Worst first round picks

[Iwishihadaspacebar]

I still get PTSD every time I see the name Tyler Biggs.

Just looking back at that draft and man, the Leafs really messed up.

They
- traded for Kessel and gave up 9OA to Boston who took Dougie Hamilton.

- traded with Anaheim to move up and draft Biggs. Anaheim then used those acquired two picks to draft Rickard Rackell and John Gibson.

- used the 1st from the Versteeg trade with Philadelphia to pick Stuart Percy with Danault and Namestnikov the next two picks.

- originally had the 43OA pick but moved it a year or so before and Chicago took Brandon Saad with it.

- drafted Tony Cameranesi at 130OA with Sean Kuraly and Andrew Shaw two of the next three forwards picked.

- traded with Edmonton to go up in the 6th round to pick David Broll, whilst also trading out their 160OA pick where Anaheim took Josh Manson.

Drafts can be unpredictable, but that's a lot of swings and misses.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

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.

You're sure I'm aware of what you're saying.

My judgment takes into account the proportion of the ranking. I'm more demanding with an 8th pick than a 26th. I also take into account the context on draft day.

Selecting Quinn at 8th was a much better option. Lindstrom at 4th ahead of Demidov is an aberration.

I can't see Quinn staying in the top 6, and since he doesn't have the profile of an efficient bottom 6 player, his NHL career will probably be very complicated. I'm very skeptical about Lindstrom. And in addition to their worrying future prospects, these two players were selected very high despite having had few good performances prior to the draft.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

According to Bruce Carrioch Lassi Thomson could return to NHL

The hardest part is staying there. I'm skeptical any franchise would consider him in a top-6 position. More for depth.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

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

Mesar is finished. It's over for him in the NHL.

As said elsewhere, the worst pick doesn't evoke the worst player, but the worst pick.

Virtually every player who succeeds Quinn is better than him. Lindstrom ahead of Demidov, who has been out of action for more than a year with a herniated disc... Ouch...

 

[bert]

You're sure I'm aware of what you're saying.

My judgment takes into account the proportion of the ranking. I'm more demanding with an 8th pick than a 26th. I also take into account the context on draft day.

Selecting Quinn at 8th was a much better option. Lindstrom at 4th ahead of Demidov is an aberration.

I can't see Quinn staying in the top 6, and since he doesn't have the profile of an efficient bottom 6 player, his NHL career will probably be very complicated. I'm very skeptical about Lindstrom. And in addition to their worrying future prospects, these two players were selected very high despite having had few good performances prior to the draft.

You probably haven't watched Quinn at all then. Quinn was the best player on the 67's im his draft year which was the best team in the CHL. He was also buried on a stacked the team the year before his draft. But showed tons of promise when given opportunity. Youre so far out of your element on this player its laughable.

He had 52 goals in 61 games in his draft year. Playing all situations.

In his rookie year in the AHL he had 61 points in 45 games.

In the NHL while battling ice time as a rookie and having injuries. He has 95 points in 177 games and he is 23.

Has shown elite finishing ability. He is nothing like the rest of the list. Your inclusion and breakdown is terrible.

 

[Siidekik]

Lotta people just saying busts in this thread rather than players who were picked way ahead of their draft ranking position. Sorry but guys like Yakupov, Dal Colle, Pulju, etc shouldn't even be considered for this thread

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

You probably haven't watched Quinn at all then. Quinn was the best player on the 67's im his draft year which was the best team in the CHL. He was also buried on a stacked the team the year before his draft. But showed tons of promise when given opportunity. Youre so far out of your element on this player its laughable.

He had 52 goals in 61 games in his draft year. Playing all situations.

In his rookie year in the AHL he had 61 points in 45 games.

In the NHL while battling ice time as a rookie and having injuries. He has 95 points in 177 games and he is 23.

Has shown elite finishing ability. He is nothing like the rest of the list. Your inclusion and breakdown is terrible.

On the contrary, with Covid, I spent a lot of time.

Rossi was much superior in my opinion, more committed to his off-puck play and more complete in his offensive game. Quinn was only 26th.

With Buffalo, I don't think he's effective for his team. I found him very insignificant in the games I saw this season.

I don't think he's part of Buffalo's future. Up until Guhle, all the players selected after him are better. Mercer and Scheider are also better.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Just looking back at that draft and man, the Leafs really messed up.

They
- traded for Kessel and gave up 9OA to Boston who took Dougie Hamilton.

- traded with Anaheim to move up and draft Biggs. Anaheim then used those acquired two picks to draft Rickard Rackell and John Gibson.

- used the 1st from the Versteeg trade with Philadelphia to pick Stuart Percy with Danault and Namestnikov the next two picks.

- originally had the 43OA pick but moved it a year or so before and Chicago took Brandon Saad with it.

- drafted Tony Cameranesi at 130OA with Sean Kuraly and Andrew Shaw two of the next three forwards picked.

- traded with Edmonton to go up in the 6th round to pick David Broll, whilst also trading out their 160OA pick where Anaheim took Josh Manson.

Drafts can be unpredictable, but that's a lot of swings and misses.

Any team with Brian Burke as GM is at risk of picking future busts at a much higher rate, any team that signed him as a GM should have put it in his contract the scouting director can override him lol.
Burke drafted horrible in Anaheim too in addition to Toronto. Logan McMillan and Mark Mitera.
He drafted only 4 NHL players in his time with Anaheim and one of those was a lottery pick #2 Bobby Ryan.

 

[Brodeur]

Any team with Brian Burke as GM is at risk of picking future busts at a much higher rate, any team that signed him as a GM should have put it in his contract the scouting director can override him lol.
Burke drafted horrible in Anaheim too in addition to Toronto. Logan McMillan and Mark Mitera.
He drafted only 4 NHL players in his time with Anaheim and one of those was a lottery pick #2 Bobby Ryan.

In his defense, the 2006 and 2007 Drafts won't be on many GM's highlight reels. One rumor was that when the Ducks traded down from #12 to #17 at the 2008 Draft, their intended target was Erik Karlsson. Unfortunately for them, Ottawa traded up from #18 to snipe Karlsson at #15.

 

[S.S. Giggy]

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Sweeney going with Zboril and Senyshyn in 2015 has proven to be disasterclass of bad decisions.

The three next picks to go were Barzal, Kyle Connor and Thomas Chabot....

 

[Craig Ludwig]

2018 was a parade of stupid decisions.
Hayton, Kravtsov, Dellandrea. And especially for me as a Flyers fan - Jay O’Brien

O'brien just gave up playing hockey altogether after Boston U, at 22 yars old, didn't even give the minors a try, quite odd...

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Oliver Wahlstrom had so much hype, I don't think anyone would have predicted that he's now struggling to remain in the NHL at 24 years old.

 

[Brodeur]

I had high hopes for Stefan since we share a birthday. I might have put that image of the missed empty netter on my birthday cake one year.

I always wonder if Stefan had the extra burden of being the #1 pick. In a different world where Brian Burke calls Rick Dudley's bluff, Pavel Brendl would have been the #1 pick and Stefan would have gone #2 to Atlanta.

But with regards to the OP's intended purpose of this thread, there wasn't a consensus #1 that year and Stefan going #1 wasn't shocking in the moment.

Oliver Wahlstrom had so much hype, I don't think anyone would have predicted that he's now struggling to remain in the NHL at 24 years old.

I didn't think Wahlstrom would flame out, but seeing his name always reminds me of this one poster's mission that draft year to show everybody that Brady Tkachuk was only highly touted because of his last name. They used "analytics" to show that Wahlstrom was the vastly superior prospect. Namely how Wahlstrom's numbers in a handful of NCAA exhibition games were better than Tkachuk's freshman year at BU. I couldn't help but point out that those exhibition games typically were a chance for the NCAA team to give more ice time to guys lower in the lineup / rarely would feature the starting goalie going the full 60. In one game Wahlstrom put up a couple goals after the NCAA inserted its #3 goalie who never played in an official game. But alas the poster dismissed it and was certain they were correct.

 

[HabsForHire]

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.

idk i remember him being projected to be late 1st, 8th a massive reach

 

[bert]

You're sure I'm aware of what you're saying.

My judgment takes into account the proportion of the ranking. I'm more demanding with an 8th pick than a 26th. I also take into account the context on draft day.

Selecting Quinn at 8th was a much better option. Lindstrom at 4th ahead of Demidov is an aberration.

I can't see Quinn staying in the top 6, and since he doesn't have the profile of an efficient bottom 6 player, his NHL career will probably be very complicated. I'm very skeptical about Lindstrom. And in addition to their worrying future prospects, these two players were selected very high despite having had few good performances prior to the draft.

Quinn is over a half ppg early in his career with elite finishing ability. Youre flat out wrong.

Insane comment about Quinn he had 52 goals in 62 games while being plus 50 in his draft year. Best player on the best team in the CHL. Youre lost and out of your element.

This is an example of a lazy comparison based on a lazy statistical analysis.

 

[LeProspector]

idk i remember him being projected to be late 1st, 8th a massive reach

The hockey news had him at #14 leading up to the draft.


This is what Dallas’ GM said about him “He has speed and skill, which is what everybody obviously strives for these days. A right shot doesn't hurt because we are lacking a few of those right now. He has real good growth potential, he's a solid kid and hard working kid. He's the type of kid, like a Brenden Morrow, that we want to build around


Here’s where Bob McKenzie and TSN had him in 2009:

safe to say, you’re wrong with your recollection of him being a late first round pick. He doesn’t belong in THIS thread and it’s premise although using hindsight yes he was one of the worst in modern draft history.

Funny how even then though, they were labeling him potentially a product of Schenn.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Quinn is over a half ppg early in his career with elite finishing ability. Youre flat out wrong.

Insane comment about Quinn he had 52 goals in 62 games while being plus 50 in his draft year. Best player on the best team in the CHL. Youre lost and out of your element.

This is an example of a lazy comparison based on a lazy statistical analysis.

Points are just one indicator among others. An offensive player can score 40 points and end up in Europe the following year because he's considered ineffective in his overall game.The number of goals is even less relevant to determining the better player between Quinn and Rossi. Anyway, that's my opinion. It's made up.

If I ranked Jack Quinn as the worst first-round pick in 2020, it's because I've thought about it. The purpose of this thread is to express an opinion. Give yours rather than disagree.

 

[NoQuitInNewMexico]

Does anyone have any memories of the Russians from the 2000 draft? Weird to see a big miss on an entire country's age group like that. I don't think they're names I ever see in any of these discussions. When I see them together they look like EA Sports names. Alexeyev, Yakubov, Vorobyov, Smirnov, Kryukov, Mikhnov - they all went back to Russia, played for a ton of teams, never put up star numbers over there. Then you have Frolov and Volchenkov, taken after all of those guys at 20 and 21, good picks and good NHLers. Bryzgalov was picked at 44.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Olli Juiolevi.
View attachment 1042826

This blew me away.

Like a peewee house coach would be all over you for that kind of body language.

It's okay to be exhausted, lean over your stick if you need to. In extreme cases drop to one knee and lean on the stick. But that's pudgy kid who has never learned how to use his body, body language.

I genuinely think that nobody in the NHL showed that kind of defeated body language even 5 years before they were drafted.

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Johnny Beecher isn't but also is

 

[Brodeur]

Does anyone have any memories of the Russians from the 2000 draft? Weird to see a big miss on an entire country's age group like that. I don't think they're names I ever see in any of these discussions. When I see them together they look like EA Sports names. Alexeyev, Yakubov, Vorobyov, Smirnov, Kryukov, Mikhnov - they all went back to Russia, played for a ton of teams, never put up star numbers over there. Then you have Frolov and Volchenkov, taken after all of those guys at 20 and 21, good picks and good NHLers. Bryzgalov was picked at 44.

View attachment 1047072

I vaguely remember Mikhnov was the biggest mystery of the bunch in that he played in a lower league and scouts didn't see much of him. So it was just murmurs of a 6'5 skilled forward. The constant comparable was Nik Antropov who was fresh off of a solid rookie season in Toronto.

Similarly vague memories that Yakubov was the playmaker and Vorobiev/Smirnov were the scorers. Until looking it up, I wouldn't have guessed that Alexeev had two OHL seasons under his belt going into that draft.

THN also had Ilya Nikulin ranked #14 and he'd go #31 to Atlanta. He was a perpetual tease about coming to North America. Unfortunately he was constrained by the entry level system until his late 20's, so he didn't want to uproot his family and potentially take a pay cut. He thought about coming over in his 30s with one rumor that he wanted to join the Caps; Nikulin is godfather to one of Ovechkin's sons. He might have been a decent second pair NHL D. It was always funny seeing Nikulin on CapFriendly's reserve list for Winnipeg well into his late 30s.

 

[bert]

On the contrary, with Covid, I spent a lot of time.

Rossi was much superior in my opinion, more committed to his off-puck play and more complete in his offensive game. Quinn was only 26th.

With Buffalo, I don't think he's effective for his team. I found him very insignificant in the games I saw this season.

I don't think he's part of Buffalo's future. Up until Guhle, all the players selected after him are better. Mercer and Scheider are also better.

Rossi wasnt the best player if you were actually watching the games. I was doing video with the team. Quinn completely took over in the second half. There was a reason he was picked ahead of Rossi. Holtz got picked right ahead of Quinn if you were going to pick a player from that top 10 it would be him. But you dont seem very familiar with this draft class.

Classic HF narrative that doesnt think injuries effect players or development. You are simply stat watching and its a lazy analysis like this. Quinn always had a longer dev curve because he was a late bloomer physically he grew 5 inches from 16 to 18. He is far from a finished product and has again shown elite shooting and scoring ability.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Rossi wasnt the best player if you were actually watching the games. I was doing video with the team. Quinn completely took over in the second half. There was a reason he was picked ahead of Rossi. Holtz got picked right ahead of Quinn if you were going to pick a player from that top 10 it would be him. But you dont seem very familiar with this draft class.

Classic HF narrative that doesnt think injuries effect players or development. You are simply stat watching and its a lazy analysis like this. Quinn always had a longer dev curve because he was a late bloomer physically he grew 5 inches from 16 to 18. He is far from a finished product and has again shown elite shooting and scoring ability.

We simply don't have the same assessment.

Rossi is a better player than Quinn in the NHL anyway.

You don't know how much time I spend watching hockey.

You criticize me because I judge by stats, when of the two of us, only you talk about stats.

 

[HabsForHire]

View attachment 1046900

The hockey news had him at #14 leading up to the draft.


This is what Dallas’ GM said about him “He has speed and skill, which is what everybody obviously strives for these days. A right shot doesn't hurt because we are lacking a few of those right now. He has real good growth potential, he's a solid kid and hard working kid. He's the type of kid, like a Brenden Morrow, that we want to build around


Here’s where Bob McKenzie and TSN had him in 2009: View attachment 1046915

safe to say, you’re wrong with your recollection of him being a late first round pick. He doesn’t belong in THIS thread and it’s premise although using hindsight yes he was one of the worst in modern draft history.

Funny how even then though, they were labeling him potentially a product of Schenn.

I definitely saw quite a few mocks of him late first, im sure there were some with him higher too. im not fully wrong but whatever, I believe he fits this thread. you can disagree idgaf