Was Fleury worth the 1st overall selection?

[MarkusKetterer]

2001 - Pascal Leclaire#8, Dan Blackburn #10, Jason Bacashihua #26, Adam Munro #29
2000 - had Ricky #1, and Brent Krahn at 9th
1999 - Brian Finley went 6th. Maxime Ouellet was 22nd , Ari Ahonen went 27th.
1998 - DesRochers and Chouinard went back to pack 14th and 15th (4 total NHL GP)
1997 - Luongo #4, Noronen #21, JF Damphousse #24
1996 - Craig Hiller #23

Thats every goalie taken in the 1st round for six years. ONE goalie turned out to be worth it, being Luongo.

Teams got scared off of drafting a G in the 1st.

Brian Finley was a beauty. Too bad he shredded his groin.

 

[FissionFire]

I understand the argument for not drafting goalies high, but this is completely unrealistic.

That’s the point. Goalies are far too unpredictable to draft first overall. Fleury turned out OK. DiPietro not so much. Neither was exactly tracking towards franchise-level goalie either. If you are going to go 1st overall for a goalie that person better already be a world-class NHL-caliber player in my opinion otherwise the risk is simply far far too high.

 

[WingsFan95]

A Hall of Famer among the many busts/disappointments at #1???

 

[n00bxQb]

No, he's had a wonderful career but the talent in that draft, I'd take Bergeron, Weber, Getzlaf and possibly Suter ahead of Fleury.

It's easy to draft in hindsight, but none of those guys were realistic #1 overall picks at the time. Bergeron and Weber weren't even 1st round picks.

 

[Voight]

Well it's always been a polarizing pick due to the nature of the draft being so deep and producing so many all stars.

That being said, he is currently the 2nd best player in that draft right now after my boy sasquatch. Longevity is in his favor.

But the answer is yes, his playoff results speak for themselves....even if he's never been a true vezina/all nhl goalie.

Nope.

 

[Voight]

He won them 3 cups so I'd say the Pens would take him again

He won them 1 cup, and played half the games in another run.

 

[canuckslover10]

Pens dont win 2 cups without him so its easily justified

 

[mrzeigler]

The fact that the Pens traded up in order to pick him tells you all you need to know: It was a pick to address an organizational need, and he helped the team win Stanley Cups. So in the eyes of the franchise, it clearly was worth it.

A majority of teams probably wouldn't have taken him first overall, but I'd wager that any teams that truly needed a goalie would have taken him first overall, if they had the choice. (I forget which teams were rumored to be trying to trade up to take him 1st or 2nd overall ... ahead of the Pen's original draft spot of No. 3.)

Even when viewed in the vacuum of evaluating the draft solely on career achievements and not on player potential at the time or the needs of the team making the pick, the pick is becoming less polarizing with each passing year.

 

[Channelcat]

When you consider how weak that draft was, yes absolutely. Now maybe Suter or Staal would have been better picks, but you can't pick and choose a draft 15 years later....thats silly.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

When you consider how weak that draft was, yes absolutely. Now maybe Suter or Staal would have been better picks, but you can't pick and choose a draft 15 years later....thats silly.

Bergeron is the #1 in that draft year...followed by Getzlaf and Staal

 

[Name Nameless]

Bergeron is the #1 in that draft year...followed by Getzlaf and Staal

So they should have traded down to 45th to get Bergeron then. .

Sometimes, discussing with 20/20 hindsight makes your vision unclear.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

People can argue up and down about the merits of a pick, but the fact remains that changing the pick changes the way everything unfolds.

The Pens won 3 Cups with Fleury, him playing a major role in 2 of them. I'm not giving those up on the off-chance that we may have won a fourth.

People also seem to forget that Pittsburgh was a goaltending graveyard outside of a few years of Barrasso (who was constantly hurt) and the NHL was a very different place in 2003 than it is now. The concept of taking a goalie, then seen as the single most important player on any team, with the #1 pick wasn't a difficult sell in a draft where the top 5 players were basically seen as being largely interchangeable heading in (aka the one situation where drafting for organizational need makes sense) and goaltending had been an issue for the organization basically from the start.

 

[SuperScript29]

When you consider how weak that draft was, yes absolutely. Now maybe Suter or Staal would have been better picks, but you can't pick and choose a draft 15 years later....thats silly.

Wtf are you talking about? 2003 is one of the deepest drafts of all time.

 

[authentic]

Agree 100%. Young Fleury was an athletic freak. Probably the most athletic goalie, and quickest reflexes I’ve ever seen. Plus he had the size to be something special. The Penguins where so horribly run back then I can’t even blame Fleury. Pens really got lucky landing Crosby, and Malkin.

Is he not still an athletic freak and did he not win the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009?

 

[Channelcat]

Wtf are you talking about? 2003 is one of the deepest drafts of all time.

Ya I get it......you read some article, but no it wasn't

 

[SuperScript29]

Ya I get it......you read some article, but no it wasn't

Ok then, give me 5 drafts that were deeper not including 1979.

 

[boredmale]

I believe most teams had Eric Staal or Horton going 1st but Penguins wanted him so bad and traded up just to make sure they'd get him.

While this is true, they basically traded table scraps for the honor of announcing Fleury is #1

 

[Big McLargehuge]

How deep a draft is is irrelevant to the value of a #1 pick at the time. The top 5-6 prospects in that draft were seen as largely interchangeable in 2003, hence the cost to move from #3 to #1 being a dude who had 2 points and a -21 in 22 games with Pittsburgh and a nothing pick swap later in the draft. A pittance of a swap solely done to prevent someone else from trading up as everyone and their mother knew who Carolina & Florida wanted.

Eric Staal & Nikolai Zherdev are relevant to the conversation, Boston's 2nd round pick isn't.

 

[blinkman360]

Yes, it was worth it.

Staal over Toews though? That's the one that gets me.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

Is he not still an athletic freak and did he not win the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009?

Really not sure where your coming at tbh.

I never said he lost any athlectism (which he did because he’s much older than the 18 year old rookie he was). He’s still one of the most athletic goalies in the league, but one thing he never learned because he was rushed was consistency.

It’s speaks volume to the talent Fleury was that he’s had the career he currently has while being rushed. IMO, Fleury was the best goaltending prospect of all time, but Pittsburgh did him no favours considering how they handled him.

I have no doubts if he was drafted by Detroit/Colorado/New Jersey in those early 2000s we would be talking about an all time great.

 

[Pancakes]

Sharks fan here.

Fleury broke my heart when he was a Pen and when he was a Knight in the playoffs.

How can you be so heartless, how can you be so heartless.

Uhh...why? He didn't even play against the Sharks as a Pen.

Or did it break your heart that Sullivan wouldn't put him in so that the Sharks could win that series?

 

[Pancakes]

Not even close, the Penguins got so lucky with their lottery picks after him. When you screw up a 1st overall selection like they did, it should set your franchise back a few years. They got incredibly fortunate to get Malkin and Crosby. Its also hilarious they managed to piss away another top 3 pick in staal.

You're being a bit harsh on the Staal pick. They would have been better off with Toews or Backstrom but it's not like Staal was a bust and they did win a cup with him being a big part of it.

 

[PensPlz]

He's a future HOFer with 3 cups, almost a 4th, and has been the face of Vegas since he's got there.

That's what a number 1 pick should be. So yes.

 

[nowhereman]

Ya I get it......you read some article, but no it wasn't

Are you the guy in your avatar smoking up? Becuase that's the only explanation for thinking the 2003 draft is anything less than one of the greatest drafts in NHL history...

He's a future HOFer with 3 cups, almost a 4th, and has been the face of Vegas since he's got there.

That's what a number 1 pick should be. So yes.

When you think about it, MAF has played in 5 of the last 11 Stanley Cup Finals. He's played in almost half of the last decade of Stanley Cup Finals. That's ridiculous!

 

[DesertPenguin]

Also remember, the Pens traded 3OA, 55OA and a nothing prospect for 1OA and 73rd OA. The moved up from 3 to 1 by only by swapping a mid/late 2nd for an early/mid 3rd. That sure isn't much. FLA knew the Pens were taking Fleury. The trade was just to ensure they got the player they wanted and that no one jumped to 1/2 to take him. That puts a pretty big asterisk next to that 1OA pick. Still, even at 3OA, it was high.

Fleury built the foundation of that team. They were nearly bankrupt and needed to amass high picks while keeping salary low. Fleury enabled them to do that. They sen't him down after 21 games played to avoid paying him a roster bonus and let him develop longer while they built the rest of the team. Considering they drafted him before the 03/04 season and made it to the cup in the 07/08 season, winning in 08/09, I'd say it worked out just fine.