Kucherov: biggest draft steal of all-time?

Doomhammer

Registered User
Jul 26, 2019
97
210
I would say:

1) Hasek
2) Hull
3) Gilmour

Lidstrom, Recchi, and others are fantastic choices but I think the ass-end of the draft weighs heavier into 'steal' for me.
 
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doublechili

For all intensive purposes, your nuts
Apr 11, 2006
18,996
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Some names here were drafted low because teams didn't think they were coming over to NA soon or at all. So they maybe get an asterisk. Goalies also kind of get an asterisk because... they're goalies. So there are a lot of qualifiers people can put out there.

Has anyone mentioned Chara yet? He went in the 3rd round, in a historically weak draft to boot. And I'm pretty sure the only reason he went that low is that people didn't think he could play. It took a visionary genius like Mike Milbury to finally draft him. "Wait, what? He's 6'9"?! Let's take him!!!!"
 
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nbwingsfan

Registered User
Dec 13, 2009
22,235
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I'm sure he's up there, but if you want to argue for all-time draft steals, the Red Wings alone had these examples of pretty good players drafted low.

Sergei Federov: Round 4, #74
Niklas Lidstrom: Round 3, #53
Pavel Datsyuk: Round 6, #171
Henrik Zetterberg: Round 7, #210
Still amazed how lucky we were that at the end of the Yzerman/Fed era we were able to luckily have them replaced with Z/Datsyuk

Good thing this time we were able to replace Z/Datsyuk with Larkin and ….. Veleno??
 

BostonBob

4 Ever The Greatest
Jan 26, 2004
14,653
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Patrice Bergeron went 45th overall in 2003 and Bard Marchand went 71st overall in 2006. Pretty low for a couple of 1,000 point scorers ( OK OK - Marchand is not there yet but will reach that milestone early in the 2025 season ) and future HOFers. :nod:
 
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Ol' Jase

Steaming bowls of rich, creamy justice.
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View attachment 844605

From the 1992 THN Draft Preview: "No NHL team was willing to gamble on Lithuanian defenseman Darius Kasparaitis in the first three rounds of last year's draft."

From the 1990 THN Draft Preview:

View attachment 844609

That's why the Pavel Bure selection was contested in 1989. Most teams thought he was only eligible for the first three rounds. But the Canucks managed to dig up the box scores that proved that he had played enough games with the senior team, so they took him in the sixth round to the protests of other teams.
You’re absolutely right. I had forgotten about that weird rule. From 87-91, European players under 20 had to be drafted in the first three rounds unless they played in NA or on senior men’s European teams.

Lots of Europeans had been drafted previously, but all were over 20 years old.
 

Fist of Fury

Wang Chung
Jul 24, 2011
525
258
Islanders did amazing at that years draft Strome #5, Mayfield #34, Johan Sundstrom #50, it's always fun to look back in time. Real draft wizard's we've got.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
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Tokyo, Japan
European players drafted prior to about 1990/91 is kind of influenced by the NHL clubs not being sure if/when they would commit to NHL / North American hockey. This is obvious in the case of players drafed before the mid-1980s like Makarov (231st in 1983) or Hašek (199th in 1983). But even towards the end of the 1980s, I think it's still a factor. So you get Bure (1989) drafted 118th, Lidström 53rd, and Fedorov (1989) 74th.

So, not counting players who were never drafted (pre-1970s; Gretzky; Oates, etc.), and not counting Europeans drafted prior to about 1990, I think the biggest steals might be:

-- Mark Messier 48th (1979)
-- Luc Robitaille 171st (1984)
-- Pavel Datsyuk 171st (1998)
-- Brett Hull 117th (1984)
-- Mark Recchi 67th (1988)
-- Patrick Roy 51st (1984)
-- Theoren Fleury 166th (1987)
-- Henrik Zetterberg 210th (1999)
-- Doug Gilmour 134th (1982)
-- Patrice Bergeron 45th (2003)
-- Chris Chelios 40th (1981)
-- Daniel Alfredsson 133rd (1994)
-- Zdeno Chara 56th (1996)
-- Rick Tocchet 121st (1983)

Hell, Joe Pavelski was drafted 205th, has outscored his entire draft class and has over 1000 points. And Johnny Gaudreau was drafted the same year as Kucherov and went number 104.

As an offensive player, Kucherov is better than Robitaille, Hull, and Recchi... but not by so much that his relative lack (yet) of longevity compensates totally in terms of an overall "steal" relative to Kucherov's being drafted much higher. All those guys had really long and productive careers. (Fun fact, Robitaille was the NHL's second leading scorer in the calendar year 2000.)

Kucherov may go down as an all-time great, but you can only be so much "steal" in the second round...
 
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HanSolo

DJ Crazy Times
Apr 7, 2008
99,179
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There's some good competition as mentioned in this thread but if echo Nick Lindstrom. He's arguably a top 5-10 defenseman in the history of the league and racked up 7 Norris trophies. Getting that kind of value in the third round is insane.

While you rarely see a Kucherov level player in the second round, it's not uncommon at all to see guys better than a number of first rounders coming out of the second round. There you see a lot of guys who scouts may have over fixated on perceived flaws and weaknesses that guys overcome. The third round and on, to me, is where you see more of the surprises.
 

Montreal Shadow

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Feb 18, 2008
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I don’t think anyone drafted in the first 3 rounds qualifies. There are routinely many good players picked in round 2 and 3, obviously nowhere near as round 1 but these are often the third or second choices of a team so they’re not that crazy.

But that any one team can pass an elite player 6,7, or 8 times is a different story. This was utter dumb luck on the part of whoever grabbed them.
 
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pcruz

Registered User
Mar 7, 2013
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I am arguing that drafting a player of Kucherov's ilk at the end of the 2nd round is unheard of and very likely to be one of the biggest draft steals of all time by the Bolts.

Think about it, he is producing to the level of guys like MacKinnon, Crosby, McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane, Thornton, who were all generational talent 1st-overall slam-dunks or close to it. He also has 2 Stanley Cups and 2 additional finals appearances, as well as a Hart, Art Ross and Lindsay trophy. He was drafted 58th overall. How could that be?

He will probably end up a top-50 points scorer of all time when he retires. When it comes to points/game he is 13th all-time currently, 15th all-time in the playoffs.

What happened to scouts and GMs at the draft table that year? How can you let a player of this magnitude fall so far in the draft? Imagine letting Nathan MacKinnon fall to 58th overall while you draft Lucas Lessio, Alexander Ruutu and David Musil before him.

Umm


He's not even close to the biggest draft steal among Russian players of all time.
 

Leafsfan74

Registered User
Jul 2, 2018
5,265
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I am arguing that drafting a player of Kucherov's ilk at the end of the 2nd round is unheard of and very likely to be one of the biggest draft steals of all time by the Bolts.

Think about it, he is producing to the level of guys like MacKinnon, Crosby, McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane, Thornton, who were all generational talent 1st-overall slam-dunks or close to it. He also has 2 Stanley Cups and 2 additional finals appearances, as well as a Hart, Art Ross and Lindsay trophy. He was drafted 58th overall. How could that be?

He will probably end up a top-50 points scorer of all time when he retires. When it comes to points/game he is 13th all-time currently, 15th all-time in the playoffs.

What happened to scouts and GMs at the draft table that year? How can you let a player of this magnitude fall so far in the draft? Imagine letting Nathan MacKinnon fall to 58th overall while you draft Lucas Lessio, Alexander Ruutu and David Musil before him.
I think Belfour and Adanm Iates were undrafted players. Same with Martin St. Louis.
 

beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
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not even close given he was taken in second round and players just as good or better were taking in later rounds.

Patrick Roy for example was taking in the 3rd round and is one of only a handful of goalies with over 1000 games, only person with 3 Conn Smythe, etc etc.

Jari Kurri was taken in the 4th round and is 3rd all time in playoff points. career totals of 601 G and 1398 Points

Nick Lidstrom was not taken until 3rd round and ended up with what 7 Norris trophies to go with his Conn Smythe?

The list goes on and on. Messier was also a 3rd round pick. Recchi was a 4th rounder, Pavel Datsyuk was a bloody 7th round pick.
 

syz

[1, 5, 6, 14]
Jul 13, 2007
30,500
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The Oilers got Messier in the 3rd and Glenn Anderson in the 4th round the same year. The next year they got Jarri Kurri in the 3rd round.
 

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
29,686
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Hull was drafted in 1984. Did teams even had scouting departments back then? Come on.

in theory i agree with you. there was one year in the late 80s when toronto had three first round picks and they picked three guys from the same OHL team. ridiculous.

but how hard is it to know about brett hull, who iirc was passed over completely in his first year, maybe two, of eligibility? “uh, with my throwaway 12th round pick i will take the guy who scored a goal and two pts per game in the BC league… and is bobby hull’s son”
 
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