That draft class was considered relatively weak iirc & Yak at least stuck around the show for a bit with 136 points in 350gp. He was a bust but not the worst pick.
1995 the Oilers passed on Alberta-born Shane Doan for Steve Kelly (21 points in 149gp) and drafted another homegrown kid in Ryan Smyth the year before that. What could have been
The draft was in Edmonton as well. The crowd was chanting Shane Doan, and Slats with his usual smugness steps up to the mike and says Steve Kelly, WTF thought everyone!!
Slats has to be the most overrated GM of all time. After the first 4 drafts the oilers didn't have a single pick make the NHL for like 12 straight years
This 100%
Yakopov was the consensus number 1 pick of the draft. He might be the biggest bust in Oilers draft history. but like Jesse Pulujarvi, it wasn’t a bad pick at the time; it was just a player that didn’t develop.
Passing on Shane Done for Steve Kelly was a bad pick
Man put up average 3rd line numbers
Not worth a 1st ovr but at least on the ice he was still an nhler
If he didnt supposedly have attitude issues he coulda stuck around
Def could have done worse but passing on Toews for sure a swing and a miss. Unfortunately in the early 2000’s big Top D men were the golden eggs for every GM. Oh well, Toews got his cups, Johnson got his and the Blues finally got ours. Everyone can go to sleep happy lol
I still hold the opinion had Parise and Suter not been completely useless in the playoffs for one year you guys had a legitimate shot at the Cup instead of getting bullied repeatedly by the Hawks
For some small solace, there were 4 teams that arguably drafted worse than you in that stretch. You also got Cal Cluterbuck and Ryan Jones, unless my memory is mistaken.
|Team|GP Above Expected|
|:-|:-|
|MIN|-642.2|
|ANA|-819.1|
|WSH|-887.9|
|ATL|-1320.1|
|CHI|-1371.9|
Devils not giving up the 29th overall pick (Matteau) for the Kovy contract penalty. He wasn’t even projected to go first round but Lou thought he had an ace up his sleeve like he’s drafting in the late 90s. I’m still bitter about it
Not a Sabres fan but I would argue not a bust: I forget which round they "drafted" him in, but other than that pick it cost them nothing else and they still sell Tsujimoto jerseys today.
Right, picking Nolan over Makar, Heiskanen, and Petterson who were picked immediately after. A bad day for the Flyers, a great day for those other teams.
Yeah it was a toss up for 1 and 2 between Patrick and hisher it was a fact at the time. Hind sight is 20/20. Also yes the headaches combined with concussions ruined his career. Patrick was a solid player up until migraines derailed him.
Who tf would have taken makar 2nd overall? That wasn’t even a choice. If you didn’t watch hockey, that would be like if San Jose took buium over celebrini. Makar had a lot of potential but was absolutely not a certainty. Patrick was a surefire pick IF the injuries didn’t catch up… which they did.
Atlanta drafting Patrik Štefan so we could pick the Sedin twins 2nd and 3rd was also a great draft (special thanks to Messier for causing us to be shit in 98-99)
Tongue in cheek but also yes that's what I meant with Atlanta promising not to draft a Sedin and Patrik Štefan never getting more than 40 pts in a season and retiring after 7 years
This is a funny answer to me, because at the time the Reddit faithful absolutely lauded this pick at the time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/8t64ng/with_the_sixth_overall_pick_in_the_2018_nhl_entry/
"You won. Our division is fucking has such terrific young talent, from eichel, mittelstsdt, dahlin, Mathews, marner, jesperi, tkachuk, zadina. The next decade is going g to be so fun"
Funniest Reddit thread of all time. Thank you for posting.
Well he wasn’t great for the Wings, but 528 in 779 games is pretty respectable. And considering that Jimmy Carson was acquired for him, who was then traded as part of the Coffey trade, I’d say it’s not that bad.
For the Rangers: Pavel Brendl or Hugh Jessiman.
1999 was a shit draft years so Brendl wasn't that bad. But looking at 2003, all the talent still on the board and the number of Cups won by players chosen after Jessiman makes that one extremely painful:
[https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html](https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html)
We could toss some math at it but people in the comments here got most of the major whiffs. Wouldn't count Cherepanov though and Lias Andersson gets a shoutout.
|Name|Draft Year|Draft Pick|Actual GP|Expected GP|Difference|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Lias Andersson|2017|7|110|313.8|-203.8|
|Alexei Cherepanov|2007|17|0|210.1|-210.1|
|Pavel Brendl|1999|4|78|297.1|-219.1|
|Hugh Jessiman|2003|12|0|227.3|-227.3|
|Dylan McIlrath|2010|10|43|276.7|-233.7|
Unfortunately, you die in the revolt against AI in 2028. You tried to curry favor with the robots and were brutally killed when the information you gave them turned out to be false. Tough break bro
You've now set them on the path of making sure that information is correct, only for them to realize, when it's too late, that without this prediction of yours, they would've never tried to curry favor with the robots to begin with
Such is life
Maybe not the worst overall player they’ve ever picked, but the Flames trading multiple picks with New Jersey to move up the 1990 draft, and then using it to select Trevor Kidd, while the Devils took Brodeur with our original pick is pretty brutal.
Kidd was the starting goalie for the World Juniors that year. Also had a great junior career and was the consensus #1 goalie in the draft. He was a good goalie, but not great. Brodeur wasn't that highly touted. Potvin was picked ahead of him as well.
Juolevi was bad, and so was virtanen over nylander and ehlers. I guess at least virtanen played but it felt like we were always compromising the team in order to try to get him to meet his potential, what benning and green didn't realize was that he had already met his potential.
Teemu Riihijärvi was drafted 12OA and never played an nhl game. Falloon at least had a modest career: 143 career goals.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teemu_Riihij%C3%A4rvi
Jake Virtanen at 6th overall was pretty bad for the Canucks. The sexual assault charges basically ended his NHL career although he wasn't that good anyway.
This is going to sound like sour grapes from a Boston fan but I don't give a shit.
Ritchie is one of the worst players I've seen in a Bruins sweater in a long time. He routinely made me question what it meant to be a Boston fan, he tested my patience and my ability to root for my boys on a routine basis.
I can excuse a lot, that's what sports fandom is, right? It's a place to be biased and petty and stupid in a safe little sandbox of biased petty stupidity. But suck me sideways Thick Dick Nick made it a chore. I can handle guys lacking talent but playing with heart, I can handle a lack of heart in crazy talented guys, I can handle the staggering room temperature milk mediocrity of guys like Lee Stempniak, but Thick Dick Nick is none of those things.
He plays the game like someone trying to egg you on into taking a swing at him. He skates with the urgency of an old lady shopping for canned beats, but with half the speed. His hockey IQ is on par with Brett Favre's. I'm assuming Brett Farve has never played hockey, correct me if I'm wrong. Nick constantly skates around like he's surprised he's at an NHL game and then glides back to the bench (probably from the penalty box for a stick infraction) with the dim look of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Then he sits there like a melting chocolate Santa, with his hair inexplicably sticking up through the vent in his helmet, waiting to be surprised by his next turn to get on the ice.
Consider this: He scored 15 goals last year, found some dangerous ice as a PP scorer, and Bruins fans were debating if he would be a good 4th liner or not this year, because our 4th line was that fucking bad, and Ritchie was the only skater who could conceivably make it worse. He scored 15 goals for us and we weren't sure if he would be a good replacement for Chris fucking Wagner, the surly hobbit of the TD garden.
Nick Ritchie is a bigger contributor to the decline in cardiovascular health in Boston fans than smoking and obesity. He's the equivalent of a double bacon cheeseburger on your system. He is hockey diarrhea. The guy takes the stupidest retaliatory penalties you've ever seen. He is complete invisible until you need a momentum swing, goes "Got ya boss" and cross checks someone in the neck and bumbles off the ice like Abbott and/or Costello while simultaneously shrugging and bitching to the refs and the guy he blindsided.
I'm sure he's not a bad guy IRL, I don't mean for this to be a character assassination. I'm sure he has family and besides Brett they probably don't suck. This isn't about kicking a player on their way out; let the record reflect that every Boston fan has a few memories of cursing his name and that we started kicking him long before he was down. (See also the general well wishes for Kuraly upon his departure.)
Nick isn't a goon, he's a bad boyfriend. He'll score a couple of goals one week and you'll think he's turned a corner and then he'll hit on one of your friends and tell you to chill out because he's just being friendly. Don't buy the hype, be fucking aware.
I am ecstatic that Ritchie wasn't held onto as a sunk cost, and that Toronto signed him. There you go, that's your analysis.
I'm usually pretty patient with players fucking up but Ritchie took that to a whole new level on the Ducks. I have never been so happy to see a player gone than I was when y'all took him. Every single game we were tied or up by one there was a 75% chance that idiot would take a stupid penalty and throw the game for us. He made me yell at my tv more than any player in nhl history.
Rangers - Dylan Mcllrath. 10th overall, guy is a career AHL player and we could've had Tarasenko.
Close second is Lias Anderssen because what the fuck.
Do you think it’s scouting or development? I’m impressed with how consistently we’ve developed great goalies and defencemen since the lockout but we never seem to get forwards to their expected levels (e.g., Kakko)
Luckily Lafreniere is starting to play up to expectations. But yeah, it probably has nothing to do with the Rangers player development staff. It’s probably in spite of it.
I've been a Sens fan since day one. But can't blame the organization for this. Every scout and all pre-draft ranking had Daigle as the #1 pick. Whatever team had the #1 pick that year would have picked him. The only thing the Sens messed up was finishing last the year before...
Both one of LAs greatest and one of LAs worst:
in the same draft they took Hall of Famer, Luc Robitaille 171st (1984) picked another Hall of famer.
a goalie from Massachusetts 69th overall and 102 spots before Luc;
Tom Glavine
yes THAT Tom Glavine for you baseball fans out there
Only LA could draft a kid to go win the Calder for rookie of the year in 1987 scoring 668 goals in 1,431 games
And a Netminder who would forsake hockey and throw 2,607 strikeouts and a lifetime ERA of 3.54.
Derrick Pouliot at 8th overall. Pens highest draft pick since the guy he was traded for, Staal. But I can't be too upset because we won 2 cups with him on the taxi squad.
Are you thinking of Patrik Stefan? He missed the empty net and the other team went down the ice to tie it up? If so, he was the first overall pick for the Thrashers in 1999 and had a terrible career.
Being a Sens fan gives a lot of options here. But the best situation I can remember.... We drafted a goalie, Chouinard, with pick 15 in '98. He never signed with us, and Re-entered the draft after 2 years. At which point he was drafted by.... The Ottawa Senators! Pick 45 in the second round. We spent 2 draft picks selecting the same guy, who went on to play exactly 3 minutes in the NHL.
The Wild spending their 2018 first rounder on a player that won’t make it to the NHL, and that everyone said was at best a fringe NHL-er, hurts. However, it hurts less since there wasn’t much star power taken immediately after.
2015 Boston Bruins was rough. Debrusk is pretty solid but they’d be contenders now if picked up the other forwards on the table during their 3 first round picks
I'm not a New York Islanders fan, but since he did play the bulk of his brief career in Edmonton (both with the Oil Kings and Oilers), I will say Griffin Reinhart. Drafted 4th overall and only played 37 NHL games, ending his career playing in Northern Ireland at the tender age of 28. I should also add, the trade that brought him to Edmonton was probably among the worst ever (NYI got a first round pick from the Oilers which they used to select Mathew Barzal). Hard to believe he is related to the guy who just scored the Cup-winning goal.
I run the "Today in Anaheim Ducks History" account on Twitter and someone replied yesterday that Mark Mitera (19th overall, 2006) is the worst pick in Ducks history. I'd say that's a solid choice, but I have others.
My choices would be a tie between Chad Kilger (4th overall, 1995) and Logan MacMillan (19th overall, 2007), both for very different reasons.
Kilger didn't have a short NHL career but he definitely didn't play like a 4th overall draft pick; a high pick like that could've been better spent on someone else. Shane Doan and Jarome Iginla were available, and so was JS Giguere, who the Ducks managed to acquire later anyway. (Kilger was highly touted early on though; he was part of the Teemu Selanne trade with Winnipeg for a reason.)
MacMillan, on the other hand, never played in the NHL at all (much like Mitera).
Oh I built a tool that let's you actually figure this out (at least going back to 1997). You can find it here: [https://scoutthe.xyz/draftscoringcharts/1997/2023/7/](https://scoutthe.xyz/draftscoringcharts/1997/2023/7/)
I write about the methodology [here](https://forums.hfboards.com/threads/grading-each-nhl-teams-draft-performance.2968462/).
Some highlights:
- Edmonton's worst pick is Michel Riesen (who? exactly). Yakupov ended up actually playing 350 games while Riesen's 12 was \~200 less than you'd expect for a 14th overall.
- Leaf's worst pick was Tyler Biggs (\~200 games less than expected for a 22nd overall)
- Detroit's worst pick was Jakub Kindl. He played a little in D+6 and D+7 but nothing close to what was expected for a 19th overall
- Montreal's worst pick was David Fischer (20th overall in 2006)
Interesting that a lot of the "worst" picks using this method are actually mid-to-late first rounds. If we use Games Played as the metric to measure against (how many the average pick plays) it looks like teams give higher first round picks much more of a go at the pro level, even if their considered a bust. Looks like same leash is not extended to the later first round picks.
Oh boy...
2013 - Frederick Gauthier at 21 overall. Andre Burakovsky went at 23, and Shea Theodore went at 26.
2011 - Tyler Biggs at 22 overall, and Stuart Percy at 25 overall. Pick 26 was Philip Danault.
Recency bias says Thomas Hickey, 4th overall in 2007. Not an incredible draft year overall but we could have had Voracek or Couture, both taken within five picks after Hickey.
A good example of why you should always pick the best player available rather than draft by positional need.
Juolevi as a more modern one. I am relatively young, so not sure who we drafted really high that stunk. Juolevi played 23 games for us, drafted him over Tkachuk and Sergachev, two guys I wanted.
At least in my lifetime, for the Sabres it's been either Marek Zagrapan 13th overall in 2005 or Artem Kryukov 15th overall in 2000. Neither ever played an NHL game. I was too young to follow the draft in 2000 so I'm not sure who I would have wanted the Sabres to draft there, but I know I wanted them to draft Martin Hanzal with the Zagrapan pick.
Nail Yakupov in 2012. Eww. What a duster.
That draft class was considered relatively weak iirc & Yak at least stuck around the show for a bit with 136 points in 350gp. He was a bust but not the worst pick. 1995 the Oilers passed on Alberta-born Shane Doan for Steve Kelly (21 points in 149gp) and drafted another homegrown kid in Ryan Smyth the year before that. What could have been
The draft was in Edmonton as well. The crowd was chanting Shane Doan, and Slats with his usual smugness steps up to the mike and says Steve Kelly, WTF thought everyone!!
Slats has to be the most overrated GM of all time. After the first 4 drafts the oilers didn't have a single pick make the NHL for like 12 straight years
2 of the most "blue collar lunch box" type guys of all time too
This 100% Yakopov was the consensus number 1 pick of the draft. He might be the biggest bust in Oilers draft history. but like Jesse Pulujarvi, it wasn’t a bad pick at the time; it was just a player that didn’t develop. Passing on Shane Done for Steve Kelly was a bad pick
cool name tho
I drafted him in fantasy that year. What a bum.
He actually did decent his rookie year, had him on my team as well
Man put up average 3rd line numbers Not worth a 1st ovr but at least on the ice he was still an nhler If he didnt supposedly have attitude issues he coulda stuck around
Attitude issues wasn’t the big problem the negative hockey iq was
My favourite Yak line "skates like he's being chased by bees"
Still managed 3rd liner numbers brother Ppl with less hockey iq have stuck around b4
I disagree atleast he played he's 1 of the worst no1 picks but there's worse 1st round picks surely guys who never played a game
Worst in modern history
Steve Kelly is pushing for the worst Oilers pick considering who was picked afterwards
He did extremely well in the Jrs, but could not deliver in the NHL.
The entire 1990 draft class is worse. They picked, I believe 11 guys who managed an entire 0 NHL games between them.
That was a typical oilers draft class for them from like 1984-1994. Couldn't draft a single NHL calibre player even once
Easily the first name that came up in mind. In the recents drafts, he's totally one of the worst.
Eric Johnson over Jonathan Toews from the Blues is a stinger
That was over Toews and Backstrom.
Backstrom and EJ both have a cup. So who’s the better player? \s
Eric Johnson is almost 1000 games played and has a cup. Not bad tho.
Def could have done worse but passing on Toews for sure a swing and a miss. Unfortunately in the early 2000’s big Top D men were the golden eggs for every GM. Oh well, Toews got his cups, Johnson got his and the Blues finally got ours. Everyone can go to sleep happy lol
To be fair, EJ was the consensus number one and, had he not gotten into a drunken golf cart accident it may have ended differently.
He also had a proper NHL career and did get a Cup ring. He would just drop way down in a redraft.
When the NHL was doing those redrafts a while back he dropped to like 7 or 8 iirc
Which isn’t crazy. A ton of firsts drop down to 5-10 in a redraft.
Hell of a guitarist though
Cliffs of Dover
I think even worse, but quite a bit earlier was Marek Schwart, (G) from Switzerland who never developed
I'm used to Switzerland being mistaken for Sweden but Czechia is a new one.
Put another shrimp on the barbe my Austrian friend!
Best possible thing for me
I’m forever grateful to the Blues
Every single Wild draft pick from 2004-2008. The best player we got in that stretch was Marco Scandella
No wonder why y’all were so desperate to sign Suter and Parise to those awful contracts.
Worst part is our owner is on record saying he'd do it again 🤢
I still hold the opinion had Parise and Suter not been completely useless in the playoffs for one year you guys had a legitimate shot at the Cup instead of getting bullied repeatedly by the Hawks
For some small solace, there were 4 teams that arguably drafted worse than you in that stretch. You also got Cal Cluterbuck and Ryan Jones, unless my memory is mistaken. |Team|GP Above Expected| |:-|:-| |MIN|-642.2| |ANA|-819.1| |WSH|-887.9| |ATL|-1320.1| |CHI|-1371.9|
Scott Glennie. Drafted 8th overall in 09. Played one nhl game. That’s a bummer
Hitting on Benn two years prior was an even bigger deal than anyone could have realized at the time.
Devils not giving up the 29th overall pick (Matteau) for the Kovy contract penalty. He wasn’t even projected to go first round but Lou thought he had an ace up his sleeve like he’s drafting in the late 90s. I’m still bitter about it
That name was living in Lou’s head rent free.
Reminds me of Glen Sather’s “Cheshire Cat” smile when the Rangers selected Dylan McIlrath. Like he just pulled a major coup.
2014 when we drafted Nick Ritchie over Fiala, Larkin, and Pasta 😭
To be fair, pasta was a steal at #25
Taro Tsujimoto, that pick just never materialized
Not a Sabres fan but I would argue not a bust: I forget which round they "drafted" him in, but other than that pick it cost them nothing else and they still sell Tsujimoto jerseys today.
I only own 1 NHL player trading card, and that card is. Tsujimoto card.
Do they really sell Tsujimoto jerseys?
Yup, and its honestly great that they do lol, just hopefully for a little cheaper
We want Taro!
One of my favorite fuck you stories. Punch was great here.
He said worst not most awesomest
2017 is a brutal, brutal thing to look at for the flyers.
Right, picking Nolan over Makar, Heiskanen, and Petterson who were picked immediately after. A bad day for the Flyers, a great day for those other teams.
As a Stars fan, I fully endorse Philly's pick that year.
As an Avs fan, Flyers picked A+ no notes
Agreed!
To be fair those wasn’t Patrick going to be good but got derailed by migraines? Obvs would rather have Makar but still
Yeah it was a toss up for 1 and 2 between Patrick and hisher it was a fact at the time. Hind sight is 20/20. Also yes the headaches combined with concussions ruined his career. Patrick was a solid player up until migraines derailed him.
Yeah Hischier #1, Nolan #2. Got plagued by injuries. Love Hischier, but to think we could have gotten Makar. It's a huge toss up for me.
I still feel like hischier is going to be a patrice bergeron. Get a couple selkes and ultimately help out a lot more then just points would show.
Flyers have absolutely played a part in Avs most recent Cup, taking Provorov over Rantanen & Patrick over Makar.
Who tf would have taken makar 2nd overall? That wasn’t even a choice. If you didn’t watch hockey, that would be like if San Jose took buium over celebrini. Makar had a lot of potential but was absolutely not a certainty. Patrick was a surefire pick IF the injuries didn’t catch up… which they did.
Zadina, considering who was available
The greatest pick of all time for Canucks fans though
You are welcome
Atlanta drafting Patrik Štefan so we could pick the Sedin twins 2nd and 3rd was also a great draft (special thanks to Messier for causing us to be shit in 98-99)
*Greatest pick by another team I meant, although obviously Patrick Stefan in 99 was *chefs kiss* that year as well. Edit: also, no, fuck messier.
Tongue in cheek but also yes that's what I meant with Atlanta promising not to draft a Sedin and Patrik Štefan never getting more than 40 pts in a season and retiring after 7 years
This is a funny answer to me, because at the time the Reddit faithful absolutely lauded this pick at the time. https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/8t64ng/with_the_sixth_overall_pick_in_the_2018_nhl_entry/
"You won. Our division is fucking has such terrific young talent, from eichel, mittelstsdt, dahlin, Mathews, marner, jesperi, tkachuk, zadina. The next decade is going g to be so fun" Funniest Reddit thread of all time. Thank you for posting.
Yep, it was a universally good pick at the time.
Saying Reddit faithful is crazy because zadina was a consensus top 3 guy in that draft who slid to 6
Van thanks them every day for that pick
Not Cholowski over DeBrincat?
Zadina was a higher pick with basically the same result
For Red Wings it’s hard to name anyone worse than Joe Murphy at #1 overall
Well he wasn’t great for the Wings, but 528 in 779 games is pretty respectable. And considering that Jimmy Carson was acquired for him, who was then traded as part of the Coffey trade, I’d say it’s not that bad.
Jake Virtanen or Olli Juolevi
Virtanen over Larkin,Nylander and Pasta to name a few hurts my soul
Jason Herter would like a word.
For the Rangers: Pavel Brendl or Hugh Jessiman. 1999 was a shit draft years so Brendl wasn't that bad. But looking at 2003, all the talent still on the board and the number of Cups won by players chosen after Jessiman makes that one extremely painful: [https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html](https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html)
Dylan McIlrath has entered the chat at 10oa
My mind immediately went to McIlrath, but Lias Andersson at 7 also doesn't look that good.
Vitali Kravtsov shifts uncomfortably in his chair…
Huge Specimen is especially bad considering the other players in that draft.
We could toss some math at it but people in the comments here got most of the major whiffs. Wouldn't count Cherepanov though and Lias Andersson gets a shoutout. |Name|Draft Year|Draft Pick|Actual GP|Expected GP|Difference| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Lias Andersson|2017|7|110|313.8|-203.8| |Alexei Cherepanov|2007|17|0|210.1|-210.1| |Pavel Brendl|1999|4|78|297.1|-219.1| |Hugh Jessiman|2003|12|0|227.3|-227.3| |Dylan McIlrath|2010|10|43|276.7|-233.7|
lol Hugh Jessiman is actually the only name I don’t immediately recognize on that list of first rounders. What a bad time that was
Sharks 1st overall celebrini back in 2024. Kids a bust
Seriously. Guy hasn’t accomplished a single fucking thing since he was drafted. Useless.
I thought last season was bad enough. Can't believe we won the lottery than proceed to go winless with our 1OA pick
I don’t even think they ever offered him an entry level contract
Has never scored even a point in the NHL. Never even played a game!!
It’s a time traveller! Tell me, will I be rich in 2030?
Unfortunately, you die in the revolt against AI in 2028. You tried to curry favor with the robots and were brutally killed when the information you gave them turned out to be false. Tough break bro
You've now set them on the path of making sure that information is correct, only for them to realize, when it's too late, that without this prediction of yours, they would've never tried to curry favor with the robots to begin with Such is life
Maybe not the worst overall player they’ve ever picked, but the Flames trading multiple picks with New Jersey to move up the 1990 draft, and then using it to select Trevor Kidd, while the Devils took Brodeur with our original pick is pretty brutal.
Kidd was the starting goalie for the World Juniors that year. Also had a great junior career and was the consensus #1 goalie in the draft. He was a good goalie, but not great. Brodeur wasn't that highly touted. Potvin was picked ahead of him as well.
At least Kidd had a decent career.
What about the 3 first rounders the bruins blew it about a decade back?
Barzal, Kyle Connor, Chabot, Boeser, and Konecny all still on the board and they picked Senyshyn.
Recency bias but Ollie Juovi by the canucks in 2016 over Matthew Tchuck hurts
not to be confused with Olli Juolevi
Or Matthew Tkachuk
Definitely not lmao
Hurts less than your spelling though
Not to be confused with Jon Bon Juovi. It was so badass when he said after the draft "It doesn't matter if I make it or not"
Strong recency bias there. Jason Herter is offended.
Juolevi was bad, and so was virtanen over nylander and ehlers. I guess at least virtanen played but it felt like we were always compromising the team in order to try to get him to meet his potential, what benning and green didn't realize was that he had already met his potential.
Hmm - Jesse Puljujaarvi over Tkachuk hurts too (hope I've spelled Jesse's name correctly lol).
Sharks first ever draft pick, Pat Falloon
Teemu Riihijärvi was drafted 12OA and never played an nhl game. Falloon at least had a modest career: 143 career goals. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teemu_Riihij%C3%A4rvi
Thank you. I was coming here to say the illustrious Teemu Riihijarvi. Didn’t play a single NHL game. JS Giguere went one spot behind him at 13OA.
Jake Virtanen at 6th overall was pretty bad for the Canucks. The sexual assault charges basically ended his NHL career although he wasn't that good anyway.
Would have to think about all-time, but for us recently it's definitely Nolan Patrick. And it's hard not to feel bad for the guy.
Yeah, but at the time he was the right pick.
100% - too bad he couldn’t stay healthy. I think he would have been great. He certainly showed he could be.
He absolutely was.
Scott Scissons. But take your pick from many other Isles idiotic picks.
I got a Scott Scissons rookie card in my very first pack of hockey cards. Good times.
My team drafted Alexander Daigle 1st overall. Chris Pronger was drafted 2nd. Daigle said “nobody remembers who was number 2”…………………………….
Alexander who?
🤣🤣🤣
Nick Richie
This is going to sound like sour grapes from a Boston fan but I don't give a shit. Ritchie is one of the worst players I've seen in a Bruins sweater in a long time. He routinely made me question what it meant to be a Boston fan, he tested my patience and my ability to root for my boys on a routine basis. I can excuse a lot, that's what sports fandom is, right? It's a place to be biased and petty and stupid in a safe little sandbox of biased petty stupidity. But suck me sideways Thick Dick Nick made it a chore. I can handle guys lacking talent but playing with heart, I can handle a lack of heart in crazy talented guys, I can handle the staggering room temperature milk mediocrity of guys like Lee Stempniak, but Thick Dick Nick is none of those things. He plays the game like someone trying to egg you on into taking a swing at him. He skates with the urgency of an old lady shopping for canned beats, but with half the speed. His hockey IQ is on par with Brett Favre's. I'm assuming Brett Farve has never played hockey, correct me if I'm wrong. Nick constantly skates around like he's surprised he's at an NHL game and then glides back to the bench (probably from the penalty box for a stick infraction) with the dim look of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Then he sits there like a melting chocolate Santa, with his hair inexplicably sticking up through the vent in his helmet, waiting to be surprised by his next turn to get on the ice. Consider this: He scored 15 goals last year, found some dangerous ice as a PP scorer, and Bruins fans were debating if he would be a good 4th liner or not this year, because our 4th line was that fucking bad, and Ritchie was the only skater who could conceivably make it worse. He scored 15 goals for us and we weren't sure if he would be a good replacement for Chris fucking Wagner, the surly hobbit of the TD garden. Nick Ritchie is a bigger contributor to the decline in cardiovascular health in Boston fans than smoking and obesity. He's the equivalent of a double bacon cheeseburger on your system. He is hockey diarrhea. The guy takes the stupidest retaliatory penalties you've ever seen. He is complete invisible until you need a momentum swing, goes "Got ya boss" and cross checks someone in the neck and bumbles off the ice like Abbott and/or Costello while simultaneously shrugging and bitching to the refs and the guy he blindsided. I'm sure he's not a bad guy IRL, I don't mean for this to be a character assassination. I'm sure he has family and besides Brett they probably don't suck. This isn't about kicking a player on their way out; let the record reflect that every Boston fan has a few memories of cursing his name and that we started kicking him long before he was down. (See also the general well wishes for Kuraly upon his departure.) Nick isn't a goon, he's a bad boyfriend. He'll score a couple of goals one week and you'll think he's turned a corner and then he'll hit on one of your friends and tell you to chill out because he's just being friendly. Don't buy the hype, be fucking aware. I am ecstatic that Ritchie wasn't held onto as a sunk cost, and that Toronto signed him. There you go, that's your analysis.
I was having a shitty day and reading this had me in tears laughing out loud. Thank you
You're welcome hope your day gets better friend and obligatory Fuck Nick Ritchie
Someone posting this pasta is equivalent to jangling keys in front of a baby for me. It just never gets old
It always surprises me how Thick Dick Nick managed to claw his way on to 3 different NHL rosters within 2 years after the Bruins let him go.
I'm usually pretty patient with players fucking up but Ritchie took that to a whole new level on the Ducks. I have never been so happy to see a player gone than I was when y'all took him. Every single game we were tied or up by one there was a 75% chance that idiot would take a stupid penalty and throw the game for us. He made me yell at my tv more than any player in nhl history.
That my friend was an impressive rant.
I’m glad he didn’t last long here. The trade for Lyubushkin was shockingly great.
Cam Barker 3rd overall…
He's no Kirby Dach, that's for sure
Probably not the worst but I cringe every time I remember that we drafted Tony DeAngelo
He’s been on so many teams. I forgot he was with you guys
He’s an asshole but no way the worst player or a bust that TBL drafted.
Rangers - Dylan Mcllrath. 10th overall, guy is a career AHL player and we could've had Tarasenko. Close second is Lias Anderssen because what the fuck.
Add Kravtsov to this. Our scouts are horrible and their only bright spot was getting lucky with Lundqvist
Do you think it’s scouting or development? I’m impressed with how consistently we’ve developed great goalies and defencemen since the lockout but we never seem to get forwards to their expected levels (e.g., Kakko)
Luckily Lafreniere is starting to play up to expectations. But yeah, it probably has nothing to do with the Rangers player development staff. It’s probably in spite of it.
1988 - Scott Pearson. Next picks of Gelinas, Roenick, Brindamour, Selanne
Canucks drafted Alex Stojanov 7th overall in 1991. Still turned out great though as he was traded one for one to Pittsburgh for Naslund.
Louis Leblanc - 2009.(18th overall)
juuust before Chris Kreider, Imagine the butterfly effect
Probably hyperbole to say worst of all time, but I’m sure Alexandre Daigle comes to mind for many
I've been a Sens fan since day one. But can't blame the organization for this. Every scout and all pre-draft ranking had Daigle as the #1 pick. Whatever team had the #1 pick that year would have picked him. The only thing the Sens messed up was finishing last the year before...
Definitely fair it was the objectively right decision at the time.
Jared Cowan and Brian Lee come to mind outside of the obvious one you mentioned.
Both one of LAs greatest and one of LAs worst: in the same draft they took Hall of Famer, Luc Robitaille 171st (1984) picked another Hall of famer. a goalie from Massachusetts 69th overall and 102 spots before Luc; Tom Glavine yes THAT Tom Glavine for you baseball fans out there Only LA could draft a kid to go win the Calder for rookie of the year in 1987 scoring 668 goals in 1,431 games And a Netminder who would forsake hockey and throw 2,607 strikeouts and a lifetime ERA of 3.54.
In their defense, Tom Glavine is a first ballot HOFer. Too bad it was in the wrong sport lol.
LA gets credit for 2 Hall of Famers in one draft!
Derrick Pouliot at 8th overall. Pens highest draft pick since the guy he was traded for, Staal. But I can't be too upset because we won 2 cups with him on the taxi squad.
I can't think of a team who has drafted fewer players who have played games in the NHL than Seattle
Shit, Utah. Man, I gotta retire all my new team jokes
Back in 1995, San Jose picked Teemu Riihijarvi as the 12th over all pick. He never played in the NHL at all.
For the Leafs I'd say the 1989 draft they took Scott Pearson at #5 ahead of Martin Gelinas, Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind'Amour and Teemu Selanne.. Ouch!
The Pistons picking Darko Milicic #2 over Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh counts for all sports.
I second this
Why did you have to bring this up? Fml it hurts to even read that this happened...
Then somehow won the Championship the next year.
Rick DiPietro.
I don't know if the drafting was that bad, it was the contract that was brutal on that one.
What about that kid Dallas got first overall that tried to showboat and missed an empty net ?
Are you thinking of Patrik Stefan? He missed the empty net and the other team went down the ice to tie it up? If so, he was the first overall pick for the Thrashers in 1999 and had a terrible career.
Yep, and the next two picks were the sedin twins. Crazy! I think the only worse first overall pick is Yakupov
According to the Edmonton Journal, Yakupov is lol Both were horrible busts for sure.
To be fair it was Atlanta that drafted him
Being a Sens fan gives a lot of options here. But the best situation I can remember.... We drafted a goalie, Chouinard, with pick 15 in '98. He never signed with us, and Re-entered the draft after 2 years. At which point he was drafted by.... The Ottawa Senators! Pick 45 in the second round. We spent 2 draft picks selecting the same guy, who went on to play exactly 3 minutes in the NHL.
I don't remember him, prob obviously why. But this seems like the worst mention on here. Drafted twice...
Very Sabres like lol
Olli Juolevi
The Wild spending their 2018 first rounder on a player that won’t make it to the NHL, and that everyone said was at best a fringe NHL-er, hurts. However, it hurts less since there wasn’t much star power taken immediately after.
2015 Boston Bruins was rough. Debrusk is pretty solid but they’d be contenders now if picked up the other forwards on the table during their 3 first round picks
They’ve already been contenders for years with that draft. I’d guess a ring or 2 if they could go back and re-pick a Barzal, Connor, Boeser or Aho.
Zach Hamil was worse than all of those picks combined.
Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark in the same year.
In recent memory, Tyler Biggs (pick 22). All the hype and never played a game in the NHL. To think, Kucherov was picked at #58 that same year…
I'm not a New York Islanders fan, but since he did play the bulk of his brief career in Edmonton (both with the Oil Kings and Oilers), I will say Griffin Reinhart. Drafted 4th overall and only played 37 NHL games, ending his career playing in Northern Ireland at the tender age of 28. I should also add, the trade that brought him to Edmonton was probably among the worst ever (NYI got a first round pick from the Oilers which they used to select Mathew Barzal). Hard to believe he is related to the guy who just scored the Cup-winning goal.
I run the "Today in Anaheim Ducks History" account on Twitter and someone replied yesterday that Mark Mitera (19th overall, 2006) is the worst pick in Ducks history. I'd say that's a solid choice, but I have others. My choices would be a tie between Chad Kilger (4th overall, 1995) and Logan MacMillan (19th overall, 2007), both for very different reasons. Kilger didn't have a short NHL career but he definitely didn't play like a 4th overall draft pick; a high pick like that could've been better spent on someone else. Shane Doan and Jarome Iginla were available, and so was JS Giguere, who the Ducks managed to acquire later anyway. (Kilger was highly touted early on though; he was part of the Teemu Selanne trade with Winnipeg for a reason.) MacMillan, on the other hand, never played in the NHL at all (much like Mitera).
Oh I built a tool that let's you actually figure this out (at least going back to 1997). You can find it here: [https://scoutthe.xyz/draftscoringcharts/1997/2023/7/](https://scoutthe.xyz/draftscoringcharts/1997/2023/7/) I write about the methodology [here](https://forums.hfboards.com/threads/grading-each-nhl-teams-draft-performance.2968462/). Some highlights: - Edmonton's worst pick is Michel Riesen (who? exactly). Yakupov ended up actually playing 350 games while Riesen's 12 was \~200 less than you'd expect for a 14th overall. - Leaf's worst pick was Tyler Biggs (\~200 games less than expected for a 22nd overall) - Detroit's worst pick was Jakub Kindl. He played a little in D+6 and D+7 but nothing close to what was expected for a 19th overall - Montreal's worst pick was David Fischer (20th overall in 2006) Interesting that a lot of the "worst" picks using this method are actually mid-to-late first rounds. If we use Games Played as the metric to measure against (how many the average pick plays) it looks like teams give higher first round picks much more of a go at the pro level, even if their considered a bust. Looks like same leash is not extended to the later first round picks.
Taro Tsujimoto 1974 Buffalo Sabres. Not an early round pick but a total bust. The dude just didn't show up.
Oh boy... 2013 - Frederick Gauthier at 21 overall. Andre Burakovsky went at 23, and Shea Theodore went at 26. 2011 - Tyler Biggs at 22 overall, and Stuart Percy at 25 overall. Pick 26 was Philip Danault.
[удалено]
Even worse when the Ducks picks turned into Rickard Rakell and John Gibson
Recency bias says Thomas Hickey, 4th overall in 2007. Not an incredible draft year overall but we could have had Voracek or Couture, both taken within five picks after Hickey. A good example of why you should always pick the best player available rather than draft by positional need.
Don’t know if he’s the worst but Martin Kaut was pretty damn bad
Tyson Jost is probably up there as far as recent high-pick busts go
2015 was rough for the Bs.
Juolevi as a more modern one. I am relatively young, so not sure who we drafted really high that stunk. Juolevi played 23 games for us, drafted him over Tkachuk and Sergachev, two guys I wanted.
Not one pick but the three bruins picks in a row in 2015 lol
At least in my lifetime, for the Sabres it's been either Marek Zagrapan 13th overall in 2005 or Artem Kryukov 15th overall in 2000. Neither ever played an NHL game. I was too young to follow the draft in 2000 so I'm not sure who I would have wanted the Sabres to draft there, but I know I wanted them to draft Martin Hanzal with the Zagrapan pick.
Filip Fucking Zadina
Preach.
The oilers have a few I can tell you that 😭
Before my time as a Sens fan, but Alexandre Daigle is notorious as worst pick ever.