Worst first round picks

[Brodeur]

Ah, if only the NJD payed more attention! I recall Carlson was ranked late 20s, early 30s at the time. All info I got on him was from The Hockey News, but he sounded pretty good and was a NJ kid. Tedenby was so small and that is always Strike One against a prospect. He was ranked like 14th I think, so I was hopeful the Devils knew what they were doing. But this will always be one their worst picks ever.

Tedenby was ranked higher than Carlson on most lists at the time, although TSN had Carlson higher. He wasn't on my radar since LW didn't seem to be a need for the Devils at the time. Vaguely recall there being questions about Tedenby's hockey sense which turned out to be very accurate.

 

[MakoSlade]

You have no idea how long I kept racking my brain over who the F was John Carlos.

OMG, I'm pretty embarrassed now. I'm sure everyone knows who Juan Carlos is though.

 

[doublechili]

Turgeon had injury issues and had a solid career, his first three seasons were great and he ended with playing over 600 games and nearly 500 points. Hardly the worst 1st round pick.

I don't think any of the posts in the 6 pages so far is "the worst" pick, we're just throwing out options. I get that Turgeon had injury issues, but he was a reach by Emile Francis in '83, and as it turned out the two guys picked immediately after him (Lafontaine and Yzerman) were both HOFers and top 100 all-time players. It's all relative.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Zboril was actually picked right where he was projected, he just straight busted.

Debrusk actually turned out okay but man that Senyshen pick was a colossal failure.

Zboril was the one addicted to video games

 

[Soundgarden]

I don't think any of the posts in the 6 pages so far is "the worst" pick, we're just throwing out options. I get that Turgeon had injury issues, but he was a reach by Emile Francis in '83, and as it turned out the two guys picked immediately after him (Lafontaine and Yzerman) were both HOFers and top 100 all-time players. It's all relative.

He still scored 40 goals for the team that drafted him.

 

[rahad]

Michael Dal Colle?​

 

[Thrasymachus]

Michael Dal Colle?​

At the time this pick was made, he was consensus BPA available. Nobody criticized it at the time, or at very least, nobody expected him to bust quite as badly as he ended up doing.

 

[HabsForHire]

Scott Glennie 8th overall with 1 nhl game

 

[LeProspector]

Scott Glennie 8th overall with 1 nhl game

He went around where he was supposed to. Like Angelo Esposito, it turns out he was the product of a more talented line mate (Brayden Schenn) .

Don’t think he qualifies for THIS thread.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

2018 Jay O'Brien
2019 Lassi Thomson
2020 Jack Quinn
2021 Tyler Boucher
2022 Filip Mesar
2023 Nate Danielson
2024 Cayden Lindstrom

 

[Erika]

2018 Jay O'Brien
2019 Lassi Thomson
2020 Jack Quinn
2021 Tyler Boucher
2022 Filip Mesar
2023 Nate Danielson
2024 Cayden Lindstrom

Jack Quinn still has time to turn it around. Same as Mesar...

 

[bert]

Hugh Jessiman

This is the way and considering the draft actually might be worse than Tyler Boucher.

 

[bert]

2018 Jay O'Brien
2019 Lassi Thomson
2020 Jack Quinn
2021 Tyler Boucher
2022 Filip Mesar
2023 Nate Danielson
2024 Cayden Lindstrom

Jack Quinn is nothing like the rest of this group. He has shown tons of elite talent he has just been injured. Similar to Lindstrom but Quinn has proven at the pro level. The Lindstrom one looks bad because he was already injured when they picked him and its continued.

 

[Leafshater67]

This is the way and considering the draft actually might be worse than Tyler Boucher.

Jessiman > Boucher and it isn’t even close tbh. Jessiman was a good AHL forward but Boucher is a 4th liner in the minors and was a horrible player in college too.

I spent so much time defending my opinion on him being an insane pick on draft day and people kept telling me to give him a chance - no. He absolutely sucks. His ceiling was always bottom 6’er and you dont pick those in the top 10.

Plus Boucher was a massive reach and nepo pick while Jessiman was actually ranked high and had hype.

 

[Erikfromfin]

2018 Jay O'Brien
2019 Lassi Thomson
2020 Jack Quinn
2021 Tyler Boucher
2022 Filip Mesar
2023 Nate Danielson
2024 Cayden Lindstrom

According to Bruce Carrioch Lassi Thomson could return to NHL

 

[bert]

Jessiman > Boucher and it isn’t even close tbh. Jessiman was a good AHL forward but Boucher is a 4th liner in the minors and was a horrible player in college too.

I spent so much time defending my opinion on him being an insane pick on draft day and people kept telling me to give him a chance - no. He absolutely sucks. His ceiling was always bottom 6’er and you dont pick those in the top 10.

Plus Boucher was a massive reach and nepo pick while Jessiman was actually ranked high and had hype.

Jessiman comes from debatably the best draft ever. Boucher comes from a week draft I think Jessiman is quite easily a way worse pick.

 

[Thrasymachus]

Here is another weird islander one:

Adong Song, drafted in later rounds.. frankly had NO business being drafted at all and was done so essentially as a PR move while Charles Wang was owner.

 

[FloridaPanthersFan84]

Finnish 1st round picks which have given WTF reactions to me.
2014 NHL draft.
Julius Honka ( who scouted this dude and why he was even drafted 1st round )

2016 draft
Jesse Puljujärvi ( never worth of 4th overall pick and overhyped due to 2016 U20 WJC's )
Olli Juolevi ( Biggest Finnish bust since Lauri Tukonen )
Henrik Borgström ( What a hell Tom Rowe )
HM mention Patrik Laine ( look him now )

2017 NHL draft
Kristian Vesalainen ( Attitude issues )

2018 NHL draft
Jesperi Kotkaniemi ( Never worth of 3rd overall pick )
Rasmus Kupari ( returned to Europe and signed Switzerland NLA team HC Lugano )

2019 NHL draft
Ville Heinola ( Not an NHL player or a victim of Jets development system )
Lassi Thomson ( got drafted to 1st round because of his shot )

2022 NHL draft
Brad Lambert ( changes teams like a socks in Finland and crazy father )

 

[LeProspector]

Finnish 1st round picks which have given WTF reactions to me.
2014 NHL draft.
Julius Honka

2016 draft
Jesse Puljujärvi
Olli Juolevi
Henrik Borgström
HM mention Patrik Laine ( look him now )

2017 NHL draft
Kristian Vesalainen

2018 NHL draft
Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Rasmus Kupari

2019 NHL draft
Ville Heinola
Lassi Thomson

2022 NHL draft
Brad Lambert

How did Puljujarvi, Vesalainen, Kupari, Heinola and Lambert give you a “WTF” reaction? All those guys went where they were projected to go, or in some of them fell pretty far on draft day.

 

[CBJx614]

Tyler Biggs, while only drafted 22nd OA, had 19 points in 119 AHL games and a .62 PPG in 140 ECHL games

That's a name I haven't heard in forever, I played against him once or twice when we were in maybe 7th grade

 

[Albatros]

Here is another weird islander one:

Adong Song, drafted in later rounds.. frankly had NO business being drafted at all and was done so essentially as a PR move while Charles Wang was owner.

Eh, a 6th round pick. In the 5th they drafted Ryan Pilon who after the draft never played higher than the beer leagues. Only drafted because his uncle was an Islander. Compared to that Song was a smart move.

 

[Garbageyuk]

Andrei Kostitsyn
Kyle Chipchura
David Fischer
Louis LeBlanc
Jarred Tinordi
Nathan Beaulieu
Alex Galchenyuk
Mike McCarron
Nikita Scherbak
Noah Juulsen
Ryan Poehling
Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Then Trevor Timmins was “promoted” to Assistant General Manager, and Churla and Lapointe took over drafting, starting with the 2019 draft. Notable hits since then:

Caufield
Struble
Guhle
Dobes
Hutson
Slafkovsky

…And guys like Kapanen, Mailloux, Davidson, Engstrom, Beck, Fowler, F. Xhekaj, Konyushkov, Volokhin, Reinbacher, Hage, and Demidov all looking promising as well.

Funnily enough, the same jackass who was responsible for all those whiffs that make up the first list passed on Demidov as well. That guy is just the worst and I legitimately can’t believe another team hired him. Still living off his 2007 fluke lmao.

 

[Hossa]

View attachment 1043666

Derrick Pouliot at #8 in 2012 was a bit of a surprise, especially with Filip Forsberg and Jacob Trouba still on the board.

Was it? I remember being a bit surprised, and the above rankings suggest he was being mocked more in the mid first round, but Pouliot was still the first overall pick into the WHL draft, had been considered a first rounder for a while, and his stock closed well with a deep playoff run. It was Koekoek that was more out of nowhere for the top ten that year, I think, given he missed most of the year.

Forsberg dropping that year remains one of the more baffling draft developments I can recall. His stock had slipped from the talk of him as a top three pick, but it wasn't a great draft and the only two forwards that went ahead of him were by no means perfect. Given how Washington quickly flipped him the next year, always wondered what more there might be to that story.

It's kinda amazing but Tim Burke has worked for the Sharks in some scouting capacity since the early 90's. Burke is based around Boston so it seemed like a safe bet that San Jose would take a New England area prospect or two every draft.

Morris (Massachusetts prep school) was a bit out of left field (Central had him #57 among North Americans) but not as high of expectations for a late 1st rounder in an average 2002 crop. Between Morris and their next pick at #52, the only future established NHLers were Jarret Stoll (draft reentry), Trevor Daley, and Matt Greene.

The Morris case speaks to why teams reach for raw tools late in the first, and why some of the most interest cases are always the prep kids that go in that range. For every guy like Morris or David Fisher, there is a Chris Kreider or Brock Nelson or Kevin Hayes. It's easy to dump on those picks when they fall flat, but there's a reason teams - once the board drops off in terms of talent - will go for higher risk players that have a carrying tool but untested against better competition. Mark Jankowski is actually an interesting example of where the outcome is not so all or nothing, as we often see picks like him - or Letourneau last year - portrayed as.

I think where that profile gets trickier is when the tools are less compelling. Patrick White, the Vancouver pick, is an interesting example. Played most of his draft year in high school, but did close with 8 goals in 12 USHL games (albeit a weaker league at the time), and then a solid stint joining the NTDP at the U18s. He was a 6'1" centre. That profile probably gets you into the late first conversation now, but there wasn't a great sample size for him as a first round talent against strong competition and he didn't have that carrying tool.

 

[Hossa]

I get the stats and buy into what you're saying completely of course, I'm just saying as someone who followed Foudy in junior, you could see what teams like Columbus saw in Foudy as a projectable 3rd line contributor who would be a PK threat. And to be fair, London doesn't usually play their 16 and 17 year olds as much as other major junior teams, explaining some of Foudy's lower production. I would have taken Foudy in the 40s though.

Foudy in the first wasn't a surprise, and there's a long list, as you say, of London kids going higher (and justifiably, often) than their draft season counting stats would suggest. Robert Thomas' point totals were pretty average, especially at his size, but he was a consensus first rounder by the end of the year and would go top ten if not top five in a redraft.

Foudy to me highlights that elite skating on its own isn't necessarily a tool that can carry you to an NHL career. Different context of his draft season, but Daultan Leveille came up in this thread, and he as well had the skating but even that third line projection requires skating plus hockey sense to pan out. He didn't get anywhere close. Zach Senyshyn was a reach at 15, and a huge part of that was plus skating in a projectable frame, and assuming the rest could be developed.

I actually agree with the idea teams have of identifying that elite tool, once your first round board falls off, and going for it late in the first. And skating in a super raw player can be a starting point - Formenton was an example, until his career ended for other reasons. But we sometimes portray these elite skaters as having a clear path to a third line role, suggesting their floor is quite high even if the rest of their game is raw, and I think guys like Foudy demonstrate how elite skating can be a bit of fool's gold sometimes.

 

[Brodeur]

Here is another weird islander one:

Adong Song, drafted in later rounds.. frankly had NO business being drafted at all and was done so essentially as a PR move while Charles Wang was owner.

I remember walking into Day 2 of the draft and seeing a Chinese language film crew go through security around the same time. I was a little confused and then it made sense when the Song pick was made.

A few days later I was in Washington DC and saw this newspaper stand. But at least it was only a sixth rounder. Probably a few owner mandated / nepotism late round picks over the years.

I remember coming home and seeing that the Devils traded back into the 7th round to take Anthony Brodeur. I was overly sour about that but then I saw the video of them having Marty make the announcement and it was a nice enough moment.