Top 10 First Round Draft Mistakes Since 2000 

The DiPietro pick still blows my mind. They had just used a 4th overall pick to get Loungo a few years earlier. They then trade Loungo and Olli Jokinen for Kvasha and Parrish. They could have had Loungo, Jokinen and Heatley/Gaborik but ended up wit DiPietro, Kvasha and Parrish.... Just horrible

I think Flyers are gonna really regret picking Nolan Patrick over Petersson, Heiskanen and Makar

*Man I love how much this channel has grown over the years, literally love you, thank you Shannon for filling a void In my life, you are a legend.*

I always wonder about that 2006 draft class, and how Erik Johnson and Jordan Staal got drafted ahead of Toews, Backstrom, Kessel, Giroux, Marchand, among others

You should do the greatest steals from every franchise.

Patric Hörnqvist went LAST in 2005.

And Kings drafted Doughty 2nd overall that same year,imagine if Kings got Karlsson too that year,that could've been the best first round for one team in the history of NHL.

And Tarasenko came later in the 1st round after McIlrath in 2010

I remember playing against espisito in all the big tourneys when there was so much hype around him. It was like 1.espisito 2.couture on the scouting lists for a while. Shit happens though, i put up 100+points in AAA and over pt per game in juniors and a short lived career in ohl and im picking my nose now. Fml

Your number 1 gaffe 2008 includes the leafs drafting Luke Schen 5th overall desperate for a solid defenceman. Ottawa picks up Karlsson number 15.

The fact that Pittsburg could have drafted Bäckström, Toews or Giroux in 06 is crazy.

Nail Yakupov was drafted first overall because he was so good in the OHL with 170 points in 107 games I was so surprised he was not that good in the pros

Boston having 2 picks in a row and not taking Matthew Barzal 2015

Been subbed for a few weeks now,. Love your videos! They help me get through night shift 😁

*In the middle of watching.* "Whoever didn't get Karlsson, probably." Oh, it's number one. I feel smart.

Even though I'm a huge Rangers fan how could you not include their selection of Hugh Jessiman from 2003. He has played the least amount of games in the NHL (2 games) of anyone selected in the first round. Secondly considering the talent selected in later rounds, he has to be a "Hugh" (lololol) bust.

Surprised no Zach Hamill

In 2014 Winnipeg drafted Nikolaj Ehlers in the 9th spot,he also should have been taken higher and he was passed over by a few teams as well. Bob.

We are all forgetting the funniest mistake in hockey draft History. Yak Attack Nail Yakupov

Thank you very much for filling the hockey void in my life at this time of year with your videos.

Love the videos and hockey knowledge keep the vids coming!

Wow dude! I gotta say not many people who create any kind of sports content would actually give a 3 year window of development. So many people In the sports world of YT would be quick to judge a player after 1 year calling them a bust. The age of instant gratification at is finest. Love the stuff dude!

St. Louis blues drafting Eric Johnson at #1 instead of Toews at #3 man I only wish :(

Angelo Esposito was supposed to be so dam good. It's too bad he didn't work out.

As a blues fan, us NOT drafting Toews in 2006 and taking Erik Johnson first overall will always chap my ass. We also could have had Backstrom, but the front office insisted we needed to draft a "franchise" defenseman to replace Pronger. FUCK. Our biggest issue since the lockout has been not having a true number one center. Still resonates today.

The growth in the 5 year span from this to what you do now is amazing!

I like that RU-vid has started recommending your older videos to me :)

Heatley can't really be considered a gaffe because Heatley was amazing for quite a while. Coming out of the lockout, he was the purest goal scorer in the NHL

This video came up june 2024 lol. Keep up the great work Shannon 👍

Tarasenko was a 16th overall pick in 2010

Video idea: 2003 full first round re-draft

In 2015 when Boston drafted Zboril, Debrusk and Senyshyn in a row, they could've got Barzal, Chabot and Konecny.

I can see why Jordan Staal may not be up here because he was pretty instrumental in a cup run. but still 2. Staal 3. Toews 4. Backstrom 5. Kessel 6. Brassard 7. Okposo 22. Giroux

That's funny, "the habs don't need Carey price", if 2015-2016 showed, Carey price is the Montreal Canadiens

Best steal of each draft from 2014 back until 2000 2014: Viktor Arvidsson (4th round 112th overall) 2013: Jake Guentzel (3rd round 77th overall) 2012: Shayne Gostisbehere (3rd round 78th overall) 2011: Johnny Gaudreau (4th round 104th overall) 2010: John Klingberg (5th round 131st overall) 2009: Mike Hoffman (5th round 130th overall) 2008: Cam Atkinson (6th round 157th overall) 2007: Jamie Benn (5th round 129th overall) 2006: Brad Marchand (3rd round 71st overall) 2005: Keith Yandle (4th round 105th overall) 2004: Kris Versteeg (5th round 134th overall) 2003: Joe Pavelski (7th round 205th overall) 2002: Dennis Wideman (8th round 241st overall) 2001: Mike Smith (5th round 161st overall) 2000: Henrik Lunqvist (7th round 205th overall) Agreed or disagreed?

2008 The NJ Devils select Matias freaking Tedenby 24th overall instead of Jersey native John Carlson who goes 27th.

I always giggle a little thinking about a guy named Fowler on the ducks

7x9=63...that's one of my fav math problems I would say.

2010 Kings take Derek Forbort at 15, at 16 St. Louis takes Tarasenko.

2015 Boston Bruins 1st round. All three picks were well of the board and they missed K. Connor (15), M. Barzal (16), T. Konecy (24), O. Kylington (60). I included Kylinton because he was expected to go mid-1st round but fell drasticly. He is still a top prospect with the Flames. Also he was featured in Rhys Jessop's amazing tweet.

The draft is often a crapshoot. Who is picked a couple spots later doesn't really constitute a "mistake". A mistake is when you go way off the board and the player is a bust. Like how Boston squandered 2 of their 3 consecutive first round picks a few years ago. Mark Scheifele for example would have been a mistake, if he had been a career AHLer instead of a multiple time All Star, because the pick was considered a reach. Nail Yakupov was a relatively small mistake. Central Scouting had him as the best player of that draft, which lessens the Oilers liability for picking him.

this was a fantastic video

Another issue I see with redrafts is there is no time machine that gets you to the same place on an alternate timeline. Or more specifically, if a player is taken by organization A in the 3rd round and develops into a stud; the outcome isnt guaranteed as if they were taken by organization B in the 2nd round. Different organizations have different depth charts, different development plans, different systems and coaches that may or may not maximize a player potential. You could be a defensive centre stuck behind 2 established centres and a couple of vets, you get outplayed and try to switch the wing turn into a grinder. Not everyone can be successful at adapting their game and finding a roster spot.

Its criminal that Oilers' Nail Yakupov gaffe is not here. He was the 1st pick overall, which makes this gaffe even more crazy.

I feel like you could do a list for draft picks no one picked until 4th round or something that many many teams could have (ie Johnny gaudreau

Everybody who anguishes over their team need look no further than missed draft picks. The team you might have had. Like you note, some of these would be difference makers. I like and respect your knowledge and well reasoned opinions. Good job Lad.

The thing with teams missing out on Karlsson is mostly because he was projected to go in the 3-4th round and also when he was drafted he was under-sized like mad, under 70kg. That's a pretty risky pick in the 1st round. There's a fantastic interview with Anders Forsberg, former scout for the Ottawa Senators where he describes how they eventually drafted him, and hard he had to push to get him drafted. Unfortunately it's in Swedish.

Ranger fan here. In 2010, Tarasenko was drafted 16th. That hurts

The worst is Boston having picks 13,14,15 (Picking Zboril,Debrusk and Senshyn) and then picks 16,17,18 were Barzal,Connor and Chabot. Imagine Boston with those 3 players right now.

Kucherov @ No.58 in 2011

Easy to make these judgement now, but it's so hard to predict how a player will turn out when they are so young

2012 Edm Yakupov 1st overall Galchenyuk 3rd Reilly 5th Trouba 9th F. Forsberg 11th Vasilevsky 19th Maybe it’s difficult to defend taking any of those players first overall at the time but Brian Burke famously said Yakupov was the worst draft interview he ever had and one scout wanted to fight him.

Hornqvist is probably the best last overall pick of all time

Hugh Jessiman, Dylan McIllrath. I remember every Ranger fan hating these pics instantly after they were made, of course sometimes Scouts will know better, but in these cases it became clear quickly that the Fans gut feeling was right.

i wish there was a baseball account just like you lol

Pierre Mcgwire doesn't know shit. He also said Barkov was a bad pick by Florida

In 2008 LA already picked Doughty and could've picked Karlsson with the 14th, that would've been the greatest d-pair of our time if they had managed to keep both. As a sens fan I'm so glad they didn't xD

Man, the Kings would have been deadly with Karlson and Doughty as a pairing.

The Flyers reached for Giroux in 2006 as most scouts had him going in the second round I believe in the 50's and I recall a lot of media made a big deal about Philly going way off the board for him. It made sense given that Giroux was small and the League was just then making its shift to a faster smaller player friendly game. Its clear some GM's were quite timid at going after the little guys too early. As to 2008 I marvel at the retrospective of that draft. It was loaded with strong D and the Kings made off with Drew Doughty at #2. The Kings had drafted Thomas Hickey the year prior at 4 who at the time was touted as a high end free flowing scoring D-man and Tuebert was supposed to be the big tough stay at home type. I clearly see LA trying to round out their prospect pool after grabbing Doughty who was a lock to be a big time player and Tuebert expected to be the balance. Furthermore Karlsson was another player tagged for the 2nd round and Bryan Murray actually traded up 3 spots to select him, a move that had his own fanbase ridiculing him all over town. How ironic given how great he turned out.

The one i always regret the habs doing not to long ago is trading 2 second round picks to chicago for andrew shaw, one of those second round picks became ALEX DEBRINCAT!!.......

As an Oilers fan, I am surprised, confused and appreciative a certain first overall Russian was not mentioned.

It's still hard to think my canes took Zach fucking Boychuck over Erik Karlsson

I wish the Blackhawks gave Kyle Beach a NHL shot he was good for the IceHogs until he got traded

You need to do an updated version of this video

My number one gaffe was Detroit drafting Tom McCollum number 30 overall, when guy named Braden Holtby (93rd overall) was still on the board. Um... I don't know if that is a steal, a gaffe by Detroit, or just great player development by Washington's system. But drafting McCollum at all was a gaffe.

The Blackhawks picked Jack Skille at 7th overall in 2005, well ahead of Kopitar and Marc Staal who went 11 and 12.

I can't quite recall this from the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure Boeser was drafted shortly after Nicolas Roy, and that one might be a gaf in the future for the canes.

Eric Johnson over Toews in 2006.

Giroux not getting picked by Montreal is the Biggest mistake in this list, as a leafs fan I'm hysterical 🤣

In 2010 the goofs continued as some kid named Tarasenko slipped to 15th. And I can see all that teams that passed on Vilardi this year regretting it. Especially the Rangers, since they traded a 1st line centre or starting goalie for that pick.

Ottawa 2005 draft Brian Lee at #9 following picks luc bourdon#10 anze kopitar#11 Marc stall #12 Martin hamza #17 tuuka rask #21

Got to agree with a lot of things you said. I was living in Ottawa at that time when Yashin and Daigle were starting their careers. A lot of people questioned Ottawa's management being faithful to Daigle, as it was pretty clear in the first few seasons of playing together that Yashin was better. Ottawa made horrible decisions at that time.. Giving away Demitra, who, at that time, Yashin said was one of the few good players to play with, and favouring Daigle with a richer contract offer. Got to say though that the league and owners were probably starting to crack down on offering young players good money. Think about the problem Eric Lindros caused. You know it's probably more convenient to direct the blame away from him towards a European, especially one who is Russian. The times though were much different then. Beforehand, Lebron kind of James attitudes then were almost non-existent, and it was rare to sit out or make a trade request. Got to blame Yashin for it in a way. This early negative impact on him may have affected him personally too in future years to come. It's all speculative, but he was made out to be a person who played for himself only. I'm not sure if this is entirely fair. When he played for the Islanders in the beginning he was swaying it the other way. But not so long after, public opinion criticized his poor play in important moments, including playoffs. But in general, I think your look at Yashin is pretty fair and objective. But if I can say one thing. The kind of players, especially star players, are able to get away with these things fairly often nowadays. Many of them, fair enough, may be better playoff players than Yashin was, but it was inevitable that, even if Yashin never came along, that there was going to be players like him to blame.

You know what they say... He who gaffs last, gaffs loudest 😂😂

Terry Ryan.. 1995 the highest draft pick Habs had for ages. Next picks Kyle McLaren, Radek Dvorak, Jarome Iginla. It was a good draft and Habs pretty much blew it totally :/

2003 Washington Capitals 18. Eric Fehr (WSH) 19. Ryan Getzlaf (ANA) 20. Brent Burns (MIN) Could you imagine a Getzlaf/Backstrom tandem in the early Ovechkin years. Also, a Mike Green/Brent Burns tandem would've been awesome too.

The best is Patrick stefan I mean he can almost score on an empty net

I immediately knew that you would have the Kings in 2008. The Kings had two number one picks. Could you imagine if the Kings had Karlsson and Doughty. Holy hell.

RU-vid put this in my Recommened today

Love how Jack Campbell has panned out. You can’t count out goalies Shannon. Campbell I think has earned that 11th spot now!

Even though it happened to the Lightning. I find it kinda funny but also a bit of a bad move looking back on it now. 2010 picking Connolly at #6 when they could have had Fowler or hell even the Tarasenkshow. But it was a hindsight move not sure if he'd be able to recreate what he did 2 years before the draft because of injuries the year after the crazy somewhat high scoring season.

2012 Sabres grab C Mikhail Grigorienko at 12 and trade up to grab C Zemgus Girgensons at 14, 17th overall was Thomas Hertl and Scott Laughton went 20th overall, Girgensons is still a 4th line player for the Sabres but both Hertl and Laughton would've been much better options. Grigorienko was traded to Colorado with Nikita Zadorov and J.T. Compher in exchange for Jamie McGinn and Ryan O'Reilly.

1995 Sharks take Teemu Riihijärvi 12th overall. 13th overall was J-S Giguere by Hartford.

Surprised Andrei Kostitsyn isn’t on here for the habs. Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf and Brent Burns all drafted within 10 picks afterwards

When Boston had three straight picks and missed on Kyle Connor, Barzel and Thomas Chabot. They did get Debrusk but damn...

Florida Panthers take Keaton Ellerby at 10 in 2007. Ryan McDonagh went 12th. Do I need to continue?

Not only was Nylander still on the board at 8, but Nik Ehlers was available at 9. Virtanen was drafted where he was expected to go. Most teams take Virtanen in the #5 to #7 range. Maybe Vancouver shit the bed developing him, but some of the onus has to be on the players

2005, Ottawa takes Lee two spots before Kopitar goes. In 06-07 Sens would have had Spezza/Kopitar/Fisher down the middle and maybe Anze would have been the difference in the series vs Anaheim.

the fact that the flyers got giroux is still very surprising to me im happy but surprised

2012- Leafs got Rielly at 5. Yakupov, Murray, Galchenyuk, and G.Reinhart all went before Morgan did. As a Leaf fan, this has turned out well so far. The only player I'd want is Galch. Seeing as the Leafs weakest spot is D, this was great for us, but poor for the other teams ahead (minus the Habs)

As I recall Karlsson being drafted by Ottawa created some confusion as there was some doubt to his being eligible for the draft and some kudos to the Sens should be made for taking him....

For the Stars you forgot Jason Dickinson. That dude is TERRIBLE. I was so happy that the Canucks were stupid enough to give up a third round pick for him. Trading a first round picked player for a third round pick equates to admitting drafting him was a mistake, and he is an epic failure of a player.

Thanks for not throwing Pavel Zacha by the Devils in there. He gets such a raw deal by Devils fan. I still have hopes for him. Considering the players that went after (Provorov would have helped a lot for the defensive problems with the Devils, Barzal has been amazing to watch, Werenski has become a stellar defenseman, Meier has been good for the Sharks, Rantanen has become a fixture for Colorado, DeBrusk has become one of the go-to guys for Boston and would have added much needed grit to the team, Chabot would have helped a lot with the defense, and Boeser has become a tremendous player for Vancouver) his selection it's easy why you call Zacha a busy. Especially for a guy who went 6th overall. But he has shown flashes of the player the Devils thought he would be, especially at the end if the past season. He's also great on the PK and he may just be a late bloomer. Here's hoping that's the case. The Devils haven't surrounded him with much talent and he's a guy that needs other talent to thrive. Making him a winger after this draft and seeing how he plays when/if the Devils add some talent in the off-season (outside of the draft) will be interesting.

Hey Shannon check out 1998 Colorado had 4 1st round picks Brad Richards went in the 3rd round . And both Markov and Datsyuk went in the 6th round. * also the Avs offered Tampa the 4 picks for 1st overall Lecavalier and they said No.

The caps taking Brett Connolly 8th overall over Taresanko, he could have been the difference maker to get them past the second round!

No mention of Toronto trading up to pick up Tyler Biggs? And the picks they gave up became John Gibson and Rikard Rakell for Anaheim. Also, in the same draft, they used their other 1st round pick on Staurt Percy and missed out on guys like Brandon Saad, Gibson, Rakell, Kucherov etc.

Not necessarily a bad gaffe for a pick but I would say the straight up swap in draft pick between Edmonton and the Islanders for what would later become Barzal and Reinhart must really sting for the Oilers today.

Montreal could've drafted Briere, Gagne, and Giroux, but instead selected Matt Higgins, Eric Chouinard, and David Fischer. LOL

I gotta say one of the biggest draft screw ups was Edmonton and New Jersey switching 1st rounders back in 2003.... for edmontons sake

One player is lucky the list doesn't start in 1999. He was the worst mistake in the NHL history.

Have you done best and worst 1st round years in general?