If you screw it up, your franchise can suffer for years to come.įor example, did the Canadiens of Montreal ever fully recover their aura after taking Doug Wickenheiser over Denis Savard in the 1980 draft? With that first pick, an NHL team can take anyone in the entire draft. There is a unique significance to drafting first overall. First overall picks have on average by far the most value of any pick in the draft. But so are 40 other players from that same draft, players such as Adam Bennett, Doug Zmolek, Jason Herter, Jason Marshall, Rob Pearson, Lindsay Vallis, Kevin Haller, Jamie Heward, Shayne Stevenson, Jason Miller, Steven Rice and Steve Bancroft - and those are just some of the first rounders taken in Lidstrom’s draft.įirst overall picks are in a category of their own. But you could make a similar argument that almost every player taken before Lidstrom was also the worst pick ever, as any of those teams could have had Lidstrom instead of the player they drafted.Įdmonton drafted Jason Soules and Richard Borgo (neither played an NHL game) before the Lidstrom pick, so they’re also arguably the worst pick ever. Dave Chyzowski was taken second overall that year, so an argument could be made Chyzowski was the worst pick ever. It’s a regular occurrence in any draft, but there may well be one such instance that stands out most starkly.įor example the greatest player taken with a lower pick is likely Nicklas Lidstrom, taken 53rd overall in the 1989 draft. That said, if you want to argue that some team took a particularly rancid player over a future superstar, that’s a fair point. In these cases, however, it’s always multiple teams making the mistake, so no one individual pick stands out as the single worst. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This happened in the early years of the draft, with superstars like Bobby Clarke and Bryan Trottier overlooked by multiple teams, and it’s happened in recent years, with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov overlooked. In any draft, brilliant players - even Hall-of-Fame players - are overlooked, with two or three or even 30 teams passing on them, sometimes multiple times, in favour of other lesser players. There are, of course, other contenders for title of the single worst overall pick. He lacks the size, speed, skill and hockey sense of an elite attacker either at the NHL or KHL level. There’s not going to be any sudden explosion where Yakupov reaches the heights predicted for him when he was a major junior ace with the Sarnia Sting. He will be 30 this October, but on his Omsk Ovangard club team in the KHL last year he scored just one goal and two assists in 14 playoff games, that after a regular season that saw him put up 10 points in 16 games. And aside from a solid first season in the KHL, he’s never established himself as a top level player in Russia either. Aside from a promising first NHL season, he’s never shown much at the AHL level. Activate your Online Access Now Article contentįar from exploding into superstar status, Yakupov has never panned out as a pro player. If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is included in your subscription.
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