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NHL Draft: Evaluating Each Team’s 2012 Draft Class

By Kyle Pereira

PITTSBURGH, PA - JUNE 22: (L-R) Third overall pick by the Montreal Canadiens Alex Galchenyuk, first overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers Nail Yakupov and second overall pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets Ryan Murray pose during Round One of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft at Consol Energy Center on June 22, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - JUNE 22: (L-R) Third overall pick by the Montreal Canadiens Alex Galchenyuk, first overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers Nail Yakupov and second overall pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets Ryan Murray pose during Round One of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft at Consol Energy Center on June 22, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images /

The 2011 draft, in hindsight, wound up being better than the 2010 draft. How will the 2012 draft fare against the Nikita Kucherov-led 2011 draft class?

In total, there were 211 players selected in the 2012 NHL Draft, compared to the 209 players in 2010. Those players combined for 17,594 games played, 2,169 goals and 3,872 assists for 6,041 points.

The first overall pick belonged to the Edmonton Oilers for the third consecutive year. They took forward Nail Yakupov at that spot and he posted 62 goals and 74 assists for 136 points in 350 games played. However, the best player to come out of the draft, however, turned out to be the Washington Capitals 11th overall pick, Filip Forsberg.

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Forsberg, who wound up playing every single one of his 395 career games with the Nashville Predators, scored 145 goals and 160 assists for 305 points. The best player in 2011 was the 58th overall pick, Nikita Kucherov. In 2010, it was the aforementioned Seguin.

As mentioned earlier, the 211 selected players played in a combined 17,594 games. However, they were eligible to play in a combined 113,940 games. What that means is the 2012 draft class played in 15.4% of games due to injuries, suspensions, developmental years in juniors, or simply not being good enough.

Meanwhile, 2011 played 16.5% of their games and 2010 played in just 15%. That places the 2012 class firmly in between the two. But where do they rank in point totals with 2010 and 2011?

Using a statistic I created called “goals per season, per player” (G/S/P), I can compare the overall statistics of each draft to see which draft was the strongest. I also created “assists per season, per player” (A/S/P) and “points per season, per player” (P/S/P), which are calculated in the same way.

To find the 2012 draft classes G/S/P, I take the total number of goals scored (2,169) and divide it by the total number of players drafted (211). Then I divide that number by the total number of seasons since that draft took place (7), which gives me my final G/S/P total. The same process happens for assists and points, but using the assist and point totals, obviously.

The 2012 NHL draft class recorded a 1.5 G/S/P, which was the worst between the three aforementioned drafts by quite a bit. 2010 had a G/S/P of 2, while 2011 had a 2.3 G/S/P. As for assists, 2012 yet again finished as the worst of the three drafts, with a 2.6 A/S/P. 2010 recorded a 3 A/S/P while 2011 put up a 3.3 A/S/P.

That now brings us to point totals, with 2012 is way behind the 2010 and 2011 draft classes. While 2012 recorded a 4.1 P/S/P, 2010 posted a 5 P/S/P and 2011 posted a 5.6 P/S/P. It’s safe to say that the 2012 draft was the worst draft of the three that I have looked into, by a fairly wide margin.

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