Is the 2015 draft class the best ever?

[britdevil]

It’s got nothing on 1892:

1. Mumbley Terwilliger

2. Chester Quimby

3. Burlap “Eggs” McJiggins

4. Percival Torkelson IV

5. Randy “No-Knees” McSnurd

6. Buckminster O’Flannigan

7. Adolf Hitler (the other one)

8. Elmer Tingle

9. Chris Chelios

10. Elwood “Milk Bag” Trempealeau

Lou Lamoriello signed Eggs McJiggins to his first professional contract.

 

[boredmale]

It's 1979, hands down.

1979
- Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Glenn Anderson, Dale Hunter, Brian Propp, Neal Broten, John Ogrodnick, Thomas Steen, Dave Christian, Mike Foligno, Guy Carbonneau... Carbonneau being the only that had fewer than 700 points.

1979 was the year they changed the rules from drafting 20 year olds to 18 year olds. You basically had like 3 years in 1

 

[David Bruce Banner]

1979 is cheating, though.
It was the year the minimum draft age was lowered from 20 to 19, with the addition to any underage players who had already played in the WHA.
It was like 2 drafts in one.

 

[SchwenningerWildWing]

How are Senyshyn and Zboril doing these days?

Senyshyn is playing for my hometown team in Germany and is doing quite good, thanks .

 

[boredmale]

1979 is cheating, though.
It was the year the minimum draft age was lowered from 20 to 19, with the addition to any underage players who had already played in the WHA.
It was like 2 drafts in one.

So did that change it from 19 to 18 in 1980? I thought they went from 20 to 18 in 79 in one fell swoop.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

So did that change it from 19 to 18 in 1980? I thought they went from 20 to 18 in 79 in one fell swoop.

18 year olds who had played in the WHA were eligible to draft... I think that included Vaive and Messier.

 

[NyQuil]

It's 1979, hands down.

1979
- Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Glenn Anderson, Dale Hunter, Brian Propp, Neal Broten, John Ogrodnick, Thomas Steen, Dave Christian, Mike Foligno, Guy Carbonneau... Carbonneau being the only that had fewer than 700 points.

They all had the benefit of playing in the 80s and early 90s for their primes.

Raw points are a bit misleading here.

 

[boredmale]

18 year olds who had played in the WHA were eligible to draft... I think that included Vaive and Messier.

So when did the draft change outright to 18 year olds?

 

[David Bruce Banner]

So when did the draft change outright to 18 year olds?

1980.

 

[93LEAFS]

It's pretty crazy. I can't think of another draft where you have to get to the 12th pick before you see an outright bust. Every player from 1 to 11 is a competent NHLer who can play on a 3rd line/top 4 or higher.

The top 5 right now is pretty crazy in that everyone is a 1st line player or top 3 defender on a team currently in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Then you have Rantanen, Connor, Aho and Hintz who are top line players (or close to) on current remaining teams. Then you have the guys not around who are legit stars like Werenski and Kaprizov. A 2nd rounder like Carlo is top 4 for a playoff team right now. Konecny, Barzal, and Boeser who were outside the top 10 are all good players too.

It's not just this draft is deep, it's that the very top of the draft (the top 10) have delivered on their potential which is quite rare. Guys like Strome, Provorov, Hanifin and Zacha have had hiccups and took bumpier roads than the teams that drafted them would of like to get where they are, but they are still valuable players at the right cap-hit. McDavid has been the best player in the league since he was drafted. Eichel, Marner, Werenski and Rantanen are legitimate stars. Meier has been a good but not great player.

 

[boredmale]

1980.

Just looked this up. The first 1962 born player(ie 18) was 12th and only 6 of the top 21 picks were born in 1962.

If the 1962 years olds formed their own draft class it would be like Brent Sutter as the top choice. lol

 

[93LEAFS]

1980.

Not quite. Weird rules around players who went the NCAA route about how they had to declare without losing eligibility. There was a transition period in the early/mid 2000s around this, and it actually helped contribute to making 2003 a very strong draft.

For example, guys like Vanek, Parise, Kesler, etc. under current rules would have been in the 2002 NHL draft, not 2003. Al Montoya on the other hand from 2004 would be in the 2003 draft. This loophole was changed in the new CBA.

 

[Mitch nylander]

It's 1979, hands down.

1979
- Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Glenn Anderson, Dale Hunter, Brian Propp, Neal Broten, John Ogrodnick, Thomas Steen, Dave Christian, Mike Foligno, Guy Carbonneau... Carbonneau being the only that had fewer than 700 points.

I'd say it's pretty close to be honest.

2003 - 700 Point guys - Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Joe Pavelski, Eric Staal, Zach Parise, Jeff Carter, Thomas Vanek, Brent Burns, Dustin Brown.
(10x guys)

1979 - Has 12

Important to note - 1980s was a much higher scoring era.
---------

Offence to me seems better in 79 - but defence is much better in 03:

2003 - Shea Weber, Brent Burns, Ryan Suter, Brent Seabrook, Dustin Byfuglien, Dion Phaneuf, Tobias Enstrom

vs

1979 - Ray Bourque, Kevin Lowe, Rob Ramage, Paul Reinhart, Mike Ramsey, Brad Mccrimmon, Doug Crossman

------

Goaltending is also in 2003's favour

Pelle Lindbergh, Rick Wamsley, Pat Riggin & Jacques Clouthier
vs Marc-Andre Fleury, Corey Crawford, Jaroslav Halak, Jimmy Howard, Brian Elliott.....


-----------------------

Now the question to me does 2015 surpass them both?

There's already 6 guys with 500+ Career Points. With Kaprizov, Barzal, Konecny, Boeser, Weresnki, Dylan Strome, coming up the pipe.

 

[Mitch nylander]

The Best Goalie Class
2012 - Andrei Vasileskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, Frederik Andersen, Linus Ullmark, Anthony Stolarz, Joonas Korpisalo, Matt Murray,

Best Defenseman Class:
2008 - Drew Doughty, Eric Karlsson, Roman Josi, John Carlson, Alex Pietrangelo, Jared Spurgeon, Tj Brodie, Tyler Myers, Travis Hamonic, Luke Schenn, Zach Bogosian, Marco Scandella, Jake Gardiner, Michael Del Zotto

Best Draft Performance By a Team All-Time:
Detroit 1989 - Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Mike Sillinger, Vladimir Kostantinov, Dallas Drake, Bob Boughner
Edmonton 1980 - Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Andy Moog, Walt Poddubny
Edmonton 1979 - Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe,
NYI 1974 - Brian Trottier, Clark Gillies, Dave Langevin, Stefan Persson

Best Draft Performance by a team post Lockout:
Dallas 2017 - Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger, Jacob Peterson
Tampa 2011 - Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Vladislav Namestnikov, Nikita Nesterov
Ducks 2011 - John Gibson, Rickard Rakell, William Karlsson, Josh Manson,
Habs 2007. - Max Pacioretty, PK Subban, Ryan Mcdonagh, Yannick Weber
Bruins 2006 - Brad Marchand, Phil Kassel, Milan Lucic
Kings 2005 - Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Yes and I think it’s very easily the best also

 

[WarriorofTime]

Rough year to not have a first

 

[93LEAFS]

Now for the worst draft of the 2000s :

2012....

Yeah, 13 years later and the only active NHLers left from the top 10 are Rielly, Lindholm, Dumba and Trouba. For context, the 2008 draft still has 5 and the 2009 draft still has 7 despite those guys being past their peak and in their mid-30s.

 

[93LEAFS]

Rough year to not have a first

or to do whatever the hell Boston did in round 1. Granted Carlo was a very good pick in the 2nd, and Debrusk is a servicable NHLer.

 

[Voight]

Kaprizov - McDavid - Marner
Connor - Eichel - Rantanen
Hintz - Aho - Barzal
Cirelli - Eriksson Ek - Konecny

vs.

Parise - Staal - Pavelski
Vanek - Getzlaf - Perry
Backes - Bergeron - Carter
Richards - Kesler - Brown

2015 much faster and more skilled, 2003 much more physical.

2003 defense and goalies in landslides.

2015 B team kills the 2003 B team probably though.

Which is par the course given the era. It was still the DPE and young physical players were a GMs preferred choice.

 

[Voight]

Yeah, 13 years later and the only active NHLers left from the top 10 are Rielly, Lindholm, Dumba and Trouba. For context, the 2008 draft still has 5 and the 2009 draft still has 7 despite those guys being past their peak and in their mid-30s.

& Dumba has one foot out of the league already

 

[dire wolf]

1983 has eight HOFers although Tretiak, Makarov and Fetisov are in mainly for their international play. Still LaFontaine, Yzerman, Barrasso, Neely and Hasek. Ironically #1 Lawton and #2 Turgeon weren’t stars

1983 is really good. In addition to those HOFers, you also have:

Claude Lemieux
Kevin Stevens
Tocchet
John MacLean
Tikkanen
Garry Galley
Beukeboom

And some legendary enforcers:
Bob Probert
Joey Kocur
Stu Grimson

 

[Treb]

Then 2 years after the first one you guys had to get the other. Clearly having 2 Kostitsyn is better than just one.

Sergei Kostitsyn was a great 7th round pick though.

 

[StreetHawk]

If all else is equal, McDavid puts 2015 ahead of 2003 for sure. Who's the best player from the 2003 class? Bergeron? Getzlaf? Weber?

2003 better overall depth. McDavid is far superior to the best that 2003 had to offer.

The Dcore in 2003 blows out the 2015 Dcore.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

It will be when it’s all said and done, but the lack of Stanley Cups is an odd reality for a group already in their late-20s. That 2003 group is loaded with Cup winners and helped claim Canada’s golds in 2010 and 2014. Head-to-head, 2003 would probably intimidate and smother 2015.

The matchups in a best-on-best would favor 2003. Bergeron and a Weber-Suter pair on any McDavid line, then a Backes-Kesler-Brown line to smash everything in sight. Phaneuf and Seabrook would own the net front. Peak Burns ran a PP as well as any dman in history. 2015 group would look soft in comparison, probably timid.

Speaking of soft and timid, I still can’t believe the Leafs took Dermott where they did. How funny is it that UDFA Raddysh is a legit stud for Tampa and was light years better than Dermott but didn’t even get drafted despite a million scouts watching Erie that season.

 

[Nicko999]

The Best Goalie Class
2012 - Andrei Vasileskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, Frederik Andersen, Linus Ullmark, Anthony Stolarz, Joonas Korpisalo, Matt Murray,

Best Defenseman Class:
2008 - Drew Doughty, Eric Karlsson, Roman Josi, John Carlson, Alex Pietrangelo, Jared Spurgeon, Tj Brodie, Tyler Myers, Travis Hamonic, Luke Schenn, Zach Bogosian, Marco Scandella, Jake Gardiner, Michael Del Zotto

Best Draft Performance By a Team All-Time:
Detroit 1989 - Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Mike Sillinger, Vladimir Kostantinov, Dallas Drake, Bob Boughner
Edmonton 1980 - Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Andy Moog, Walt Poddubny
Edmonton 1979 - Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe,
NYI 1974 - Brian Trottier, Clark Gillies, Dave Langevin, Stefan Persson

Best Draft Performance by a team post Lockout:
Dallas 2017 - Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger, Jacob Peterson
Tampa 2011 - Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Vladislav Namestnikov, Nikita Nesterov
Ducks 2011 - John Gibson, Rickard Rakell, William Karlsson, Josh Manson,
Habs 2007. - Max Pacioretty, PK Subban, Ryan Mcdonagh, Yannick Weber
Bruins 2006 - Brad Marchand, Phil Kassel, Milan Lucic
Kings 2005 - Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick

I think 2005 gives 2012 a run for its money when it comes to goalies.

Carey Price, Jonathan Quick, Tuuka Rask, Ondrej Pavelec, Ben Bishop, Alex Stalock.