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1st Overall NHL Draft Picks: Regrets From the 2010s

Second-guessing is at all times simple – particularly with regards to newbie drafts in skilled sports activities. How might my workforce take this participant over that one which 12 months? Wasn’t it as apparent at the time, once they had been fresh-faced youngsters, as it’s now, years later?

The reply, after all, is mostly no – even with regards to the NHL draft, which appears to ship stars or no less than excellent gamers with its prime picks extra constantly than different main sports activities. Plenty of examples of drafter’s remorse in hockey exist, when even when the prime decide seems to be participant, a generally significantly higher one goes to a workforce drafting a number of picks later.

Related: 2012 NHL Draft Top 10 – Where Are They Now?


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A glance again at the NHL drafts of the 2010s reveals some good (or, unhealthy) ones. We’ll restrict our listing of higher alternate options to every No. 1 decide to the prime gamers listed in that 12 months’s closing NHL Central Scouting report – not sleepers or gamers that turned out to be underrated and most groups handed on.

Without additional ado, and in no explicit order:

2014 – Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers

The Panthers can’t be sad with Aaron Ekblad, the huge, robust defenseman who at age 27 has developed right into a top-pair, right-side shutdown man – a sought-after commodity in the NHL. Ekblad, who received the 2015 Calder Trophy winner as the league’s prime rookie that season, helped the Panthers make their beautiful run from the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed to the Stanley Cup Final final season.

Related: Oilers with 100-Point Seasons

Still … it simply can’t be simple for Florida to watch Leon Draisaitl, the No. 3 decide that 12 months by the Edmonton Oilers, evening after evening. Among the league’s most prolific offensive gamers, he’s recorded no less than 105 factors in 4 of the final 5 seasons (he had 84 in 56 video games of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season), has scored 50 targets thrice and set a profession excessive with 128 factors in 2022-23. Draisaitl led the NHL with 13 playoff targets in 2023 regardless of taking part in in solely 12 video games. His partnership with otherworldly celebrity Connor McDavid actually helps his level totals, however there’s little query about Draisaitl’s affect.

It’s little comfort to the Panthers that the Buffalo Sabres additionally handed on Draisaitl in favor of Sam Reinhart with the second decide.

Aaron Ekblad Florida Panthers
Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

This choice has gone a good distance towards mitigating Edmonton’s no less than partial misses on two of its 4 No. 1 general picks in a five-year span (extra on that later). As good as Ekblad has grow to be, it must be tough for Florida to think about an alternate actuality.

2012 – Nail Yakupov, Oilers

The Oilers, sadly for them, dominate this listing. Edmonton got here out of the 2010s with McDavid (No. 1 general in 2015) and Draisaitl, so its efforts in the draft throughout that interval can hardly be deemed a failure. Still, the greatness of these two gamers obscures the indisputable fact that the Oilers might have had much more, provided that they picked at the prime of the draft 4 instances in 5 years.

Nail Yakupov, certainly one of the biggest failures in draft history, has been largely forgotten in northern Alberta, which is probably the greatest the franchise can hope for with regards to the 2012 draft. The Russian ahead, gone from the NHL for 2 seasons now, represents a rarity for a prime general NHL draft decide: A near-complete bust, a participant who not solely failed to determine himself as an upper-echelon expertise, however one who was unable to carve out any semblance of a productive profession. Yakupov, who obtained prime rankings from NHL Central Scouting and different scouting providers that 12 months, lasted 252 video games and recorded 50 targets and 61 assists. He bounced from Colorado to St. Louis in his closing two seasons earlier than returning to Russia to play in the KHL.

world championship roster
Forward Nail Yakupov taking part in with the Oilers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

What makes this choice maybe barely extra tolerable for the Oilers now’s the indisputable fact that they didn’t miss out on one other franchise expertise in a first-round that’s hardly confirmed to be star-laden. The greatest disappointment for Edmonton right here may need been passing on top-ranked European skater Filip Forsberg, who fell to the Capitals at No. 11 and was traded to the Nashville Predators in April 2013. Forsberg has scored 239 targets in 616 profession video games.

It’s not practical, however… how would 2018-19 Vezina Trophy winner and 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy, the top-ranked goaltending prospect in 2012 who was taken nineteenth by the Tampa Bay Lightning, look in internet for the Oilers proper now?

2017 – Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils

Blame Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, the fourth general choice, for Nico Hischier’s inclusion on this listing. Hischier blossomed into an excellent two-way heart in his sixth season with 80 factors and a plus-33 score, whereas additionally establishing a fame as a prime matchup pivot. He’s recorded 109 targets and 177 assists in his profession.

Nico Hischier New Jersey Devils
Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Makar, although, has emerged as the generational expertise of this draft, with 246 factors in 238 video games, capturing the 2022 Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy that very same 12 months after powering Colorado to its first Stanley Cup since 2001. The dynamic Makar was ranked ninth amongst North American prospects that 12 months, whereas Hischier was second.

New Jersey Devils followers actually love Hischier, a cornerstone on an thrilling and rising Cup contender. Still … would they move on a do-over if they’d one?

2010 – Taylor Hall, Oilers

Easy, everybody – Taylor Hall was, after all, something however a nasty decide, notching an 80-point season in 2013-14 and a 93-point effort in 2017-18 – when he received the Hart Trophy as league MVP with the Devils. However, he’s reached 60 factors just one time since. Hall is one other one who falls into the “very good player” class however in all probability isn’t a bonafide star.

Better choices had been accessible, most notably No. 2 pick Tyler Seguin, who was chosen by the Bruins. The heart, the top-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting that 12 months, has recorded 5 30-goal seasons, together with 40 in 2017-18. Hall has solely reached the 30-goal mark as soon as.

Seguin, who performed two seasons in Boston earlier than touchdown with the Dallas Stars in a lopsided commerce, has additionally been remarkably sturdy, with 10 full seasons of no less than 71 video games performed, all 48 in 2012-13 and 69 of 70 in 2019-20.

Taylor Hall, Boston Bruins
Taylor Hall, Boston Bruins (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

There was additionally a pair of Russians that made for fairly good choices for the prime decide that 12 months: Vladimir Tarasenko, ranked second amongst Europeans, who fell to sixteenth the place he was scooped up by St. Louis; and a diminutive left-wing named Artemi Panarin, who one way or the other wasn’t drafted in any respect (OK, mentioning Panarin breaks the guidelines of solely extremely ranked prospects said earlier, however an unpicked participant who in hindsight would have made a robust No. 1 general decide begs for an exception).

Top Picks Since 2010 Were a Rollercoaster

Sometimes groups nail the prime decide, generally not. The NHL drafts of the 2010s present ample reminder that buying the first general choice hardly ensures a franchise-changing expertise – a far cry from the seven drafts from 2003-2009, which delivered Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos and John Tavares in a wave of superstars.

The Oilers’ expertise alone illustrates the extent of the uncertainty – doing effective, however not in addition to they may have with Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011 and whiffing utterly on Yakupov earlier than lastly scoring a generational celebrity in McDavid with their most up-to-date No. 1 decide. Having the best choice at the proper time can also be crucial.

Connor McDavid Edmonton Oilers
Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The 2010s actually delivered abilities worthy of their No. 1 general standing – McDavid, Makar, Colorado teammate Nathan MacKinnon and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews are all superstars who made rapid impacts and might be on the street to the Hall of Fame. The rollercoaster outcomes of that stretch of prime picks is destined to be remembered for simply how properly groups can do when selecting first – and simply how badly they will miss.




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