Ranking the Best First Overall Picks of the 21st Century

[WTFMAN99]

I feel like you're betting off doing 2000-2012. The rest are too early.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Kane should be third on every list. McDavid is 4th. Let me know when he wins a Hart, couple conn smythes, some cups, etc. Sorry. He's gonna end up having as good or better of a career but it's too early to put him over Kane. And lolz to Matthews being better than Kane. Should automatically lose posting privileges for a day for that.

 

[La Bamba]

Crosby
McDavid
Ovechkin
Kane
Stamkos
Kovalchuk
Tavares
Ekblad
Matthews
Hall
Nash
Fleury
MacKinnon
RNH
DiPietro
Johnson
Yakupov

When it's all said and done IMO

 

[Mike Hasselhoffman]

He deserves to be there. He is on pace for 40 goals while being excellent defensively as a rookie center. In his prime he could score 50+

Now now let's calm down here...

Here's how many 50 goal scorers there has been per season since 2010:

2015-16: 1 (Ovechkin - 50)
2014-15: 1 (Ovechkin - 53)
2013-14: 1 (Ovechkin - 51)
2012-13: 2 (Ovechkin - 55, Stamkos - 50)***
2011-12: 2 (Stamkos - 60, Malkin - 50)
2010-11: 1 (Perry - 50)

*** = pro-rated to 82 games

If you seriously expect Matthews to be a 50 goal scorer, prepare to be disappointed.

 

[I am not exposed]

As of right now?

Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid

Kane
Stamkos
Tavares
Kovalchuk
Matthews

Ekblad
Hall
MacKinnon
Nash

Fleury
Johnson
RNH

DiPietro
Yakupov

Best list so far. Would put Tavares above Stamkos though.

And Ekblad is going into Yakapov territory with the way he is playing!

 

[ChiefWiggum]

What does everybody think of Ekblad? Is he living up to expectations or falling short?

 

[Toews2Bickell]

What does everybody think of Ekblad? Is he living up to expectations or falling short?

Considering there were rumors that the Panthers were willing to trade that pick I'd say he's exceeding them by far. From day one he's been a pretty damn good defenseman.

 

[Huokaus]

As of right now?

Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid

Kane
Stamkos
Tavares
Kovalchuk
Matthews

Ekblad
Hall
MacKinnon
Nash

Fleury
Johnson
RNH

DiPietro
Yakupov

Agreed with some other users that this is the best list. I was planning to make a tier list too, and I think this is pretty much exactly what it would have looked like.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

The more I think about it Kane is in that first tier. The generational tier. His trackrecord is way beyond the Stamkos/Tavares/Kovy/Matthews tier.

 

[bobholly39]

Kane should be third on every list. McDavid is 4th. Let me know when he wins a Hart, couple conn smythes, some cups, etc. Sorry. He's gonna end up having as good or better of a career but it's too early to put him over Kane. And lolz to Matthews being better than Kane. Should automatically lose posting privileges for a day for that.

dont agree

Crosby/OV are perennial ross/hart/rocket winners. every year

Kane really only did it once. There's every expectation McDavid will surpass that as he's expected to be the best player in the world for a few years.

It's surpassing OV/Crosby that is a big stretch for McDavid (though not impossible with his talent level).

I think putting McDavid at 3rd behind Crosby/OV is perfect.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

dont agree

Crosby/OV are perennial ross/hart/rocket winners. every year

Kane really only did it once. There's every expectation McDavid will surpass that as he's expected to be the best player in the world for a few years.

It's surpassing OV/Crosby that is a big stretch for McDavid (though not impossible with his talent level).

I think putting McDavid at 3rd behind Crosby/OV is perfect.

Kane was leading the art ross/hart chase every year after the lockout until he got hurt each of those seasons. Kane has been a top 3-5 player in the world since then. He finally had a linemate that could match his skill and he won the points race by a mile. He's a ppg player in the playoffs over a 100+ game sample size. He's done it all. He's above the tier people have him in. It's just that simple. He's a generational player. Arguably best vision, hands and passing in the league.

I'm not saying he's above Crosby, Ovy or McDavid. He's fourth in that list. But he's in that list. He's beyond the JT, Kovy, Stammer tier by a mile.

 

[ChiefWiggum]

Wasn't JT supposed to be a generational franchise player? I guess he fell short slightly

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Wasn't JT supposed to be a generational franchise player? I guess he fell short slightly

There was talk about him being the next generational player after Crosby after his 16-year old season. But the talk and expectations died down a bit the two years leading up to the draft.

 

[DaveG]

1 - Crosby
2 - Ovechkin
3 - Kane
4 - McDavid
5 - Stamkos
6 - Tavares
7 - Kovalchuk
8 - Matthews
9 - Hall
10 - Ekblad
11 - MacKinnon
12 - Nash
13 - Fleury
14 - Johnson
15 - RNH
16 - DiPietro
17 - Yakupov

Likely that McDavid will be in the top 3 by the end of the decade and Matthews in the top 5 IMHO.

 

[jeangauthier]

1. Crosby
2. Kane
3. Ovechkin
4. Stamkos
5. Fleury
6. Kovalchuk
7. Tavares
8. Nash
9. Hall
10. MacKinnon
11. Nugent Hopkins
12. Johnson
13. Dipietro
14. Yakupov

Too early to tell. McDavid (probably will be top 3), Matthews and Ekblad.

The purpose of the number 1 pick is to lead your team to the playoffs, and win the cup. All these players at one point were the shiny new piece, and they all went to lousy teams. I think it's way too early to decide where players will end up after 10 years. Matthews over Kane is ridiculous.

This.........

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

1 - Crosby
2 - Ovechkin
3 - Kane
4 - McDavid
5 - Stamkos
6 - Tavares
7 - Kovalchuk
8 - Matthews
9 - Hall
10 - Ekblad
11 - MacKinnon
12 - Nash
13 - Fleury
14 - Johnson
15 - RNH
16 - DiPietro
17 - Yakupov

Likely that McDavid will be in the top 3 by the end of the decade and Matthews in the top 5 IMHO.

Just curious why you and so many others rank Hall ahead of Nash. Neither guy has been necessarily a "franchise" player, but at least Nash has consistently put up big goal totals. He's even won a Rocket Richard trophy. He's also much better defensively than Hall. And that doesn't include Nash being good enough to represent Canada at the Olympics, while Hall keeps getting passed over.

 

[authentic]

Not sure how people have Tavares above Kovalchuk.

Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid
Kane
Kovalchuk
Matthews
Stamkos
Tavares
Hall
Nash

I wouldn't be surprised if Matthews ended up better than Kane or Kovalchuk either, but I certainly woudn't expect it.

 

[shadow1]

My $0.02

C Sidney Crosby
LW Alexander Ovechkin
RW Patrick Kane
LW Ilya Kovalchuk
C Connor McDavid
C Steven Stamkos
C John Tavares
G Marc-Andre Fluery
D Aaron Ekblad
LW Ric Nash
LW Taylor Hall
C Nathan MacKinnon
C Auston Matthews
D Erik Johnson
G Rick Dipietro
C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
RW Nail Yakupov

---

It's hard as hell to rank the three most recently drafted players - Ekblad, McDavid, Matthews - due to small sample sizes. I will probably get hell for my ranking of Matthews.

 

[Daximus]

Crosby
McDavid
Ovechkin
Kane
Tavares
Stamkos
Kovalchuk
Matthews
Nash
Ekblad
Hall
MacKinnon
RNH
Fluery
Johnson
DiPietro
Yakupov

 

[chunkylover53]

There was talk about him being the next generational player after Crosby after his 16-year old season. But the talk and expectations died down a bit the two years leading up to the draft.

16 year old Tavares had comparable if not more hype than McJesus...I mean exceptional status breaks Gretzky goal record for 16 year old. I remember he was getting segments on Coach's Corner. Of course after that the lustre kinda of fell...


Now on topic, I think it's way too premature to put McDavid above Ovechkin...though I would agree that prospect McDavid goes ahead of prospect Ovechkin in a draft.

 

[Party Kane]

Tier 1: Generational
Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid

Tier 2: Franchise
Kane
Kovalchuk
Stamkos
Tavares
Matthews

Tier 3: Elite
Hall
Ekblad
Nash
Mackinnon

Tier 4: Underwhelming
Johnson
RNH
Fleury

Tier 5: Busts
Dipietro
Yakupov

Mackinnon, Matthews, and Ekblad need more time to evaluate

 

[Senor Catface]

Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid
Kane
Stamkos
Kovalchuk
Tavares
Ekblad
Hall
Nash
MacKinnon
Matthews
RNH
Fleury
Johnson
DiPietro
Yakupov

 

[ChiefWiggum]

My personal list is

1. Sidney Crosby
2. Connor McDavid
3. Alex Ovechkin
4. Patrick Kane
5. Steven Stamkos
6. John Tavares
7. Ilya Kovalchuk
8. Rick Nash
9. Nathan MacKinnon
10. Aaron Ekbkad
11. Taylor Hall
12. Auston Matthews
13. Erik Johnson
14. Mark-Andre Fleury
15. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
16. Rick DiPietro
17. Nail Yakupov

I have McDaid over Ovechkin because if he moderately lives up to the hype, he will definitely be higher than Ovi, he may very well pass Crosby but he will definitely have some work to do for that.

For the busts, I have DiPietro ahead of Yak because he was having a decent nhl career before injuries completely derailed him. It's too bad for Yakupov too because in the world juniors he really looked like a guy who would be a sniper at the nhl level and was one of the most explosive skaters I had seen in the juniors up to that point. I really enjoyed watching him

 

[SnoopDogg]

Crosby
Ovechkin
McDavid

(everybody else)

DiPietro

Yakupov

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Where's Laine?