Is the 2015 draft class the best ever?

[Mrb1p]

2005 and 1984 exist, so no.

Id also include 1979 as a coin-toss

 

[hamzarocks]

2005 and 1984 exist, so no.

Id also include 1979 as a coin-toss

05 draft class was not deep enough and doesn't belong in the conversation

It has Crosby, Kopitar, Quick, Rask and Price as HHOF with letang being borderline HHOF. A lot of elite goalies but not many franchise 1C or 1Ds

Besides that a lot of good players but not consistently elite players

 

[Jumptheshark]

1980 is in the mix as well.

1979

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Clearly having 2 Kostitsyn is better than just one.

This is close to a French joke we made about the brothers's name at the time. "Avoir 2 grosses-tétines, c'est mieux qu'une". A joke about bossoms. There's an even more crass version, but it's Pegi-18, so i won't go there.

 

[miscs75]

Sergei Kostitsyn was a great 7th round pick though.

Always good to hit on the late rounds. Then again it makes the high draft picks sting even more when they bust out while those irrelevant guys become useful players.

 

[Acallabeth]

2003 was deeper and more balanced by position.
2015 was the best forwards draft.

 

[SirKillalot]

Lou Lamoriello signed Eggs McJiggins to his first professional contract.

Chris Chelios played with Eggs McJiggins in both his rookie and final year.

 

[Sanderson]

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.

Being a Cup-Winner has more to do with being in the right place at the right time than any sort of skill or effort. You can be an elite player and never win the cup, even while being great in the playoffs. Just like you can fail to win while carrying the entire team on your shoulders, and then win while being good but not great on a better team (Bourque, Hasek). In the same way, good but not yet great Jagr won two Cups in his first two seasons, yet peak Jagr never even reached the finals again.

The Olympic medals are also rather irrelevant, as Canada is an obvious gold-candidate, if not the main favourite, every time NHLers participate. And so far, the 2015 draft class did not have a single opportunity to participate, which cannot be held against it.

 

[Mrb1p]

05 draft class was not deep enough and doesn't belong in the conversation

It has Crosby, Kopitar, Quick, Rask and Price as HHOF with letang being borderline HHOF. A lot of elite goalies but not many franchise 1C or 1Ds

Besides that a lot of good players but not consistently elite players

Crosby is an uncontested slam dunk top 5 goat player of all-time. Right off the bad thats something special and of incredible value.

Price, Quick and Rask is the best drafted trio of goaltender of all-time. Bishop aint too shabby either.

Kopitar and Letang are sure thing HOFers.

Thats what, five HOFers? Who besides Mcdavid is a HOFer? Rantanen, if he wins another cup and gets a Conn Smythe. Eichel probably. Marner? Dont think so. Connor? No.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

Being a Cup-Winner has more to do with being in the right place at the right time than any sort of skill or effort. You can be an elite player and never win the cup, even while being great in the playoffs. Just like you can fail to win while carrying the entire team on your shoulders, and then win while being good but not great on a better team (Bourque, Hasek). In the same way, good but not yet great Jagr won two Cups in his first two seasons, yet peak Jagr never even reached the finals again.

The Olympic medals are also rather irrelevant, as Canada is an obvious gold-candidate, if not the main favourite, every time NHLers participate. And so far, the 2015 draft class did not have a single opportunity to participate, which cannot be held against it.

Disparity is too significant to ignore. Nearly all were key players in winning the Cups. The 2015 group is now 28 years old and only Eichel and Rantanen have won a Cup among the first-rounders. 2003 group were winning Cups earlier and more often -- Fleury was 24. Horton was 26. Staal was 21. Perry and Getzlaf were 22. Brown, Richards and Carter were 27. Seabrook was 24.

Still plenty of time left but it's something like 16-2 in terms of Cups won by first-rounders before 28 years old. Can't just chalk that up to luck. It's probably generational. Those kids were built differently and developed in a win-at-all-cost environment. You saw that in their postseason play.

As for the Olympics, it's still the last legitimate best-on-best we've had and they won both times. The onus is on the other class to prove they can match it, whenever it happens.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

I dunno how some people can say it's still 2003, 2015 beats it out in both high-end talent AND depth.

 

[SomeDude]

I think there is a lot of recency bias with the 2003 guys. When they were in their primes, they were thought a lot with more regard. Just like guys like Marner and Kaprizov, etc today.

We’ve already watched them get old and our last memory, only memory for many of today’s HF posters if we’re being honest, of most of them are as over the hill depth players.

 

[jetsforever]

The 2015 class has like 5 players better/trending to be better than Bergeron/Weber/Getzlaf all time

Mcdavid (already better all time than anyone from that class)

Eichel (trending to be better)

Marner (trending to be better)

Rantanen (trending to be better)

Kaprizov (trending to be better but late NHL start hurts him)

Plus so many very good to elite talents outside of that in

Werenski
Barzal
Connor
Aho
Boesor
Hanafin
Chabot

Not sure any of those guys (other than McDavid) are trending better than Bergeron and not sure even Weber/Getzlaf for all of them

 

[Fatass]

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.

Would ‘79 have been Gretzky’s draft, if he wasn’t already signed by a WHA club? If it was, it is easily the best draft ever.

 

[hamzarocks]

Crosby is an uncontested slam dunk top 5 goat player of all-time. Right off the bad thats something special and of incredible value.

Price, Quick and Rask is the best drafted trio of goaltender of all-time. Bishop aint too shabby either.

Kopitar and Letang are sure thing HOFers.

Thats what, five HOFers? Who besides Mcdavid is a HOFer? Rantanen, if he wins another cup and gets a Conn Smythe. Eichel probably. Marner? Dont think so. Connor? No.

Mcdavid is above Crosby so that already above 05 for best on best player

Rantanen, Marner, Eichel, Kaprizov will be 1st ball hall of farmers when they retire

 

[hamzarocks]

Not sure any of those guys (other than McDavid) are trending better than Bergeron and not sure even Weber/Getzlaf for all of them

They all trending to be better, its not hard to be better than Bergeron all time who isn't a top 30 player all time. He isn't a yzermann/sakic/bossy tier player and can be easily matched and surpassed by those guys outside of Mcdavid (who passed him way back when)

We have seen multiple guys currently playinh leave him in the dust already (kucherov, draisaitl, mackinnon - all top 30 players all time) and guys like barkov + matthews arent too far off already.

Getzlaf/Weber legacy is that they are from the legandary 03 draft, nothing particularly crazy about either of the two which would make you think of that that marner/rantanen/eichel/kaprizov can't touch (rantanen is already ahead of both for me and just needs to compile now)

Rantanen already has a legendary career regular season wise and is a top 10 playoff player of all time through his first 90+ games. He's better than any of those 3 in the playoffs ever were

Eichel has limited playoff exposure but has a Conn Smythe level playoff run. Higher peak than any of those guys regular season wise, more consistent YoY and an incredible 2023 playoffs

Marner + Kaprizov have higher repeated regular seasons than those guys but playoff wise have not done much. Marner is still in the playoffs so if he does the unthinkable and wins a cup he's not being touched by those guys

 

[Fatass]

I think it’s been proven here that ‘79 was the best. Then 2003. 2015 gets the bronze.