The worst draft ever?

[Reddwit]

Don’t know why people rate drafts less than 5 years after the fact. Every year, there are like dozens of guys who hit age 22/23 and absolutely pop off and don’t look back.

 

[Kennedys]

Not sure why but this thread scream "Slafkovsky" sucks without really saying it

 

[Jumptheshark]

team wise the Oiler from 1990 ZERO NHL GAMES

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Mateychuk is going to be a star

 

[Felidae]

Was curious how many drafts had no HHOFers or obvious future HHOFers, so I checked since the beginning..

1963
1964
1965
1967
1968

1972
1975
1978

1992

2001 (though I assume Kovalchuk will get in eventually?)

And a few other interesting years.

1985 has Nieuwendyk.. I think most can agree he's one of the weakest forward inductions though, has larionov too.

1976 has Federko..Again, a meh induction but not the worst.

The 1960s for drafting was obviously a different time. Much fewer players were drafted, not even the equivalent of a whole round.



As you can see, it's very rare for a draft to not have at least 1 HHOfers these last few decades. So 1992 sticks out like a sore thumb with their best player being Sergei Gonchar. Though with the direction the HHOF has been going with defenseman, he may get in eventually..

 

[L4br3cqu3]

2022 ?

Kids are only about 20 years old, da f*** ?

 

[SallyBalls]

2021 Worse than 2022.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

Surprised no one has brought up 2018 yet...really bad first round.

2018 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 2018 NHL Entry draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

 

[57special]

2019 will likely be a lot worse than 2022. Crazy how many players are no longer with the drafted team by the 23 going on 24 season.

J. Hughes - great
Kakko - 2nd team
Dach - 2nd team
Byram - 2nd team
Turcotte - mediocre
Seider - very good
Cozens - likely trade bait
Broberg - 2nd team
Podkolzin - 2nd team

It's rather early to make any bold statements for 2022, I agree there could end up being no superstar but that was pretty obvious with how in flux and unsure the Number 1, 2, 3 and 4 picks were that year. It's only their age 20 going on 21 season, and 10 of the top 11 picks have already played 35+ NHL games.

You are leaving out Boldy, Caufield, and Harley, all of who are playing very well. Jury is still out on Zegras. He's had ups, and downs.

 

[waitin425]

Surprised no one has brought up 2018 yet...really bad first round.

2018 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 2018 NHL Entry draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

Man....a few guys whose names stick out as never even seeing the NHL.

Bode Wilde
Jared McIsaac
Serron Noel
Jett Woo
Dominik Bokk

Those guys all had pages on here that I remember reading.

 

[Iwishihadaspacebar]

Just looking at that 2022 list and there is a surprisingly large number of players who have already played NHL games. It might not have one superstar but it does look a decent enough draft for future NHLers

 

[CTHabsfan]

I'd be shocked if the 2022 draft class doesn't end up being better than the class of 1994.

 

[izlez]

Surprised no one has brought up 2018 yet...really bad first round.

2018 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 2018 NHL Entry draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

Man....a few guys whose names stick out as never even seeing the NHL.

Bode Wilde
Jared McIsaac
Serron Noel
Jett Woo
Dominik Bokk

Those guys all had pages on here that I remember reading.

It also has

Quinn Hughes
Rasmus Dahlin
Evan Bouchard
Noah Dobson
Brady Tkachuk
Andrei Svechnikov

 

[Byron Bitz]

2018 is looking pretty bad. Outside the first round only Sharangavich, Durzi, Romanov and Kurashev are quality full time everyday NHLers and none of them are stars.

 

[Section 104]

Was curious how many drafts had no HHOFers or obvious future HHOFers, so I checked since the beginning..

1963
1964
1965
1967
1968

1972
1975
1978

1992

2001 (though I assume Kovalchuk will get in eventually?)

And a few other interesting years.

1985 has Nieuwendyk.. I think most can agree he's one of the weakest forward inductions though, has larionov too.

1976 has Federko..Again, a meh induction but not the worst.

The 1960s for drafting was obviously a different time. Much fewer players were drafted, not even the equivalent of a whole round.



As you can see, it's very rare for a draft to not have at least 1 HHOfers these last few decades. So 1992 sticks out like a sore thumb with their best player being Sergei Gonchar. Though with the direction the HHOF has been going with defenseman, he may get in eventually..

1972 has HOF Steve Shutt and Bill Barber

1978 technically has Fetisov drafted by Montreal in the 12th round but he wasn’t allowed to leave the Soviet Union and was later redrafted by New Jersey

1964 has Ken Dryden drafted in the 3rd round by Boston..and soon traded to Montreal

 

[NeverForget06]

2012 entry draft is the worst one in the last 10-15 years

 

[mphmiles]

Hellebuyck and Vasi save it a bit, but yea that one’s up there

2002 is pretty bad. Keith, Nash and Bouwmeester, and then a few good players not a lot of top tier guys: Steen, Semin, etc

Yeah, it's bad for skaters, but it's an all-timer of a goalie class.

Vasy
Hellebuyck
Ullmark
Andersen
Murray
Stolarz

3 guys who have won Vezina's, another that's been an all star level player for portions of his career, and a guy with multiple cups as a starter.

 

[Rebels57]

It's gotta be 1996.

1992 was pretty awful too. Sergei Gonchar the leading scorer with 811 points and the leading forward is Alexei Yashin at 781.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

A) Too early to judge this class.

B) Doubt it will be worse than several 1990s classes, with 1999 being arguably the worst.

 

[Favster]

2012 is really brutal

Was coming here to say this

 

[mphmiles]

2019 will likely be a lot worse than 2022. Crazy how many players are no longer with the drafted team by the 23 going on 24 season.

J. Hughes - great
Kakko - 2nd team
Dach - 2nd team
Byram - 2nd team
Turcotte - mediocre
Seider - very good
Cozens - likely trade bait
Broberg - 2nd team
Podkolzin - 2nd team

It's rather early to make any bold statements for 2022, I agree there could end up being no superstar but that was pretty obvious with how in flux and unsure the Number 1, 2, 3 and 4 picks were that year. It's only their age 20 going on 21 season, and 10 of the top 11 picks have already played 35+ NHL games.

2019 was a poor draft year for virtually every major hockey country outside the US. Between Hughes, Boldy, Caufield, Vlasic, and York the US probably has the 5 of the 6 best players of the class.

 

[WarriorofTime]

2019 was a poor draft year for virtually every major hockey country outside the US. Between Hughes, Boldy, Caufield, Vlasic, and York the US probably has the 5 of the 6 best players of the class.

True and 2022 was also a draft that doesn't project out super highly for Canadian players.

Shane Wright, Kevin Korchinski, Matthew Savoie, Connor Geekie, Denton Mateychuk, Owen Pickering, Nathan Gaucher, Maverick Lamoureux, Reid Schaefer, Owen Beck, Jagger Firkus, Fraser Minten, Paul Ludwinski, Dylan James, Noah Warren, Luca Del Bel Belluz, Hunter Haight, Chritian Kyrou, Tristan Luneau, Matthew Poitras, Rieger Lorenz, Ryan Greene, David Goyette in the first two rounds. We'll see how all of that shakes out.

 

[Paddyjack]

To answer this question, one could use hockeydb draft entry pages for each year. At the bottom of the page you get stats for the draft such as #players played in NHL, %of players played; avg NHL career games, avg NHL goals, etc.

One dedicated person could pick up the stats from each year, and make a table. Not me, I'm too lazy. I'm just being helpful ;p

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I know it is still early but, the 2022 draft is looking mediocre at best. There has been no "superstar" to take the league by storm and the 2 most promising players seem to be Cooley and Hutson. The 1999 draft was dreadful minus the Sedins. What do you think was the worst draft class? Is there hope (i know it's early) for 2022 to be decent.

Cheers

Far too soon to assess this draft. We knew it wasn't going to be a great draft but it's only been a couple of years. Needs more time in the oven.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You are going to make a bunch of MTL fans mad.

Honestly need more time to properly assess 2022.

I think going in everyone knew it would be a weaker draft. I do think Montreal will do really well out of this one though. Slaf, Hutson, Beck, Engstrom... Not too shabby.