NHL Draft: Each team’s best draft pick of all time

The NHL Draft is where teams build dynasties. That’s what those two days every year are all about, building. Sure, the trades and free-agent signings might be key in putting the team past the threshold from good to great, but those deals mean nothing if the team couldn’t draft prior to those moves.

The draft is where general managers make or break their legacy. Teams have staffs with dozens of people that get to travel around the globe just to pick seven players every year. Think about that for just a second. The draft is so important to hockey teams that millionaires and billionaires allocated a ton of money just to see teenagers play the game of hockey from every corner of the globe.

There’s a reason teams spend this much time, money, and manpower to pick the right player. If the team finds a star, then it could mean millions of dollars in marketing materials, a lot of nationally televised games, and more importantly, wins. Some of the best players in the history of the game weren’t taken in the first round. Each team has a superstar somewhere in the draft. Do a lot of great players come early in the draft? Sure, but the really good teams can get superstars in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds.

Taking a look at the drafts from years past, it’s not easy to just pick one great pick from each team. There are a million reasons why a player might have fallen in a draft. Maybe he was too small. It’s possible he got injured in his draft year, or it’s possible there were rumors about the player that didn’t turn out being true. Either way, they turn into something even better than a draft steal. They turn into a franchise cornerstone.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Anaheim Ducks, Ryan Getzlaf 2003

This might come as a surprise, but the Anaheim Ducks have a history of being really, really bad at drafting. Only three players have been drafted by the Ducks and went on to play 1,000 games in the NHL. Two of those players were drafted in the first round of the 2003 NHL Draft. Corey Perry had a great career, and he even won a Hart Trophy, but Ryan Getzlaf has been just a slightly bigger star in his time.

The Ducks took Getzlaf with the 19th-overall pick in the 2003 NHL Draft. It was actually a stacked draft, which included names like Perry, Brent Burns, Zach Parise, and Brent Seabrook going between picks 13 and 24. Getzlaf is arguably the best of the bunch, playing 1,100 games and scoring 982 points over his 16-year career.

Getzlaf helped lead the Ducks to the Stanley Cup in 2007, putting up 17 points in 21 postseason games. He put up a goal and an assist in a crucial Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals to put away the Detroit Red Wings. That wasn’t his only pivotal performance. He was an insane distributor in the 2015 postseason. He led the NHL with 18 playoff assists despite only playing 16 postseason games. The Ducks glory years were mainly thanks to Getzlaf and Perry, but Getzlaf is the one that will go down as one of the most underrated players of this era.

The only other player that really deserves even a mention is Matt Cullen. They took him in the second round of the 1996 NHL Draft, but he was just a good player for a long time. Getzlaf was a franchise-changing star that deserved more recognition than he got.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Arizona Coyotes, Keith Yandle 2005

Keith Yandle is more traditional to the type of player on this list. He’s a player that came into the draft without a lot of fanfare, but he overcame the odds and put together an awesome career. Keith Yandle isn’t a complete outlier, as the Coyotes have a few pretty good draft picks over the years, but the one that had the most impact on this franchise is Yandle. Six players from the 2005 NHL Draft played 1,000 games. Nobody was taken as late as Keith Yandle.

The Coyotes took Yandle with the 105th-overall pick in the fourth round. The Florida Panthers, Yandle’s current team, took defenseman Matt Duffy with the pick before Yandle. He played zero NHL games. Even the Yotes made a few picks before taking Yandle. Martin Hanzal wasn’t a terrible first-round pick, but taking goalie Pier Pelletier in the second round doesn’t look great now.

Yandle played nine years in Arizona before moving on to the New York Rangers. He scored 311 points as a defenseman, and he was a star on the 2012 and 2015 teams that made deep runs in the playoffs. This is a player who pulled the Coyotes up without getting the publicity of Shane Doan (who was technically drafted by the Winnipeg Jets). Yandle definitely deserves more love as a star in a Coyotes uniform.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Boston Bruins, Patrice Bergeron 2003

Many are probably surprised by the pick here. Patrice Bergeron might not be considered one of the best of all time, like many who have worn the Bruins jersey are, but compared to his draft position, he’s the best option. Ray Bourque was a better player, but the Bruins took him eighth in the 1979 draft.

The Bruins have drafted 16 players who have played over 1,000 games. There are some major wins like taking Don Sweeney in the eighth round and Craig MacTavish in the ninth round. There was even the famous 2006 NHL Draft where the Bruins got Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, and Brad Marchand in consecutive rounds. However, the resumé of Bergeron is impossible to ignore.

Bergeron is going to go down as the best two-way player of this era, and he came to Boston with the 45th-overall pick. He has everything a team wants in a player. He can score, he makes his teammates better, he stops the other team in the defensive zone, and he brings a physical presence to every contest. It’s hard to believe the Bruins would have as much success as they have over the past two decades without Bergeron.

Bergeron has the hardware to back it up. He’s won the Selke Trophy four times in his career. He was a finalist six other times. It’s hard to come up with anyone who was considered a Selke candidate as often as Bergeron. He was the best draft pick ever for the Bruins because of the impact he still brings to the team 18 years later.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Buffalo Sabres, Alexander Mogilny 1988

The Buffalo Sabres are a very hard one to choose, which is how we ended up with a player whose best days were not with the Sabres franchise. They have a lot of really good draft picks. Brian Campbell was a sixth-round pick who played well over 1,000 games as a defenseman and even played a pivotal role in the Chicago Blackhawks’ first Stanley Cup victory. Jason Pominville was a key contributor to those really good Sabres teams of the early 2000s. Sean O’Donnell broke the 1,200 game barrier as a sixth-round pick. However, none are borderline Hall of Famers like Alexander Mogilny.

Mogilny was a flier pick by the Sabres as Russian prospects were near impossible to bring over to North America. He went 89th overall in the 1988 NHL Draft. However, the Sabres pulled off some magic to bring Mogilny here after a World Juniors tournament.

After Mogilny came to the United States, he immediately made an impact. He gradually got better every season, and eventually, he scored 76 goals in the 1992-93 season. It was one of the best seasons of the early 90s by any scorer despite playing at the same time as Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Jaromir Jagr.

Mogilny went on to play very important seasons for the Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils before playing the twilight of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a couple of lockouts away from playing 1,000 games in the NHL, but he was still able to break 1,000 points despite playing most of his career in the dead puck era. Mogilny deserves a Hall of Fame induction and he deserves to be the pick for the Buffalo Sabres.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Calgary Flames, Brett Hull 1984

The Calgary Flames also have a lot of interesting draft picks, but there is no beating taking the son of a Hall of Famer in the sixth round just to watch him put together his own Hall of Fame career. Teams let Brett Hull watch as 116 players were taken ahead of him in the 1984 NHL Draft. It didn’t make much sense since he was dominating juniors. He scored 188 points in 56 games for Penticton of the BCJHL. He was eligible in 1982 and 1983, and he went undrafted. Every single team flopped on this pick except the ones that didn’t exist at the time. Finally, the Flames made the right choice.

He holds more than a dozen records with the St. Louis Blues, and also holds franchise records with the Dallas Stars and the Detroit Red Wings. He had four 100-point seasons in his career, scored 50+ goals five seasons in a row, and won multiple Stanley Cups, including one where he scored the series winner in overtime (in very controversial fashion).

So, how come none of that came with the Flames? During his Calder-winning rookie season, the Flames traded Hull to the Blues, where he became a legend. They received a package that included Rob Ramage.

Listen, the Flames ended up winning the 1989 Stanley Cup and the Blues never ended up winning one with Hull in the lineup, so there’s that, but Hull put together a Hall of Fame career that would have been just as nice in Western Canada.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Carolina Hurricanes, Jaccob Slavin 2012

Some might say it is a little early to declare Jaccob Slavin, he of only 429 games played, he of a prime that’s only come recently. Yes, Slavin is that good now and is going to continue to be that good in the future. Most of the Hurricanes’ really good picks came at the top of drafts. Whether it was Eric Staal at third overall, Andrew Ladd at fifth overall, or Cam Ward 25th overall. Slavin’s pick with the 120th pick usurps them all.

There are some really good picks that could move past Slavin in the near future. Getting Sebastian Aho in the second round is very close to being their best pick if he continues on this trajectory. Getting Freddie Andersen in the seventh round is quite good as well. However, Slavin is someone who is already one of the most underrated defensemen in the league, and he’s finally getting his due this past season.

Slavin is coming off a Lady Bing win. He plays a physical style but only had two penalty minutes all season. He was one of the main reasons the Hurricanes were able to be the best team in the South Division, which included the Tampa Bay Lightning and reigning Western Conference Champion Dallas Stars.

The Hurricanes have a stacked defensive front, but with Dougie Hamilton about to leave in free agency, Slavin is about to really show his worth to this franchise. He’s only 27 years old, so he’s smack dab in the middle of his prime. The Canes look like a good bet to be a contender for a long time. Slavin is a big reason for that.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Chicago Blackhawks, Dominik Hasek 1983

How can anyone beat taking a catalyst defenseman with the 54th-overall pick in a draft? Duncan Keith was a major factor in all of the Chicago Blackhawks championships. Well, when that same team took arguably the greatest goalie in the history of the league in the 10th round, it’s impossible to ignore. Dominik Hasek didn’t come to the league until seven years after he was drafted. Then, he played 25 games with the Chicago Blackhawks before he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres for Stephane Beauregard and a 4th-round pick.

Hasek’s resumé is famous for how impressive it is. He won the Vezina Trophy six times, the second-most all time. He led the league in goals saved above average five times in his 16-year career. He was the league leader in save percentage six times. This, despite playing at the same time as Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur. This was the greatest era for goalies ever, and Hasek stood above the rest.

Again, the Blackhawks took this player in the 10th round. There are other great picks the Blackhawks made very late in drafts. They took Dustin Byfuglien in the eighth round. Marc Bergevin came to them in the third round. Even Corey Crawford came in the second round. However, getting one of the best of all time in a round that doesn’t even exist anymore is untouchable on this list. It’s just unfortunate the Blackhawks traded away Hasek. Seeing him play for an Original Six team for most of his career instead of Buffalo, where they just gave him no support, would have been fun to watch.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Colorado Avalanche – Ryan O’Reilly 2009

This one is really, really hurt by the move from Quebec to Colorado. We’re only counting draft picks made after the 1995 draft year. The Colorado Avalanche only have four players that have played over 1,000 games and were drafted by the Avs. Two came in the first round of the 1998 NHL Draft (Robyn Regehr and Alex Tanguay), another is seventh-round pick Radim Vrbata, and then there’s Paul Statsny who just barely qualifies.

Vrbata was an excellent pick, and it’s hard to ignore him on this list, but Ryan O’Reilly is one of the best centers in the NHL, and the Avalanche got him with their second-round pick in 2009. This was the same draft the Avalanche got Matt Duchene, who like O’Reilly they eventually traded away.

O’Reilly is a star for the Blues, and he led that team to the Stanley Cup two seasons ago. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. This past season, he put up 54 points in 56 games. He does this while being one of the better defensive centers in the NHL. He is the type of player that teams should kill to get. Yet, somehow, two teams traded him away.

The Avs obviously would love to claim the draft pick used for Joe Sakic, who they took with the 15th-overall pick in the 1987 draft. Unfortunately, that pick counts for the Nordiques. So, the Avs have to accept taking one of the better two-way centers in the league.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Columbus Blue Jackets, Cam Atkinson 2008

The Columbus Blue Jackets have one player in their draft history that played 1,000 games. That is Rick Nash, who they took with the first-overall pick in the 2002 NHL Draft. We can’t give the Blue Jackets credit for taking someone first overall. So, we had to dig deeper on this pick. Kris Russell is an interesting pick in 2005, but he’s like a decent player at best. David Savard is playing a big role in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, and he was on some of those really good Blue Jackets teams, but his role was always muted.

We’re going with Cam Atkinson, who was taken 157th overall in the 2008 NHL Draft. One person taken after the second round has more than 400 points in their career, and that’s Atkinson. (Adam Henrique is terribly close, but he’s not there yet.) Some of the forwards that went right before Atkinson include Justin Azevedo, Julien Cayer, and Anthony Nigro. None of them played an NHL game.

It helps that Atkinson is still on the Blue Jackets 13 years later, and he is becoming the main cog in this train that’s going to carry them through everything. Teams in a small city like Columbus need someone to be comfortable in their jersey, and Atkinson likely isn’t going anywhere. He’s signed through the 2025 season, and he will likely extend his contract beyond that.

The Blue Jackets might even name Atkinson their next captain after trading Nick Foligno to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s someone who is very important to this franchise on the ice and off the ice.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Dallas Stars, Jarome Iginla 1995

It was really, really hard to leave a fifth-round Jamie Benn off this list, but they came out of the terrible 1995 NHL Draft with Jarome Iginla. Unfortunately, they traded him away eventually, but the draft pick was phenomenal on an island.

The Stars watched as prospects like Bryan Berard, Steve Kelly, Chad Kilger, and Kyle McLaren went in the top 10 of the 1995 draft. That left Iginla available with the 11th-overall pick. Iginla is the only Hall of Famer in this draft, and he’s only one of 10 All Stars. This can’t tell you just how bad this draft was. Berard, Wade Redden, and Aki Berg were the top three picks.

This draft is literally, Jarome Iginla, go down several steps, Shane Doan, fall off a cliff, then players like Redden, Petr Sykora, and Marc Savard. The draft was just so bad, and Iginla is one of the best players of that era. Iginla put up 1,300 points in 20 NHL seasons. 1,095 of those points came with the Calgary Flames, as he was their best player in franchise history.

Iginla, again, was a no-doubt Hall of Famer when his career finally ended. He is 16th all time in points, played the full 82 games in more than half of his seasons, won the Rocket Richard Trophy twice, and he might be the best black player in the history of the NHL. The Stars ended up trading him for Joe Nieuwendyk. Nieuwendyk himself was later a Hall of Famer, but there’s no doubt the Stars wish they had Iginla for his career instead of Nieuwendyk for seven years.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Detroit Red Wings, Nicklas Lidstrom 1989

This is where things get very, very interesting. The Detroit Red Wings took Sergei Federov in the fourth round, Henrik Zetterberg in the seventh round, Pavel Datsyuk in the sixth round, and Adam Graves in the second round. These would all be amazing picks, and they are likely the pick if they are on any other team. However, the Red Wings are not any other team. They took the greatest defenseman of all time in the third round.

Nicklas Lidstrom fell to the 53rd pick in the 1989 NHL Draft. He went behind players like defenseman Veli-Pekka Kautonen or defenseman Bob Kellogg or defenseman Rick Corriveau. Those three defensemen played a total of zero NHL games. Lidstrom played in 1,564. In his 20 NHL seasons, all with the Detroit Red Wings mind you, he won the Norris Trophy seven times.

There are few arguments that come without a defense. There is Wayne versus Mario as the greatest forward ever. Depends on who you ask, Brodeur, Roy, or Hasek is the greatest goalie of all time. There is no argument for defenseman. By every single metric, advanced or otherwise, Lidstrom is the best blueliner in the history of this sport. He could score with the best of them, play a physical shut-down style, and he could use his stick to knock the puck off even the best players’ sticks.

This might be the best draft pick of all time. The Red Wings not only got one of the best to play the game of hockey after first drafting Mike Sillinger and Bob Boughner (who honestly weren’t bad players). The Red Wings built a dynasty with this one pick, and they became a force for two decades because they decided to take Nicklas Lidstrom over a player like Jim Mathieson.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Edmonton Oilers, Mark Messier 1979

For the first time, we go really far back, but it’s for good reason. Before going on, we must remind you that Wayne Gretzky was not drafted in the NHL, so he’s not eligible for this list. Someone who is eligible for this list is 1979 48th-overall pick Mark Messier. Messier was an integral part of those championship Edmonton Oilers teams of the 80s.

He went on to have one of the best careers of the 80s and 90s. Messier immediately made an impact, scoring 66 points in his second season, 88 in his third season, and 106 in his fourth season. He ended his career with 1,887 points, behind only Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr in the history of the league.

Messier has so many iconic moments in his career. He is the owner of six Stanley Cup rings, but none feels as good as the New York Rangers Cup in 1994. Between the Guarantee, the hat trick in Game 6, winning back-to-back Game 7s to win it all, and the celebration that came after, it just felt bigger for Messier than any of those other Oilers championships.

Messier still had a huge impact on the Oilers, obviously. He helped them win all five of their Stanley Cups. He scored over 1,000 points in 12 seasons with the franchise. Getting him when other teams took players like Boris Fistric and Jody Gage with Messier still on the board is a massive steal. This is by far one of the best picks in league history.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Florida Panthers, Aleksander Barkov 2013

Almost always, picking a player in the top five takes that pick out of the running, but to disqualify that would give us options like Radek Dvorak, Jaroslav Spacek, or Mackenzie Weeger as the best draft pick in Florida Panthers history. The Panthers surprised many people in 2013 by taking Barkov second overall, and he has absolutely been the second-best player in the draft.

The Panthers were supposed to select superstar prospect Seth Jones after the Avalanche took Nathan MacKinnon. There were a few mock drafts that looked outside the box and had the Panthers taking Jonathan Drouin. Both would be huge disappointments at this point. Barkov is one of the best two-way players in the game right now, winning the Selke Trophy at the end of the 2021 season.

Barkov is only 25 years old, but he’s regularly scoring more than a point per game. He is pulling this Panthers team out of the doldrums. There was no talk of moving the franchise to Quebec this season because the team was one of the best in the division. Barkov is the reason the Panthers are getting love as a desireable place to play.

A lot has to go right for a player who is this young and picked that high to be the team’s best draft pick of all time, but Barkov is that good. The Panthers took a major risk in 2013 that could have backfired if Seth Jones is a Norris-level defenseman or if Drouin is a league leader in goals. Instead, the Panthers made the best pick they’ve ever made, and they are where they are every year because of it.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Los Angeles Kings, Luc Robitaille 1984

There are a surprising number of players the Los Angeles Kings have drafted that had awesome careers. 15 players drafted by the Kings played more than 1,000 games. Six players have more than 1,200 games played. They’ve also selected four Hall of Famers, and only one of them came in the first round. Rob Blake was taken 70th overall in 1988, Billy Smith was taken 59th in 1970, and then Larry Murphy was taken fourth in 1980. However, by far their best pick ever was taken Luc Robitaille in the ninth round of the 1984 NHL Draft.

Robitaille played 19 seasons in the NHL, and he had three different stints with the LA Kings. He scored 1,391 points over his entire NHL career, which is 22nd all time. That’s not bad for a player that saw 170 players taken before him. It took no time at all to make an impact. During his rookie season, he scored 84 points and won the Calder Trophy. He kept going, scoring 63 goals in his second season and proving he was much better than the scouts gave him credit for.

Only two people had more consecutive 40-goal seasons than Robitaille. He was trying to lift up some bad Kings teams alongside Gretzky. There were just so many other issues that two of the very best players in the league couldn’t overcome. He was eventually traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, then after the lockout-shortened season, he was traded to the Rangers. This is where the injuries started to pile up.

Once he went back to the Kings in 1997, one injury-riddled season turned into a healthier end to his career. He eventually won a Stanley Cup after joining the Detroit Red Wings. He didn’t make a major impact, playing 13 minutes per game that postseason, but his veteran presence gave his teammates something to push for. His career is largely underrated because of the teams he played on, but Robitaille was one of the best of this era.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Minnesota Wild, Kirill Kaprizov 2015

Alright, this one needs some explaining. I understand, so hear me out.

Kirill Kaprizov is quickly becoming one of the most electric players in the NHL. We haven’t seen a rookie season like this since Auston Matthews. Kaprizov looks like he is going to lead this Wild team into the next generation of great teams in the great state of hockey. They got this player with the 135th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. This was one of the best drafts in recent memory, but Kaprizov stands out after Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.

It actually had a lot to do with the Wild’s pretty awful history of drafting. Brett Burns is the other option. He was drafted 20th overall as a right winger, but he ended up becoming a really good defenseman with the San Jose Sharks. Marian Gaborik had a really good career, but the Wild took him third overall in what ended up being a very strange 2000 draft (Justin Williams played the most games of anyone in that draft).

Kaprizov is the future of this franchise, he’s a superstar that is putting butts in the seats, and he was someone the Wild took a chance on since he was staying in Russia to start his career. They took a flier on someone with some question marks, and now he’s the reason why there’s optimism in Minnesota.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Montreal Canadiens, Patrick Roy 1984

When you are the Montreal Canadiens, there are a plethora of great players that have spent time with the franchise. Draft picks are no different. Chris Chelios played 1,600 games after they selected him in the second round of the 1981 NHL Draft. Larry Robinson is on the Cup so many times he lost count, and the Canadiens brought him in the league with the 20th-overall pick. Guy Carbonneau is a Hall of Famer that they picked in the third round. The list can go on and on, but this pick is Patrick Roy. There is no other pick that this could be.

Roy came into the Canadiens with the 51st-overall pick in the 1984 draft. There are four Hall of Famers in this year’s draft. Two already got mentions on this list (Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille) and the other is Mario Lemieux, who was taken first overall. There were a ton of misses in this draft. The Edmonton Oilers could have had Roy, but they took Daryl Reaugh instead. He is a great broadcaster, but he wasn’t a very good NHL goalie.

Roy is one of the best goalies of all time. His numbers are staggering. He was putting up .900 save percentages when nobody else was. No literally, one season he led the league with a .900 save percentage. Roy was facing the greatest era for offensive output, and he was stopping the pucks better than anyone.

The Canadiens were starting Roy in the playoffs in his rookie season. A 51st-overall pick was the main guy on one of the most important franchises in the league at 20 years old. Then he won the Stanley Cup! It was one of four Stanley Cups that he won with the Canadiens and the Avalanche. Roy’s heroics are unmistakable, and getting him after 50 players were already picked is astounding.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Nashville Predators, Pekka Rinne 2004

There are two very distinct picks to choose from when it comes to the Nashville Predators. It’s Shea Weber in 2003 or Pekka Rinne in 2004. This just comes down to value. The Predators got a superstar goalie in the eighth round who spent his entire career (thus far) in Nashville. Weber was once the best defenseman in the league, or at least in the conversation for it, and he’s still leading teams to the Stanley Cup Final.

This ESPN article details how the Preds found this obscure goalie playing for Karpat as a backup to Nicklas Backstrom. If regional European scout Janne Kekalainen didn’t bang the desk to take Rinne, he might have never come to the NHL. He was already an overager in the 2004 draft. This might have been his last chance to catch the eye of NHL scouts before settling in for a career on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Rinne came to North America in 2005 and spent three seasons in the AHL. He finally got a chance in the NHL back in 2008 when he was already 26 years old. The Preds had their goalie of the future, and he was going to prove it.

Rinne had a .917 save percentage in 51 games in 2008-09. Over the next 13 seasons, Rinne won a Vezina Trophy and was a top-three finalist two other times. He was really good for a long time, and he was one of the major reasons for the hey day for the Predators in the early part of the last decade. Despite falling off a bit the last two seasons, he still owns a career .917 save percentage in 683 games played.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: New York Islanders, Bryan Trottier 1974

In the 1974 NHL Draft, the New York Islanders were looking at players who could help a new franchise flourish. They took future Hall of Famer Clarke Gilles in the first round, and in the second round, they would hit the nail on the head even harder. Bryan Trottier was one of the main cogs in the Islanders dynasty. Honestly, the drafting of this superstar squad is honestly insane. The Islanders got to draft Denis Potvin and Mike Bossy on top of Gilles and Trottier. They were all Hall of Famers. They also built around those players with one of the best lineups from top to bottom because of the insane drafting this franchise did in the 70s.

But let’s focus on Trottier. This kid from Val Marie, Saskatchewan grew up practicing to join the rodeo and picked up hockey when he was 10 years old. He had to leave his family’s country-western band in order to join the NHL.

Trottier ended up winning just about every trophy there was to win in the NHL. He won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the Art Ross, King Clancy, a plethora of All-Stars, and he was even the first-ever NHL Bud Man of the Year. This man’s trophy room looks like an entire college’s trophy case.

Trottier went on to play more than 1,200 games and scored 1,425 points. He was one of the better players of that era, and he played all but three seasons on Long Island. He ended up riding the coattails of that great Pittsburgh Penguins team that won back-to-back Stanley Cups to bring his total to six. His career is beyond impressive, and the value in the draft is second to none.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: New York Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist 2000

What a strange history of drafting the New York Rangers have. Alexei Kovalev has played the most games of any New York Rangers draftee. There are players like Sergei Zubov, Tony Amonte, and Doug Weight who built careers with other franchises. Other players like Andre Veilleux, Robert Graham, and Pavel Brendl came in with high hopes but turned into nothing. Fun fact, the Rangers had five top-six picks in the 1960s that played a combined zero NHL games. That’s right, they went 0-for when it comes to top-six picks as they were trying to build from one of the worst eras in hockey.

Fast forward to the year 2000. The Rangers are trying to use money to become contenders. It’s only been six years since they won the Cup, so the pressure isn’t necessarily on like it has been in years past. They hit the 2000 NHL Draft, and they don’t have a first-round pick. They have to do the best with the rest of their draft, and boy do they hit something huge in the seventh round.

Only three players from the Rangers 2000 draft class played in the NHL, and Filip Novak only played 17 games. Still, Henrik Lundqvist makes this a massive win for the Rangers. He was the franchise goalie for 15 years. He took them to the Stanley Cup Final, we won the President’s Trophy, he was one of the best, if not the best goalie of this era.

Lundqvist was a superstar for a long time. He was one of the most well-liked athletes in the history of New York sports. He won a gold medal with Sweden, and he brought the Rangers as far as he could. He would carry the team on his back at times, and he lost two playoffs in a devastating fashion. Lundqvist is likely going to the Hall of Fame when he decides to end his career, and someone that teams once thought was the 204th best player in the draft is now in a league of his own.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Ottawa Senators, Daniel Alfredsson 1994

There are not a lot of absolutes in life, but Daniel Alfredsson getting the nothing of the best draft pick in Ottawa Senators history is one of the few. The Senators have some great draft picks like Jason Spezza, Marian Hossa, and Erik Karlsson, but they were all first-round picks who came in with high expectations no matter which team took them. Daniel Alfredsson came with the 133rd-overall pick in the 1994 NHL Draft.

Alfredsson became a staple of the Senators franchise from then on out. Ignoring that one year in Detroit, Alfredsson spent 17 seasons in Canada’s capital city. He was a driver of the team on the ice and off of it. We’re obviously looking at the draft pick’s impact on the on-ice product, but it is impossible to not at least mention how great Alfredsson was with the community.

As far as players are concerned, Alfredsson was up there with anyone. He really hit his stride during the peak of those mid-2000s Senators teams. He scored a career-high 103 points in the 2005-06 season. The next season, Alfredsson put up one of the best playoff performances in a losing effort of this century. He scored 14 goals in 20 games, and he scored four goals in the final three games of the 2007 Stanley Cup Final against the Anaheim Ducks. He did everything in his power to get the Senators the first Cup in franchise history, but it did not work out.

Still, Alfredsson was a great player who could play up and down any lineup in the league. He chose to stay loyal to Ottawa and the Senators. It all started in 1994 when the team took him as a 21 year old in a draft full of teenagers. He was a late bloomer who ended up being the captain and the leader of a franchise that never saw anything like it since.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Philadelphia Flyers, Bobby Clarke 1969

There are a lot of fun choices when it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers’ draft picks. Peter Forsberg ended up being one of the greats, but he went to the Nordiques in the trade that brought Eric Lindros to the City of Brotherly Love. Claude Giroux was one of the best picks in the 2006 draft by any team, coming to the Flyers at 22nd overall. Rick Tocchet is an underrated player the Flyers got 121st overall. However, how can you say it’s anyone besides Bobby Clarke?

The Flyers took Clarke with the 17th-overall pick in the 1969 NHL Draft. A diabetes diagnosis scared some teams off, so the Flyers got to take him in the second round. He became one of the most exciting players of that era, and he spent his entire career in Philadelphia. He helped them win their only two Stanley Cups, and the team hasn’t seen an era as great as Clarke’s ever since.

Clarke scored 1,200 points in his career, won the MVP two times, and was a star on another level in the 70s. He had a flair to his game that nobody else had. Diabetes or not, the Flyers got one of the best players in the era when just about every other team in the league had a chance to take him.

Clarke is one of the easiest Hall of Fame picks ever. He brought toughness to the game while also being a scoring machine. The Flyers were driven by him, and they won the championship in his best seasons. He embraced the city of Philadelphia, and he continues to come back as a hero. Drafting Clarke is an all-time moment for the city, right behind some of the American Revolution stuff I suppose.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Pittsburgh Penguins, Mark Recchi 1988

The Pittsburgh Penguins drafted the greatest player ever drafted. Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky are widely considered the two best players in the history of the NHL. Wayne Gretzky was never drafted in the NHL, and Mario Lemieux was. So, it should be Mario Lemieux here, right? Well, Lemieux was selected first overall and there was no doubt he was a special player. It is not that impressive that the Penguins drafted him. Mark Recchi, on the other hand, was taken in the fourth round and put together a Hall of Fame career.

Jaromir Jagr was a consideration with this pick, but comparing the fifth-overall pick to the 67th-overall pick when they are both Hall of Famers gives the edge to Recchi.

Recchi didn’t spend a ton of time in Pittsburgh. He did win a Stanley Cup with them but was traded in the middle of their back-to-back run. He ended up playing 22 seasons and 1,600 games. He played for seven different franchises, and he won three Stanley Cup Championships with three franchises at three very different points in his career. He won his first Cup at 22 years old, his second Cup at 37 years old then his final Cup at 42 years old.

Recchi was one of the most consistent contributors in history. When he was 42, he scored 14 points in 25 playoff games. Sure, it’s not the ridiculous 34 points he had in the 1991 playoffs, but it’s more than all but five of the Tampa Bay Lightning players had this past postseason. Recchi was one of the greats, and he was a fabulous pick in the fourth round of the 1988 draft.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: San Jose Sharks, Ray Whitney 1991

This pick is worth it for the goal on May 19, 1995, alone. The San Jose Sharks are in double overtime against the Calgary Flames in their second postseason ever. It’s Game 7, and the Sharks are looking to go to the second round. This was one of the most intense Game 7s in the first round in history, and it was ended by the 23rd-overall pick in the 1991 NHL Draft.

The Sharks desperately needed a win in this draft. They took Pat Falloon with the second-overall pick over Hall of Famers Scott Niedermayer and Peter Forsberg. So coming back and getting Whitney in the second round was a huge win. Whitney is another player who just played forever in the league. He had a total of 22 seasons and played for eight different franchises.

He wasn’t ever great for the Sharks, and after only playing 12 games in his sixth season with the Sharks, he left. He started to hit his stride after he was traded to the Florida Panthers, then his legend was built with the Carolina Hurricanes. He ended up winning his Stanley Cup with the Canes, scoring 15 points in 24 playoff games back in 2006.

Whitney wasn’t a Hall of Famer, but he was a really good player that teams wanted to have in their locker room. He got to play until he was 41 years old and the wheels came off. The 20 or so seasons before that, he was a fan favorite and one of the most fun players to root for in the league.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: St Louis Blues, Doug Gilmour 1982

This one was hard. The St. Louis Blues have two amazing draft picks. They took Bernie Federko with the seventh-overall pick in the 1976 NHL Draft. He went on to dominate the record book. He leads the team in points, assists, games played, and other records, although Brett Hull came in and beat him in a lot of the 11 records he held when he retired. Then, there’s Doug Gilmore.

Gilmour is a Hockey Hall of Famer who spent time with multiple franchises. He started his career very impressively with the Blues. He had a 105 point season in 1986-87, but after falling back in the 80s in terms of points, Gilmour was traded in a massive package to the Calgary Flames right before the start of the 1988-89 season. He was then part of another massive trade that sent him to Toronto, and he became a beloved player in the biggest hockey city in the world.

He ended up becoming a point-per-game player with Toronto, and he even won the Selke Trophy in 1993. He bounced around after his trade from the Devils did not work out, but he built such a great reputation early in his career, he could afford to jump from team to team and still be a Hall of Famer.

Gilmour ended his career with 1,414 points in 1,474 games. He’s in the top 20 of all time in points. He is someone who is largely underrated outside of Toronto for the career he had.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Tampa Bay Lightning, Nikita Kucherov 2011

There are a lot of fun picks for the Tampa Bay Lightning that could work here. Brad Richards was taken in the third round of the 1998 NHL Draft. Pavel Kubina was taken in the seventh round of the 1997 NHL Draft. On the current roster, Brayden Point came with a third round pick, and Andrei Vasilevskiy might be a first-round pick, but he’s the best goalie in the league and now a two-time Stanley Cup winner. Any of them would be great picks. None of them are close to the pick that is Nikita Kucherov.

Kuch is pretty famous right now for his antics after winning his second Stanley Cup. Obviously, he missed the entire 2021 season, but he was still able to go on one of the most insane runs scoring 32 points this postseason. That would be a 114 point pace without the luxury of playing teams like Ottawa or Detroit. He was even better last year in the bubble scoring 34 points in the Lightning’s first Cup run with this team.

He’s been doing this a long time. He already has a Hart Trophy, two Cups, he regularly gets Selke votes, and he even gets votes for the Lady Bing (although he probably doesn’t deserve those). He’s still one of the best players in the league, and barring injury, he should be up there for the next five years.

The Lightning got this lights-out player with the 58th-overall pick in the 2011 draft. Kucherov wasn’t the only steal in the second round of that draft. The Chicago Blackhawks took Brandon Saad and the Anaheim Ducks took William Karlsson. The Lightning wouldn’t trade both those players for Kucherov. They wouldn’t trade for every single player taken in the second round for Kucherov. If there’s a re-draft of the 2011 draft, Kucherov goes first by a mile. That shows how good the Lightning did here.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Toronto Maple Leafs, Tie Domi 1988

The Toronto Maple Leafs do not have a very good draft record. They have some great top picks, but that’s not impressive, as we said before. They have Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander, who are all great, but they are very young and were all taken in the top ten (Matthews and Marner in the top three). Meanwhile, Tie Domi played an important role for his era and was the star of the Maple Leafs in a way for those late 90s and early 2000s teams.

Domi was a bruiser, and his numbers don’t look that impressive in today’s NHL, but at the time he was someone who drove the other team to make mistakes, and the more skilled players on Toronto could take advantage. There was a clear role for goons in the late 90s, and there was no better goon than Tie Domi. Sure, sometimes he took it too far, but for the most part he played a clear role on a team that was hoping to take the next step towards contention.

Domi was taken in the second round of the 1988 NHL Draft. He was selected in a round where there were no career All Stars. The Leafs had slim pickens unless they wanted to overdraft someone like Alexander Mogilny or Rob Blake.

Domi fiinshed his 16th season in the NHL before retiring. He did have a weird career, leaving the Maple Leafs at 20 years old before returning just five years later. It seemed like he was destined to spend his time in the spotlight of Toronto. The match made sense at the time, and his lack of points didn’t matter as much as his impact on the ice.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Vancouver Canucks, Pavel Bure 1989

This was such a fun pick, and it really push the Vancouver Canucks forward when they were trying to gain a footing in Western Canada. Pavel Bure was a force. That’s really the best way to describe him. He came out of nowhere, and his impact was felt far and wide. Bure is one of the forgotten stars of the 1990s.

Bure slipped to the sixth round in the 1989 draft. Nobody was denying his skill at the time, but many didn’t know if he was going to be able to play in the NHL since he was currently playing in Russia. Bure won the Calder Trophy in his first season in the NHL, then he followed it up with 60 goals in his sophomore season. Then, he scored 60 goals again the next season. Bure was one of a kind when it came to his pure ability to score the puck. During his peak, there was noone in the world who could score like Pavel Bure.

He even put the team on his back for the 1994 playoff run, getting the Canucks to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Cinderella New York Rangers. Only Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky scored more goals in their first three seasons. Bure, again, was a force.

Bure might have been one of the best scorers of all time, but chronic knee injuries ended up derailing an amazing career. He was going to be something special, and honestly he probably still deserves some kind of consideration for one of the best of this era for just how good he was. Was there anyone better than Bure from 1991 to 1995? Playing for the Canucks did not help his future considerations, but getting Bure in the sixth round was nothing short of impressive. He was one of the great draft picks, and if he didn’t get hurt he might be the greatest draft pick of all time.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Vegas Golden Knights, Nick Suzuki 2017

The Vegas Golden Knights made 12 picks in their first year in existence. They did a masterful job turning the stranglehold they had on teams during the expansion draft into entry draft capital. Not many of those players turned into a ton of firepower on the ice, but one player stands out above the rest. Nick Suzuki looks like a really, really good player. Unfortunately, he’s no longer playing for the Golden Knights.

Suzuki played an incredible role for the Montreal Canadiens in their most recent playoff run. He did score 41 points in 56 games this past season, and at 21 years old, he has a very impressive resumé already. His 16 points in the Canadiens’ run to the Stanley Cup Final was incredibly necessary. He scored the game-winning goal in Game 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs which jumpstarted this run.

Suzuki ended up leading the Canadiens in scoring this postseason. While the Canadiens were focused on keeping other teams off the board with Carey Price and Shea Weber, Suzuki was looking to add the necessary offense to keep them winning games.

There’s not a ton to go off of here. Only five Golden Knights’ draft picks have even played NHL games. It’s too early to judge any of these guys, but Nick Suzuki deserves some praise here. The Golden Knights took him, and he’s almost certainly one of the five best players in what’s quickly becoming a really good draft.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Washington Capitals, Peter Bondra 1990

Obviously, Alex Ovechkin is the best thing to happen to the Washington Capitals, but a first-overall pick will never get credit on this list. However, taking Peter Bondra in the eighth round and seeing him make the NHL that season definitely deserves a spot. Bondra made the NHL in his very first season after he was drafted. Every team passed on Bondra at least six times, and he was in the NHL just a few months later. Bondra finished his career as the franchise leader in goals and points (which has obviously been surpassed at this point).

Bondra played 14 seasons with the Capitals, and he quickly became a household name. He had 56 points in his second season, and then he jumped to 85 points in his third season. He led the NHL in goals twice, including a ridiculous 34 goals in the 47-game shortened season in 1995. He’s the rare offensive threat that always had more goals than assists.

Only one right winger scored more goals than Bondra in his career. That was Jaromir Jagr, who was taken fifth overall. The Capitals weren’t know for making great decisions, but taking Peter Bondra in the eighth round might be one of the best decisions this franchise has ever made. This team desperately needed a star in the 90s, and they expected ninth-overall pick John Slaney to take the road, but it was the guy they took 147 picks later that ended up making this franchise something to watch.

Bondra is now among those players that’s discussed as one of the best to never make the Hall of Fame. His peak was great, but his career didn’t last long. He played just over 1,000 games. There was some fall off along the way, but for most of his Capitals career he was the star of the show.

NHL Draft: Best draft pick of all time: Winnipeg Jets, Connor Hellebuyck 2012

The Winnipeg Jets have one of the best goalies in the league who is carrying them to the playoffs every year, and they got that workload in the fifth round of the NHL Draft. Connor Hellebuyck came to the Jets with the 130th overall pick. He’s still so early in his career, but Hellebuyck is the very easy pick when looking at the new iteration of the Jets.

It gets complicated if we add in the original iteration of the Jets or the old Atlanta Thrashers, but the pick would still be Hellebuyck so it’s a moot point. In his six years in the league, Hellebuyck has a Vezina Trophy, a second place finish, he led the league in saves three times, he led the league in wins once, he led the league in shutouts once, and he holds a career .917 save percentage despite the Jets getting a rapidly declining defense for the past few seasons.

Hellebuyck is still just 28 years old and he has a lot of time to be at the top of his game. The hope is the Jets finally build around him again after destroying those really good Jets teams of two and three years ago. He deserves as much recognition as Carey Price and Andrei Vasilevskiy, but he needs to win in the playoffs to do that.

It’s not like he’s been bad in the playoffs. He holds a career .921 save percentage in the postseason. The Jets need to build better, but that’s for another time. Celebrate how great Hellebuyck has been, but thinking about how he was taken in between Brendan Woods  and Seth Griffith, and he’s appreciated even more.