Worst first round picks

[Chainshot]

But Nylander has a better "pedigree" and that matters most.

Murray and others admitted it was a gut pick by Tim that flew in the face of their scouting book.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

NJ took that Adrian Foster kid in the late 1st in 2001 which was a big surprise at the time. Most kids won't make it anyway in that range but that came out of left field.

I think Foster was really good in minor hockey, had a very solid small stint in Junior A in the AJHL as a 16 year old, then barely played due to injuries in his 17 year old season (DY) and his 18 year old season (D+1). Not sure why the Devils chose to gamble that early on him.

 

[Brodeur]

I think Foster was really good in minor hockey, had a very solid small stint in Junior A in the AJHL as a 16 year old, then barely played due to injuries in his 17 year old season (DY) and his 18 year old season (D+1). Not sure why the Devils chose to gamble that early on him.

Here's a passage from Gare Joyce's book "Future Greats and Heartbreaks" regarding the Foster pick:

If you look up Adrian Foster's career statistics, you'll see that he played in only twelve games in two years leading up to the 2001 draft. What you won't see is the cause of all that time lost: a severe injury to abdominal muscles. With the knowledge of that injury and all of one goal scored in the Dub over those two seasons, the New Jersey Devils selected Foster in the first round, twenty-eighth overall. It looked like an ultimate reach, but was less so on further review.

David Conte, the New Jersey Devils' top amateur scout, explained it as a strategic gamble based on three markers. One: Foster had been one of the best three or four players in western Canada as a bantam. Two: The Devils viewed the other players available at #28 without any enthusiasm. Three: If Foster didn't recover from his injuries and the Devils weren't inclined to sign him, the club would receive a compensation pick two years down the line*.

*In fact, it was easier to rationalize spending a first-rounder on Foster than a second-rounder--or even a third or fourth-rounder. If a team chose not to sign a first-round pick, it would receive a compensation pick between the first and second rounds. Later picks that went unsigned were not subject to compensation. "We figured the compensation pick that might be looking at two years later would likely be better than the players who were available at #28," David Conte told me.

TL;DR - strategic gamble as they wouldn't have gotten a compensation pick had they waited to take Foster and then decided not to sign him. It was early but perhaps they had an inkling at the 2003 class was much deeper.

 

[blinkman360]

BU's DiPietro 'Opts In' For Draft, Ends Collegiate Career

Boston University freshman goalie Ricky DiPietro has decided to forego his three remaining years of eligibility and opt in to the NHL Entry Draft, according to his agent...

www.collegehockeynews.com

Islanders win NHL draft lottery - UPI Archives

The New York Islanders, originally scheduled to choose fifth, won the NHL's lottery Thursday and now own the No. 1 selection in the June 24 draft....

www.upi.com

Funny draft year to look back on. The lottery didn't happen until June 1st that year, so I wonder if that was a monkey wrench. And then Rick DiPietro wasn't even supposed to be in that draft due to the old NCAA rules. He declared for the draft in early May 2000. While I'm sure teams had scouted him, I can't help but wonder if they didn't get as many viewings that season if they had expected him to be in the 2001 Draft.

For those who weren't around, the 2001 Draft featured two highly touted prospects in Pascal Leclaire and Dan Blackburn. DiPietro's camp was worried that he might be the third goalie taken if he stayed in the 2001 pool. They had sent feelers out to NHL clubs and it seemed likely he'd be a top 5 pick if opted into 2000. There was a rookie salary cap but things weren't quite as stringent as they are now, so there was financial incentive to go top 5 vs being #15-20.

Islanders also got new ownership in April 2000. Sanjay Kumar made the DiPietro pick announcement on draft day and seemingly took a lot of pride that they were the first team to draft a goalie #1 overall in the modern era. I was always curious if the new owners were involved with the decision.

View attachment 1043101

I had stumbled on this blip for THN's post draft issue. Milbury saying that teams valued Luongo more than the #1 pick was interesting.

LOL if that last bit is true, then they essentially traded a 1st overall and a young Olli Jokinen for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish....somehow that makes this worse.

...but yeah that's true about Kumar. I remember the pick announcement, where he referenced "making history". I have a hard time believing Milbury wasn't the driving voice in their pursuit of DiPietro, but selling it to Kumar as "no one has ever done this before" aka "people are going to be talking about us" was apparently enough to get him on board.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Here's a passage from Gare Joyce's book "Future Greats and Heartbreaks" regarding the Foster pick:





TL;DR - strategic gamble as they wouldn't have gotten a compensation pick had they waited to take Foster and then decided not to sign him. It was early but perhaps they had an inkling at the 2003 class was much deeper.

Problem is they signed Foster and never got a compensatory pick, nor did he ever play in the NHL

 

[Brodeur]

Problem is they signed Foster and never got a compensatory pick, nor did he ever play in the NHL

It was an interesting gamble, but as Joyce noted there was a backup plan in terms of taking Foster at the tail end of the first round versus with one of their three 2nd rounders. The NHL added the compensatory pick for unsigned 1st rounders with the 1995 CBA. The intention was for it to help teams if a player gave them a cold shoulder and refused to sign. But the Devils maybe went against the spirit of the rule and knowingly used it as a mulligan. I think New Jersey getting a compensatory pick for 1996 pick Lance Ward was the first time the league awarded a pick. Devils used the Ward compensatory pick on Christian Berglund who in spring 2001 was ranked as the #20 prospect in THN's Future Watch.

Also since I don't have too many excuses to talk about Adrian Foster, one of my beer league teammates grew up playing with him, Heatley, and Kolanos. When I mentioned Foster, he simply said "reckless."

 

[Hockeyville USA]

It was an interesting gamble, but as Joyce noted there was a backup plan in terms of taking Foster at the tail end of the first round versus with one of their three 2nd rounders. The NHL added the compensatory pick for unsigned 1st rounders with the 1995 CBA. The intention was for it to help teams if a player gave them a cold shoulder and refused to sign. But the Devils maybe went against the spirit of the rule and knowingly used it as a mulligan. I think New Jersey getting a compensatory pick for 1996 pick Lance Ward was the first time the league awarded a pick. Devils used the Ward compensatory pick on Christian Berglund who in spring 2001 was ranked as the #20 prospect in THN's Future Watch.

Also since I don't have too many excuses to talk about Adrian Foster, one of my beer league teammates grew up playing with him, Heatley, and Kolanos. When I mentioned Foster, he simply said "reckless."

Those guys tore up Calgary minor hockey from what I've read. Foster's career never took off due to multiple injuries, Kolanos had the 2001 NCAA National Championship OT winning goal for Boston College and then his NHL career was derailed by concussions, and then Heatley had a pretty awesome career, albeit a bit shorter of a prime than most thought (most believe the Snyder crash took a mental/emotional toll on Heater, which affected him on & off the ice).

 

[Docgonzo]

Alex. Turcotte. #NuffSaid

Turcotte isn’t even close to the worst Kings bust, he’s at least played 100 games at this points. Lauri Tukonen went 11th overall and played 5 nhl games before back to Europe. Then Colton Tuebert went 13th overall in 2008 and played 24 nhl games before ending up in the DEL.

 

[Brodeur]

Turcotte isn’t even close to the worst Kings bust, he’s at least played 100 games at this points. Lauri Tukonen went 11th overall and played 5 nhl games before back to Europe. Then Colton Tuebert went 13th overall in 2008 and played 24 nhl games before ending up in the DEL.

Before Kopitar, it seemed like Tukonen was the guy that the Kings were fortunate landed in their laps at #11.

I recall not liking Teubert so much going into that draft, but thought he made sense with what the Kings had. I thought (and perhaps Lombardi and crew) that the top 4 was set for the next decade with Johnson-Doughty and Hickey-Teubert. Teubert in theory as the shutdown/PK guy. But it seemed like the team soured on him fairly quickly.

 

[WarriorofTime]

View attachment 1043228

Before Kopitar, it seemed like Tukonen was the guy that the Kings were fortunate landed in their laps at #11.

I recall not liking Teubert so much going into that draft, but thought he made sense with what the Kings had. I thought (and perhaps Lombardi and crew) that the top 4 was set for the next decade with Johnson-Doughty and Hickey-Teubert. Teubert in theory as the shutdown/PK guy. But it seemed like the team soured on him fairly quickly.

Interesting he's number 4 on that composite list, but you can see it say "Central Scouting: No. 5 European skater" (he was 6th European skater drafted - Ovechkin, Malkin, Olesz, Smid, Valabik, Tukonen.. and then Radulov, Nokelainen, Korpikoski a few picks later all still within top 20), not sure who after Ovechkin/Malkin Central Scouting had 3/4.

 

[Brodeur]

Interesting he's number 4 on that composite list, but you can see it say "Central Scouting: No. 5 European skater" (he was 6th European skater drafted - Ovechkin, Malkin, Olesz, Smid, Valabik, Tukonen.. and then Radulov, Nokelainen, Korpikoski a few picks later all still within top 20), not sure who after Ovechkin/Malkin Central Scouting had 3/4.

2004 CSB FINAL (EUR SKATERS) – The Draft Analyst

www.thedraftanalyst.com

Steve Kournianos keeps an archive which is a nice resource. Central's top 10 Euros were: Ovechkin-Malkin-Olesz-Smid-Tukonen-Meszaros-Fransson-Alexandrov-Radulov-Nokelainen.

Gare Joyce had a paragraph regarding Central's final rankings in his book. It was something along the lines that NHL teams respect the job that Central does with limited resources but teams generally disregard their Central's final rankings. Central always has the handicap that they submit their final rankings prior to the U18's and it's typical that a handful of guys vault their draft stock at the tournament.

In the context of 2004, the general thought was that it was Ovechkin/Malkin then a tier drop to Cam Barker then a tier drop to the next ~10 guys.

USATODAY.com - Russians head class of forwards in upcoming draft

web.archive.org

Back in those days, Red Line Report was one of the few free rankings. Kyle Woodlief had Tukonen as the 4th best forward behind Ovechkin/Malkin/Radulov.

 

[MS]

Jesse Niinimaki.

IIRC he was expected to go around 85th overall but the Oilers took him 15th. BUST!

I think it was even bigger reach. Going to my notes Central Scouting had him 50th from Europe.

He did have 23 interviews according to Kevin Prendergast (the Oilers head scout then). But atleast Oilers failed to see all the red flags. He had some offensive skill. But zero work ethic and he was even bit proud of it as younger. So I guess this goes to the OPs question where they thought they outsmart everybody. Thought they found diamond in center thin draft.

If you give small pass for Oilers for this is the fact that they did not sign him and for that got compensatory 45. pick in 2006 draft which ended up being Jeff Petry.

Per the qualifications put forth in the OP, this has to be the answer for me.

Very few guys have the combination of being such a shocking first round pick (he was a re-entry rated in the 3rd-5th round) combined with having such a useless career after being picked (1 point in 24 AHL games, career Euro journeyman).

It's a definition of a team thinking they were outsmarting everyone while they were actually being resoundingly stupid.

Hamill was a bust, but wasn't someone the Bruins drafted thinking they were outsmarting other GMs. Sure, he was a late birthday CHLer who used the extra year of junior to stat pad/inflate the resume, but most people had a fairly high opinion of him pre draft.

Hamill ruined his career with partying and cocaine. I don't know if he would have made it otherwise but he just had a total lack of commitment to playing pro hockey. Some wild stories about him around Vancouver at the time he was a prospect.

NJ took that Adrian Foster kid in the late 1st in 2001 which was a big surprise at the time. Most kids won't make it anyway in that range but that came out of left field.

As someone who was posting on this board at the time, that pick was *way* more shocking to the guys calling the draft on TV (who seemingly had barely heard of him) than it was here, where there was a massive thread dating back years. I had expected he'd go in the top half of the 2nd round and he went only a bit ahead of that.

At age 15-16 he was keeping up with Dany Heatley despite being a full year younger, was the #2 overall pick in the WHL Bantam draft and considered a future star ... and then got hurt and missed most of two years. It was worth a shot as a swing for the fences.

 

[WarriorofTime]

A lot of these pure boom/bust swing for the fences late 1st round picks make a lot more sense that you get a 2nd round pick if they end up sucking in College or whatever and you basically get to trade your bust for a not useless draft pick for your not signing them struggles. I imagine that plays a not insignificant role in the calculus at those draft slots on the downside end of the spectrum compared to guys that you can have some reasonable confidence that they'll take six years to develop into fringe borderline guys that you can plug into a regular season lineup before they bounce to six different teams for an uneventful 300 game NHL career.

 

[SirloinUB]

Filip Zadina still stings for the Red Wings.

 

[DJJones]

it amuses me that mark jankowski has had a fairly long, really unremarkable NHL career

I'd say he was picked at an appropriate spot. Pearson is the only forward anywhere close to behind him that in retrospect would have been better.

College to AHL to first two years in Calgary he projected great. Then he just fell off a cliff, I'm guessing personal reasons.

 

[BLNY]

Nah, Tkaczuk was ranked high in that draft, he went where he was supposed to. It wasn’t even a bad pick, concussions ruined him. Had 11 points in 19 NHL games and a good rookie season in the AHL

I must have misread the OP. Picked where he was supposed to go, but he was a large magnitude bust, which is why I picked him.

 

[NYRKing]

Lias Anderson, V Kravtsov in addition Mclrath and Jessiman.

Let’s use Zadina for example. He was highly touted. I don’t think anyone blinked when he was taken.

In contrast, there was no question mudskates Andersson and Kravtsov were reached. VK did get the Button top spot but LA was always talked about as a gritty 3C with leadership. The issue is this great leader was an absolute child every step. Disaster.

 

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

I must have misread the OP. Picked where he was supposed to go, but he was a large magnitude bust, which is why I picked him.

I have a hard time calling someone a bust when their career was derailed by injuries

 

[ponder719]

I’ll admit I wasn’t following the NHL draft all that closely when I was a kid, but I cannot fathom Ryan Sittler having justified the 7th overall pick in 1992. I’m just sitting here ruing that I couldn’t go back there with a copy of Gray’s Sports Almanac to tell the Flyers to draft Gonchar, who went 14, and Straka, who went 19, instead of Sittler at 7 and Jason Bowen at 15.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Aside of Nail Yakupov, who is the one obvious answer:

2003 Nikolai Zherdev: he ain't the worst player ever, but it's the fact that he was taken at 4, and there was so much talent drafted after him

 

[Brodeur]

I’ll admit I wasn’t following the NHL draft all that closely when I was a kid, but I cannot fathom Ryan Sittler having justified the 7th overall pick in 1992. I’m just sitting here ruing that I couldn’t go back there with a copy of Gray’s Sports Almanac to tell the Flyers to draft Gonchar, who went 14, and Straka, who went 19, instead of Sittler at 7 and Jason Bowen at 15.

That one was a couple years before I started following the draft. Retroactively it's quietly one of the worst draft years. Even in the moment, the THN blurbs on Warriner and Rathje projected them to be good but not great NHLers. THN had Sittler ranked #4 FWIW, so it wasn't an entirely off the board pick by Philadelphia.

With the USSR breaking up in December 1991, I think that opened the gates to take Russians with high picks. The previous year, the Rangers made Alexei Kovalev the first Soviet to go in the first round. Up until that point, some teams were hesitant to draft players from Soviet bloc countries since you didn't know when you were gonna get them.

Darius Kasparaitis would go #5 in 1992 after being available in the top 3 rounds in 1991 but nobody took a chance. Martin Straka was in his third draft. (Old draft rules said teams could only take a first time eligible European in the top 3 rounds unless they played 10 games in their senior league. This led to massive confusion over Pavel Bure's eligibility in 1989.)

 

[ThorNton Apologist]

Aside of Nail Yakupov, who is the one obvious answer:

2003 Nikolai Zherdev: he ain't the worst player ever, but it's the fact that he was taken at 4, and there was so much talent drafted after him

That’s not the purpose of the thread. It’s not biggest bust. It’s the worst pick at the time of the pick and ended up bad in hindsight. Guys who were ranked in the 2nd round that ended up going in the first. Yakupov was the consensus #1

 

[Thechozen1]

Sergei Bautin Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Sergei Bautin, a hockey player from Rahachow, Belarus born Mar 11 1967 who was active from 1987 to 2004.

www.hockeydb.com

BAUTIN (RIP) had no business being a 1st round pick. Drafted at age 25. Then GM Mike Smith really liked Russians, but this wasn’t one of his better choices.

 

[Realgud]

Sergei Bautin Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Sergei Bautin, a hockey player from Rahachow, Belarus born Mar 11 1967 who was active from 1987 to 2004.

www.hockeydb.com

BAUTIN (RIP) had no business being a 1st round pick. Drafted at age 25. Then GM Mike Smith really liked Russians, but this wasn’t one of his better choices.

This seems like a great answer to what this thread is actually about. Good one!

 

[Hockeyville USA]

I’ll admit I wasn’t following the NHL draft all that closely when I was a kid, but I cannot fathom Ryan Sittler having justified the 7th overall pick in 1992. I’m just sitting here ruing that I couldn’t go back there with a copy of Gray’s Sports Almanac to tell the Flyers to draft Gonchar, who went 14, and Straka, who went 19, instead of Sittler at 7 and Jason Bowen at 15.

Flyers would have a couple more Cups since 1975 if they don't blow the 1992 Draft