW|1984|Round 2|27|PHI|Henry Carr H.S. (Toronto)
Ray Sheppard |RW|1984|Round 3|60|BUF|Cornwall Royals (OHL/CHL)
Gary Suter |D|1984|Round 9|180|CGY|U. of Wisconsin (NCAA)
Petr Svoboda |D|1984|Round 1|5|MTL|Litvinov CHP HC (Czech)
Kevin Hatcher |D|1984|Round 1|17|WAS|North Bay Centennials (OHL/CHL)
Sylvain "Coco" Cote |D|1984|Round 1|11|CAR|Quebec Remparts-1 (QMJHL/CHL)
Jean Jacques "J.J." Daigneault |D|1984|Round 1|10|VAN|Longueuil Chevaliers (QMJHL/CHL)
Don "Sweens" Sweeney |D|1984|Round 8|166|BOS|St. Paul’s H.S. (N.H.)
Patrick "St Patrick" Roy |G|1984|Round 3|51|MTL|Granby Bisons (QMJHL/CHL)
Kirk "Captain Kirk" Mclean |G|1984|Round 6|107|NJ|Oshawa Generals (OHL/CHL)
||||||
Michel "Gou" Goulet |LW|1979|Round 1|20|COL|Birmingham Bulls (WHA)
Brian "Propper" Propp |LW|1979|Round 1|14|PHI|Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL/CHL)
Mats "Le Petit Viking" Naslund |LW|1979|Round 2|37|MTL|Brynas IF Gavle (Sweden)
John Ogrodnick |LW|1979|Round 4|66|DET|New Westminster Bruins-1 (WHL/CHL)
Mark "Mess" Messier |C|1979|Round 3|48|EDM|Cincinnati Stingers (WHA)
Guy "Carbo" Carbonneau |C|1979|Round 3|44|MTL|Chicoutimi Sagueneens (QMJHL/CHL)
Dale "Hunts" Hunter |C|1979|Round 2|41|COL|Sudbury Wolves (OHL/CHL)
Neal Broten |C|1979|Round 3|42|DAL|U. of Dallas (NCAA)
Glenn "Mork" Anderson |RW|1979|Round 4|69|EDM|U. of Denver (NCAA)
Mike "Garts" Gartner |RW|1979|Round 1|4|WAS|Cincinnati Stingers (WHA)
Rick "Squid" Vaive |RW|1979|Round 1|5|VAN|Birmingham Bulls (WHA)
Dirk "Duke" Graham |RW|1979|Round 5|89|VAN|Regina Pats (WHL/CHL)
Ray "Bubba" Bourque |D|1979|Round 1|8|BOS|Verdun Black Hawks (QMJHL/CHL)
Kevin "Vicious" Lowe |D|1979|Round 1|21|EDM|Quebec Remparts-1 (QMJHL/CHL)
Brad "The Beast" Mccrimmon |D|1979|Round 1|15|BOS|Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL/CHL)
Rob "Baby Bull" Ramage |D|1979|Round 1|1|NJ|Birmingham Bulls (WHA)
Mike "Rammer" Ramsey |D|1979|Round 1|11|BUF|U. of Dallas (NCAA)
Jay "Jaybird" Wells |D|1979|Round 1|16|LA|Kingston Canadiens (OHL/CHL)
Pelle "Gumper" Lindbergh |G|1979|Round 2|35|PHI|AIK Solna (Sweden)
Roland "Rollie The Goalie" Melanson |G|1979|Round 3|59|NYI|Windsor Spitfires (OHL/CHL)
||||||
Kevin "Artie" Stevens |LW|1983|Round 6|112|LA|Silver Lake H.S. (Mass.)
Esa "The Grate One" Tikkanen |LW|1983|Round 4|82|EDM|HIFK Helsinki (Finland)
Petr Klima |LW|1983|Round 5|88|DET|Czech National Team (Intl)
Bob "Bibs" Errey |LW|1983|Round 1|15|PIT|Peterborough Petes (OHL/CHL)
Steve "Stevie Wonderful" Yzerman |C|1983|Round 1|4|DET|Peterborough Petes (OHL/CHL)
Pat "Lala" Lafontaine |C|1983|Round 1|3|NYI|Verdun Juniors (QMJHL/CHL)
Dave Gagner |C|1983|Round 1|12|NYR|Brantford Alexanders (OHL/CHL)
Dan "Quinner" Quinn |C|1983|Round 1|13|CGY|Belleville Bulls (OHL/CHL)
Claude "Pepe" Lemieux |RW|1983|Round 2|26|MTL|Trois Rivieres Draveurs (QMJHL/CHL)
Cam "Bam-Bam" Neely |RW|1983|Round 1|9|VAN|Portland Winter Hawks (WHL/CHL)
Rick "Toc" Tocchet |RW|1983|Round 6|125|PHI|Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL/CHL)
John "Johnny Mac" Maclean |RW|1983|Round 1|6|NJ|Oshawa Generals (OHL/CHL)
Garry "Ga-Ga" Galley |D|1983|Round 5|103|LA|Bowling Green State University (NCAA)
Tommy "Abbe" Albelin |D|1983|Round 8|158|COL|Djurgardens IF Stockholm (Sweden)
Jeff Beukeboom |D|1983|Round 1|19|EDM|Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL/CHL)
Viacheslav "Papa Bear" Fetisov |D|1983|Round 8|150|NJ|CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Marc Bergevin |D|1983|Round 3|60|CHI|Chicoutimi Sagueneens (QMJHL/CHL)
Gerald "Diddy" Diduck |D|1983|Round 1|16|NYI|Lethbridge Broncos (WHL/CHL)
Dominik "The Dominator" Hasek |G|1983|Round 10|207|CHI|Pardubice (Czech)
Tom "Tomcat" Barrasso |G|1983|Round 1|5|BUF|Acton Boxboro H.S. (Mass.)[/table]​
 
Pelle Lindbergh.....sigh, still makes me wonder what kind of career he would have had had it not ended so quickly that one night, however, there was only one person to blame for Pelle's untimely demise......
 
I've always thought the 1984 draft was better than 1979. It's ridiculous the amount of all-time greats that came out of that draft in Lemieux, Roy, Hull, and Robitaille. It had alot of strong depth too with guys like Suter, Ronning, Muller, and Roberts to name a few. I mean Messier and Bourque in '79 are awesome headliners (offset by the '84s Lemieux and Roy) but the quality after that really falls off to guys like Gartner, Anderson, McCrimmon, and Hunter. Solid players but none of them can really compare to Hull or Robitaille IMO. I'd also put '83 up there as well, and maybe even above '79. Yzerman, Hasek, Fetisov, Lafontaine, Makarov, and Neely + depth like C.Lemieux, Probert, Tocchet, Tikkanen, MacLean, Kasatonov, and Gagner.
 
FissionFire said:
I've always thought the 1984 draft was better than 1979. It's ridiculous the amount of all-time greats that came out of that draft in Lemieux, Roy, Hull, and Robitaille. It had alot of strong depth too with guys like Suter, Ronning, Muller, and Roberts to name a few. I mean Messier and Bourque in '79 are awesome headliners (offset by the '84s Lemieux and Roy) but the quality after that really falls off to guys like Gartner, Anderson, McCrimmon, and Hunter. Solid players but none of them can really compare to Hull or Robitaille IMO. I'd also put '83 up there as well, and maybe even above '79. Yzerman, Hasek, Fetisov, Lafontaine, Makarov, and Neely + depth like C.Lemieux, Probert, Tocchet, Tikkanen, MacLean, Kasatonov, and Gagner.
Click to expand...

Can you really count Fetisov, Hasek and Makarov in '83? All 3 were drafted in multiple drafts, and none of them showed up until 89.

"...guys like Gartner, Anderson, McCrimmon and Hunter..."? Those guys were damn good, and you overlook Carbonneau, Lindbergh, Foligno, Vaive, Hartsburg, Propp, Reinhart, Goulet, Lowe, Christian, Broten, Ogrodnick and Steen, among others. All of those guys went on to be key players for their repsective franchises.

However, I grant that '84 was fantastic and could be considered better.

'83 I simply find to be less impressive. Not as much depth and less star power at the top. A very good draft, but not on par with 79 or 84.
 
I think 1997 is underappreciated for its talented crop, the headliners include Joe Thornton, Marian Hossa, Roberto Luongo, Olli Jokinen, Patrick Marleau, Brenden Morrow, Kristian Huselius, Maxim Afinogenov, Sergei Samsonov, Eric Brewer and Brian Campbell. Its really quite a decent haul.
 
1983 draft should be remembered as producing the best collection of enforcers in NHL history.There were also a few skilled guys, too.;)
 
79 is a very good hockey draft. Probably one of the bests. But 84 is just as good.

The real question should be, do you think the 03 draft will be the best draft ever?

It sure is shaping up to be.
 
dcinroc said:
Can you really count Fetisov, Hasek and Makarov in '83? All 3 were drafted in multiple drafts, and none of them showed up until 89.

"...guys like Gartner, Anderson, McCrimmon and Hunter..."? Those guys were damn good, and you overlook Carbonneau, Lindbergh, Foligno, Vaive, Hartsburg, Propp, Reinhart, Goulet, Lowe, Christian, Broten, Ogrodnick and Steen, among others. All of those guys went on to be key players for their repsective franchises.

However, I grant that '84 was fantastic and could be considered better.

'83 I simply find to be less impressive. Not as much depth and less star power at the top. A very good draft, but not on par with 79 or 84.
Click to expand...

Hasek and Makarov were only drafted once, not multiple times. Fetisov was drafted in '78 and '83 so '83 was the last time he was drafted (by New Jersey) and that was the team he came over with. Comparing 1983 with 1979 (in alphabetical order):

NOTE: Only skaters with around 400+ career goals or 800+ career games were included.
1979
F: Glenn Anderson, Brent Ashton, Laurie Boschman, Neal Broten, Guy Carbonneau, Dave Christian, Mike Foligno, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Dale Hunter, Tim Hunter, Mike Krushelnyski, Mark Messier, Mats Naslund, John Ogrodnick, Brian Propp, Thomas Steen, Rick Vaive
D: Ray Bourque, Keith Brown, Doug Crossman, Mark Hardy, Brad McCrimmon, Kevin Lowe, Rob Ramage, Mike Ramsey, Jay Wells
G: Pelle Lindbergh, Rollie Melanson, Rick Wamsley

1983
F: Pat LaFontaine, Russ Courtnall, Bob Errey, Dave Gagner, Stu Grimson, Petr Klima, Joey Kocur, Claude Lemieux, Dave Lowry, John MacLean, Sergei Makarov, Cam Neely, Bob Probert, Dan Quinn, Kevin Stevens, Esa Tikkanen, Rick Tocchet, Steve Yzerman, Peter Zezel
D: Tommy Albelin, Marc Bergevin, Jeff Beukeboom, Gerald Diduck, Viacheslav Fetisov, Garry Galley, Uwe Krupp, Frank Musil, Joe Reekie
G: Dominik Hasek, Tom Barrasso

1979 IMO has more one-way players who excelled at one aspect of the game. 1983 has more pests and enforcers, not to mention IMO a better group of "step it up for the playoffs" type of players. Forwards are about equal (maybe a slight edge to 1983). Defense is a clear win for 1979. Goalies are a clear win for 1983. Really the draft years IMO are incredibly close.
 
1979 is the greatest draft ever, but only because of a rule change that essentially made the best players from 3 different draft years all first-time eligible in the same year. Players born in 1959, 1960, and 1961 all became eligible for that draft because they lowered the draft age from 20 to 18.

I mean, imagine how good the 2007 draft would have been if you'd combined all of the top players from 2005 and 2006 in there as well. For that reason, it's hard to compare 1979 to any other draft without putting a great big *asterisk beside it.
 
If 1979 draft needs to have a big asterisk, then why not go by year of birth for the players? I think it would be tough to top 1961 in that case.
 
Bluefan75 said:
If 1979 draft needs to have a big asterisk, then why not go by year of birth for the players? I think it would be tough to top 1961 in that case.
Click to expand...


1965?

[table="css=transp;head"]Player|Born|POS
Mario "The Magnificent" Lemieux |1965|C
Patrick "St Patrick" Roy |1965|G
Dominik "The Dominator" Hasek |1965|G
Steve "Stevie Wonder" Yzerman |1965|C
Ed "The Eagle" Belfour |1965|G
Tom "Tomcat" Barrasso |1965|G
Kevin "Artie" Stevens |1965|LW
Claude "Pepe" Lemieux |1965|RW
Pat "Chopper" Lafontaine |1965|C
Cam "Bam-Bam" Neely |1965|RW
||
Wayne "The Great One" Gretzky |1961|C
Mark "Mess" Messier |1961|C
Paul "Coff" Coffey |1961|D
Larry "Murphs" Murphy |1961|D
Denis "The Magician" Savard |1961|C
Bernie "The Pumper Nicholl Kid" Nicholls |1961|C
Steve "Gramps" Larmer |1961|RW
Craig Ludwig |1961|D
Jamie "Cooner" Macoun |1961|D
Dave "Babs" Babych |1961|D
||
Jean "Le Gros Bill" Beliveau |1931|C
Glenn "Mr. Goalie" Hall |1931|G
Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion |1931|RW
Pierre "The Bantam Bouncer" Pilote |1931|D
Dickie "Digging Dicker" Moore |1931|LW
Jerry "Topper" Toppazzini |1931|RW
Leo "The Haileybury Comet" Labine |1931|RW
Don "Dumbo" Simmons |1931|G
Warren "Rocky" Godfrey |1931|D
Glen "Sam" Skov |1931|C
||
Jaromir "Jags" Jagr |1972|RW
Martin "Marty" Brodeur |1972|G
Keith "Walt" Tkachuk |1972|LW
Daniel "Alfie" Alfredsson |1972|RW
Owen "Buster" Nolan |1972|RW
Chris "Ozzy" Osgood |1972|G
Vyacheslav "Kozzie" Kozlov |1972|LW
Derian "Hatch" Hatcher |1972|D
Zigmund "Ziggy Zag" Palffy |1972|RW
Darryl "Syd" Sydor |1972|D
||
Eddie "The Edmonton Express" Shore |1902|D
Howie "The Stratford Streak" Morenz |1902|C
Nels "Old Poison" Stewart |1902|C
Sylvio Mantha |1902|D
Alec "The Ottawa Fireman" Connell |1902|G
Baldy "The Cork Screw" Cotton |1902|LW
Albert "Battleship" Leduc |1902|D
Alex "Boots" Smith |1902|D
Harry "Howl" Darragh |1902|LW
Art Somers |1902|C
||
Ray "Bubba" Bourque |1960|D
Jari "The Flying Finn" Kurri |1960|RW
Michel "Gou" Goulet |1960|LW
Glenn "Mork" Anderson |1960|RW
Guy "Carbo" Carbonneau |1960|C
Dino "The Dinosaur" Ciccarelli |1960|RW
Dale "Hunts" Hunter |1960|C
Igor "The Professor" Larionov |1960|C
Andy "Peaches" Moog |1960|G
Tim "Sultan of Slot" Kerr |1960|RW
||
Nicklas "Lidas" Lidstrom |1970|D
Teemu "The Finnish Flash" Selanne |1970|RW
Mike "Mo" Modano |1970|C
Jeremy "J.R." Roenick |1970|C
Rod "The Bod" Brind'Amour |1970|C
Trevor "Captain Canuck" Linden |1970|RW
Tony "T-Bone" Amonte |1970|RW
Bill "The Butcher" Guerin |1970|RW
Sergei "Zubie" Zubov |1970|D
Alexei "Archie" Zhamnov |1970|C
||
Joe "Burnaby Joe" Sakic |1969|C
Sergei "FedEx" Fedorov |1969|C
Brendan "Shanny" Shanahan |1969|LW
Alexander "Alexander The Great" Mogilny |1969|RW
John "Johnny Vermont" Leclair |1969|LW
Rob "Blakey" Blake |1969|D
Pierre "Turg" Turgeon |1969|C
Eric "Rico" Desjardins |1969|D
Shawn Mceachern |1969|LW
Andrew "Cass" Cassels |1969|C
||
Al "Chopper" Macinnis |1963|D
Ron "Ronny Franchise" Francis |1963|C
Doug "Killer" Gilmour |1963|C
Dale "Ducky" Hawerchuk |1963|C
Mike "Vernie" Vernon |1963|G
Dave "Chukie" Andreychuk |1963|LW
John "Beezer" Vanbiesbrouck |1963|G
Steve "Stumpy" Thomas |1963|LW
Steve Smith|1963|D
Bobby "Carpy" Carpenter |1963|LW
||
Jacques "Jake The Snake" Plante |1929|G
Terry "Ukey" Sawchuk |1929|G
Lorne "Gump" Worsley |1929|G
Fleming "Mac" Mackell |1929|C
Dollard "Dolly" St. Laurent |1929|D
Vic "Yogi" Stasiuk |1929|RW
Johnny "Iron Man" Wilson |1929|LW
Andy "Spuds" Hebenton |1929|RW
Red "Sully" Sullivan |1929|C
Paul Meger |1929|LW
||
Stan "Stosh" Mikita |1940|C
Dave Keon |1940|C
Jean "Ratty" Ratelle |1940|C
Bobby Rousseau |1940|RW
Ed "The Shadow" Westfall |1940|RW
Terry "Harp" Harper |1940|D
Jim W. Roberts |1940|RW
Gerry "Cheesey" Cheevers |1940|G
Vic Hadfield |1940|LW
Pat "Whitey" Stapleton |1940|D
||
Peter "Foppa" Forsberg |1973|C
Markus "Nazzy" Naslund |1973|LW
Eric "Big E" Lindros |1973|C
Scott "Nieds" Niedermayer |1973|D
Alexei "Yash" Yashin |1973|C
Alexei "AK-27" Kovalev |1973|RW
Jere "The Chief" Lehtinen |1973|RW
Cory "Stiller" Stillman |1973|LW
John "Mad Dog" Madden |1973|C
Brian "Rollie" Rolston |1973|LW
||
Guy "The Flower" Lafleur |1951|RW
Marcel "Little Beaver" Dionne |1951|C
Larry "Big Bird" Robinson |1951|D
Borje "The King" Salming |1951|D
Rick "Rico" Martin |1951|LW
Craig "Rammer" Ramsay |1951|LW
Terry "The Tazmanian Devil" O'Reilly |1951|RW
Steve "Sarge" Vickers |1951|LW
Rick Kehoe |1951|RW
Willy "The Wisp" Lindstrom |1951|RW
||
Brett "The Golden Brett" Hull |1964|RW
Scott "Captain Crunch" Stevens |1964|D
Ron "Hexy" Hextall |1964|G
Brian "Bells" Bellows |1964|RW
Rick "Toc" Tocchet |1964|RW
Pat "Little Ball Of Hate" Verbeek |1964|RW
Phil "Howie" Housley |1964|D
Tomas "Tommie Gun" Sandstrom |1964|RW
John "Johnny Mac" Maclean |1964|RW
Ken "Mr. Devil" Daneyko |1964|D
||
Bobby "The Golden Jet" Hull |1939|LW
Ed "Fast Eddie" Giacomin |1939|G
J.C. "Superstar" Tremblay |1939|D
Red "Red Baron" Berenson |1939|C
Jim "Pappy" Pappin |1939|RW
Bill White |1939|D
Ron "Chico" Maki |1939|RW
Frank St. Marseille |1939|C
Leon Rochefort |1939|RW
Cesare "Hail Cesare" Maniago |1939|G[/table]​
 
For some reason all those nicknames really bother me on those pnep charts, honestly 90% of them i've never heard of before...
 
Great stuff. This is why I love this board, intelligent posts and no flaming of minority opinions.
 
pnep, great chart. the sept. 15th thing always throws me off. I always figured Lemieux was born in '66 since he was drafted in '84, and for some reason I thought Roy was born in '63.

Plus I was always under the impressions Bourque and Kurri were born in '61, not '60 as what i looked up told me. Those two would have made it impossible to top were they 61s.

Very strong groups in both cases. not to argue, just to understand, are you listing the players in order based on HoH 100 standing? Just curious because Steve Yzerman > Larry Murphy, because the top 3 seem to cancel each other out. But where does Denis Savard vs Yzerman fall? how much of a gap? Since I've always hated Detroit I'll admit I probably discount Yzerman...
 
Bluefan75 said:
pnep, great chart. the sept. 15th thing always throws me off. I always figured Lemieux was born in '66 since he was drafted in '84, and for some reason I thought Roy was born in '63.

Plus I was always under the impressions Bourque and Kurri were born in '61, not '60 as what i looked up told me. Those two would have made it impossible to top were they 61s.

Very strong groups in both cases. not to argue, just to understand, are you listing the players in order based on HoH 100 standing? Just curious because Steve Yzerman > Larry Murphy, because the top 3 seem to cancel each other out. But where does Denis Savard vs Yzerman fall? how much of a gap? Since I've always hated Detroit I'll admit I probably discount Yzerman...
Click to expand...

Steve "Stevie Wonder" Yzerman -- 2027,50 "HHOF Monitor" PTS
Denis "The Magician" Savard -- 924,00 "HHOF Monitor" PTS
 
The Penguins not trading away their pick for once and grabbing Mario Lemieux..Greatest draft of all time..Ask Pittsburgh
 
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