NHL Draft: Worst 1st round draft pick in franchise history: Carolina Hurricanes, Igor Knyazev 2001 NHL Draft
The Carolina Hurricanes have some good draft picks throughout the franchise history. If you include their time in Hartford, they have picked 31 players in the top 15 of the draft. There is one in franchise history that never played a game in the NHL. Igor Knyazev was taken in the 2001 NHL Draft at a time when the Hurricanes were looking to put together a good team finally.
Igor Knyazev was a shutdown defenseman playing well in Russia. This was the type of defenseman that teams were looking for at the turn of the millenium. Knyazev was rising up the ranks in the Russia Super League while teams were sending scouts overseas. He seemed like he was willing to come to North America, and he even played a few seasons in the AHL, but the second it didn’t seem like it was working, he raced back to Russia and never came back.
The 2001 draft isn’t exactly one to go home about. After Ilya Kovalchuk and Jason Spezza at the top, there aren’t a lot of stars. However, the Hurricanes would have been much happier with a player like RJ Umberger (who went with the next pick), Michael Cammalleri, Derek Roy, or Tim Gleason.
None of those players were going to bring a Stanley Cup to Carolina any quicker than 2006, but the team definitely swung and missed on Knyazev. But to be one of two players in Hurricanes history (outside of Ryan Suzuki and Seth Jarvis who literally just got drafted) to get taken in the first round and never playing a game, it has to be on the list of worst decisions at the draft.