Is the 2012 draft the worst top 10 of all time?

[toddkaz]

Is there a worse top 10 than these guys? You could probably go top 15 in that draft. Sure there are a few players but ultimately very few successes.

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[winnipegger]

Fail for Nail. Nail failed.

 

[Viqsi]

1996 comes to mind.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

11-20 was actually really good too which makes the top 10 looks even worse. Is there a single player in the top ten better than any of these guys? That’s probably being unfair to Reilly and Dumba but still, woof.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

There were some real duds in the late 80s and in the 90s

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

11-20 was actually really good too which makes the top 10 looks even worse. Is there a single player in the top ten better than any of these guys? That’s probably being unfair to Reilly and Dumba but still, woof.

View attachment 883379

Lindholm and Reilly are very much better then several of those guys on list

 

[Viqsi]

Skimming through histories and 1975 also looks really really barren.

And of course the 60s were a joke, but, well, direct sponsorship so that's hardly shocking.

 

[Hockeyholic]

1996 was way worse imo....

 

[HabsQC]

1996 was way worse imo....

View attachment 883382

Easily worse yes

 

[A1LeafNation]

If the top 2 picks were McDavid and Eichel, or Matthews and Laine, etc. it would have been considered a normal draft.

1 McDavid/Matthews/Mackinnon/Stamkos
2 Eichel/Laine/Barkov/Doughty
3 Galchenyuk
4 Reinhardt
5 Reilly
6 Lindholm
7 Dumba
8 Pouliot
9 Trouba
10 Koekkoek
11 Forsberg
12 Grigorenko
13 Faska
14 Girgensens
15 Ceci
16 Willson
17 Hertl
18 Teravainen
19 Vasilevskiy
20 Laughton

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Lindholm and Reilly are very much better then several of those guys on list

I actually missed Lindholm somehow. Didn’t notice him until I read your post.

 

[JuJu Mobb]

Highest point getter from the 1996 draft is Matt Cullen.

 

[fahad203]

1996 comes to mind.

Hands down one of the worse in last 30 years

 

[PaulD]

That's a sad looking top 10.

 

[Guttersniped]

Is there a worse top 10 than these guys? You could probably go top 15 in that draft. Sure there are a few players but ultimately very few successes.

11-20 was actually really good too which makes the top 10 looks even worse. Is there a single player in the top ten better than any of these guys? That’s probably being unfair to Reilly and Dumba but still, woof.

Yeah, the quality of 11-20 redeems the 2012 Draft.

The 1999 Draft was godawful for everyone other than the Vancouver Canucks and the freakishly good 7th Rd.

It’s not like the rest of the team 1999 draft makes up for it.

It produced four players with 1000 GP.

The 7th round produced half of the top six scorers.

 

[TheBeard]

Lindholm and Reilly are very much better then several of those guys on list

You could argue though that the top three picks would have been guys in the teens (Hertl, FF and Vasi) along with picks 120 (Slavin) and 163 (Ullmark)

 

[Montreal Shadow]

Fail for Nail. Nail failed.

More like Nail for fail.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

11-20 was actually really good too which makes the top 10 looks even worse. Is there a single player in the top ten better than any of these guys? That’s probably being unfair to Reilly and Dumba but still, woof.

View attachment 883379

Lindholm?

 

[mr figgles]

Highest point getter from the 1996 draft is Matt Cullen.

Highest point getter from the vaunted 2003 draft is Joe Pavelski

 

[KingsFan7824]

Highest point getter from the vaunted 2003 draft is Joe Pavelski

At over 1000 points. With 3 other guys over 1000 points. With another 5 guys with more points than Cullen. And Cullen played like 200 more games than most of those guys. Cullen's best years were 25g(hit 20 goals twice) and 49pts.

What are we trying to compare?

 

[Brodeur]

I recall 1996 being so bad that there wasn't a ton of optimism. Chris Phillips was the consensus top pick but most figured he'd be in the 5-10 range in an average year. Whereas 1999 had the usual amount of optimism but guys just didn't pan out; A bunch of the guys out of the top 10 had their development derailed with injuries.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/a-scouts-life-2012-draft-looking-weak

One thing I found interesting was this article from 2009 which forecast that the 2012 crop was weaker.

“I’ve been in this racket for 15 years and straight across the board this is the weakest draft. Straight across the board, without question.” – Canadian Hockey League scout.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

I remember when Burke was clowned draft night for saying he thought Morgan Riley had the potential to be the best player out of the draft.

He wasn't wrong

 

[Brodeur]

It was a few years before I started following prospects, but I'll probably read up on the 1992 Draft over the summer.

Alexei Kovalev was the first Russian to go in the first round in (June) 1991. Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov were making their mark by 1990-91 but they had to defect to join the NHL (Pavel Bure would join a year later after jumping through some hoops). The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, so teams almost instantly felt more confident to draft players from the USSR/Czechoslovakia.

THN's top 8 that year. Not totally devoid of talent, but definitely more Europeans than before with a weaker North American crop. Darius Kasparaitis went #5 after having been eligible the previous year; There was a rule for a few drafts where first year eligibles had to be taken in the first three rounds unless they met certain criteria (which Kasparaitis didn't meet).

 

[Brookbank]

Highest point getter from the vaunted 2003 draft is Joe Pavelski

That's why I made a thread about the 2003 draft about how maybe a lot of players retired in 2005/6 which made room for all these 2003 picks to make NHL teams. And it made the draft seem better than it was

 

[Moridin]

I'm not sure.

Top 4 was abysmal, but the several of the rest is among the top 25% ever picked at that position.