NHL Draft: Worst first-round draft pick in each team’s history

NHL Draft: Worst 1st-round pick in franchise history: Anaheim Ducks, Mark Mitera 2006 NHL Draft

The Anaheim Ducks were hoping that Mark Mitera was still a star in their lineup today. They picked him with the 19th-overall pick in the 2006 NHL Draft. He had all the pieces to be a really good player. He’s a defenseman that stands at 6’3 and a little over 200 lbs. He was a shutdown guy for the University of Michigan that played an old-school style that then-Ducks GM Brian Burke was looking for. This was Burke’s first 1st-round pick, and it will go down as bad as any.

Mitera went on to play exactly zero NHL games. He was eventually traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Mathieu Carle, but the Canadiens never got the big, bruising defenseman in the league. His play in the NHL never warranted it. The issue with big, bruising defensemen is they have limited value in today’s NHL. Players like Victor Hedman can be bruising while also moving the puck as good as Steven Stamkos. There’s no room for players like Mitera in 21st-century NHL.

There have been higher picks in Ducks history that went just as bad, but it’s who the Ducks could have picked that makes this the worst pick in team history. Claude Giroux went three picks later. Semyon Varlamov went one pick after that. Patrik Berglund and Nick Foligno would have been much better picks for the Ducks there.

Mitera last played hockey in 2013, meaning he only made it seven seasons of hockey after his draft year before he hung up his skates for good. The Ducks would end up in a decent position, though. They literally won the Stanley Cup that next season, so it didn’t hurt them terribly, but this pick could have really did something to help those best Ducks teams.