No team can get it right in round one every year, even drafting very high. And at times all teams get it really wrong then. A survey such as this is a powerful reminder of the crapshoot that is selecting 18-year-old hockey players. However, it is also an invitation for fans to react with, “What the *@^* were you thinking?”
I’ve included picks made by the Whale with those of the Hurricanes, and of those made by the Nordiques in association with Colorado, to even out the survey period. No need however to add Winnipeg to Phoenix’s draft woes — the Desert Dogs know how to screw the draft pooch up high all on their own. Take a look:
| Team | Player Picked | Comment | Studs Selected After |
| Anaheim | Stanislav Chistov (5th, 2001) | The ‘07 Cup win offers serious salve for the Stanislav screwup | Mike Komisarek, Pascal Leclaire, R.J. Umberger, Ales Hemsky, Mike Cammalleri |
| Atlanta | Patrick Stefan (no.1, 1999) | The ‘99 harvest wasn’t swell to be sure, but this still is a serious stinker | The Sedin twins, Martin Havlat |
| Boston | Lars Jonsson (7th, 2000) | A good recipe for Swedish meatballs would have delivered more | Brooks Orpik, Alexander Frolov, Anton Volchenkov, Niklas Kronvall |
| Buffalo | Shawn Anderson, (5th, 1986) | This was a Shawn of the Dead selection | Vincent Damphousse, Brian Leetch, Craig Janney, Teppo Numminen |
| Calgary | Bryan Deasley (19th, 1987) | The Flames’ no. 1 from ‘86, George Pelawa, died in a motorcycle crash that summer, making this a two-year strikeout stretch | John LaClair, Eric Desjardins, Mathieu Schneider, Stephane Matteau |
| Carolina/Hartford | Fred Arthur (8th, 1980) | No relation to Bea Arthur, except in NHL impact | Paul Coffey, Brent Sutter, Craig Ludwig, Steve Larmer, Andy Moog, Jari Kurri |
| Chicago | Tony Tanti (12th, 1981) | Wirtz maybe thought he’d sign cheap? | Al MacInnis, Chris Chelios, Mike Vernon, John Vanbiesbrouck |
| Colorado/Quebec | Aniel Dore (5th, 1988) | Who doesn’t own an Aniel Dore Nordiques’ sweater? | Jeremy Roenick, Teemu Selanne, Rob Blake, Rod Brind’Amour, Martin Gelinas |
| Columbus | Alexander Picard (8th, 2004) | Inspector Clousseau isn’t going to look into this pick — he made it | Alexander Radulov, Drew Stafford, Andrej Meszaros, Wojtek Wolski |
| Dallas | Jason Bacashihua (26th, 2001) | Played with the ECHL’s Johnston Chiefs in ‘07-08, which for a first-rounder seven years after being drafted is a fairly moderate pace of development | Derek Roy, Fedor Tyutin, Mike Cammalleri, Jason Pominville, Dave Steckel |
| Detroit | Shawn Burr (7th, 1984) | I thought briefly of exluding the Wings from this exercise, they draft so well, and you have to go back a bit to find a serious screwup | Shane Corson, Sylvain Cote, Gary Roberts, Kevin Hatcher, Scott Mellanby |
| Edmonton | Marc-Antoine Pouliot (22nd, 2003) | Overlooked this scouting report by the rest of the league: “Thin, weak, won’t hit or backcheck or play in traffic. Other than that, he’s dandy.” | Mike Richards, Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Carle |
| Florida | Petr Taticek (9th, 2002) | Why no postseasons in Sunrise, Cats’ fans ask? Look at this pick | Alexander Semin, Chris Higgins, Alexander Steen, Cam Ward |
| Los Angeles | Wally McBean (4th, 1987) | Not a new lunch item at MickeyD’s | Joe Sakic, Andrew Cassels, Mathieu Schneider, Luke Richardson |
| Minnesota (Wild/Stars) | Brian Lawton (no. 1, 1983) | The bridesmaid to Daigle | Pat LaFontaine, Steve Yzerman, Tom Barrasso, Cam Neely |
| Montreal | Terry Ryan (8th, 1995) | Terry Hatcher would have looked better here | Jarome Iginla, J.S. Giguere, Petr Sykora, Martin Biron |
| Nashville | Brian Finley (6th, 1999) | The day the music stopped in Honkeytonkville | Barret Jackman, Martin Havlat, Mike Commodore, David Tanabe |
| New Jersey | Adrian Foster (28th, 2001) | Yo, Adrian! Legend has it that Foster wasn’t even on other teams’ lists — anywhere! | Fedor Tyutin, Mike Cammalleri, Peter Budaj, Ray Emery, Patrick Sharp |
| NY Islanders | Dave Chyzowski (2nd, 1989) | Can’t blame Mad Mike for this one — he didn’t arrive until ‘95 | Bill Guerin, Pavel Bure, Olaf Kolzig, Stu Barnes |
| NY Rangers | Hugh Jessiman (12th, 2003) | Hughe mistake! | Brent Seabrook, Steve Bernier, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf |
| Ottawa | Alexander Daigle (no. 1, 1993) | The Mother of all Misses; to “Daigle” in round one is every GM’s nightmare | Chris Pronger, Paul Kariya, Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Witt, Adam Deadmarsh |
| Philadelphia | Claude Boivin (14th, 1988) | Philly does real well in the first round; this year, not so much | Rob Blake, Alexander Mogilny, Tony Amonte, Bret Hedican, Tie Domi |
| Phoenix | Blake Wheeler ( 5th, 2004) | Wheeler of misfortune; think Gretz & co. reached here? | Rostislav Olesz, Alexander Radulov, Drew Stafford, Wojtek Wolski |
| Pittsburgh | Zarley Zalapski (4th, 1980) | ZZ FlopTop and agonizing alliteration | Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Steve Larmer, Craig Ludwig, Brent Sutter |
| San Jose | Pat Falloon (2nd, 1991) | Plus, Pat had to don that original San Jose teal sweater on the ‘91 draft stage | Scott Niedermayer, Peter Forsberg, Martin Lapointe, Brian Rolston, Alexei Kovalev |
| St. Louis | Perry Turnbull (2nd, 1979) | 188 goals in an NHL career is nothing to snicker at, but methinks Ray Bourque would have helped out more | Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Brian Propp, Kevin Lowe |
| Tampa | Alexander Svitov (3rd, 2001) | Tampa (Nikita Alexeev) hasn’t exactly struck Lightning with first-round Russians | Pascal Leclaire, Alex Hemsky, R.J. Umberger, Shaone Morrisonn |
| Toronto | Gary Nylund (3rd, 1982) | This is the stuff of Cup droughts | Scott Stevens, Phil Housley, Dave Andreychuk, Doug Gilmour |
| Vancouver | Jere Gillis (4th, 1978) | The Canucks have no home-grown Hall of Famers, including Gillis | Mark Napier, Don Maloney, Doug Wilson, Bengt Gustafsson |
| Washington | Greg Joly ( no.1, 1974) | Good Golly what a stinker! “The next Bobby Orr” it was said of Joly in ‘74. Umm, not so much. | Clark Gillies, Pierre Larouche, Bryan Trottier, Doug Riesbrough |
Watching the Washington Capitals get bounced from the playoffs was a bit like getting dumped, hard. The team and its fans may have recovered from the initial stomach-punched feeling, but it’s still hard to watch all those other teams flirting with the Stanley Cup.
