I'm bored at work. It's super slow, the office shouldn't even be open, and I need to entertain myself somehow. And since I can't reasonably just spend the next 6 hours in the bathroom, let's rewind tghe calendar and re-do the top ten (or so) pick from an old NHL draft.
Today we are going back to Los Angeles in June 2010. These guys are all now firmly beyond their rookie deals, and there are quite a few impact players. As you might imagine, not all of them were selected in the early first round.
So, here we go. Let's re-order them.
1. Edmonton Oilers
This was such an Oilers pick. It will become more and more apparent as we re-draft everyone that they REALLY fucked this pick up. Again. Just like always. That's going to be the common theme of these re-drafts from the last decade or so. The Oilers just suck.
The Pick: Tyler Seguin. You could make an argument that one other person should go first overall, but you would be wrong.
2. Boston Bruins
The Bruins, of course, turned this pick into Loui Eriksson and some scrubs when they traded Seguin to Dallas. I hope that somebody eventually makes a really good documentary about that whole situation, because Boston could reasonably have a forward core of Seguin-Bergeron-Krejci-Marchand-Lucic-Rinaldo.
The Pick: Vladimir Tarasenko. Christ, that'd be terrifying.
3. Florida Panthers
I'm not going to call Erik Gudbranson a bust because he's still in the league, but there are at least a dozen players (probably more like two or three dozen) that should probably have gone before him. Luckily for both Panthers fans in the world, they made up for it four years later by drafting Aaron Ekblad, who immediately became their best defenseman.
The Pick: Justin Faulk. There are some forwards that might be arguable here, but the Panthers wanted a defenseman and they picked the wrong one. It wasn't just Florida that fucked up, though - Faulk made it all the way to #37, behind D-men like Dylan McIlrath, Derek Forbort, and Alex Petrovic (no joke, the Panthers had 5 picks where they could have taken Faulk, and they used 2 of them on defensemen). Could you imagine if they were icing a top pair of Ekblad and Faulk? Maybe we would even take them seriously. Be better, Florida.
4. Columbus Blue Jackets
I think I'm going to be an asshole here.
The Pick: Ryan Johansen. I don't think he's the problem, and I think they're going to regret trading him as much as Boston regrets trading Seguin.
5. New York Islanders
Nino Niederreiter wasn't necessarily a bad pick because he contributes today, but let's pick knits.
The Pick: Jeff Skinner. The Youngest All-Star Ever (remember to vote for Shayne or Claude here). The thought of him on this year's team (and the core that's going to be there for the next 3-5 years) legitimately has me shaking in my boots.
6. Tampa Bay Lightning
Brett Connolly was eventually traded for a pair of 2nd Round Picks. You'd like to see a team do better than that with the sixth overall pick. Florida, again showing that they have no business being involved with hockey.
The Pick: Cam Fowler. How about a top-pairing (or at the very least top-four) defenseman?
7. Carolina Hurricanes
Hey guys, sorry we took away your stud rookie and the potential future of your franchise. How can we make it up to you?
The Pick: Nick Bjugstad? Emersen Etem? Brock Nelson? Tyler Toffoli? Christ, that's a pretty significant dropoff.
8. Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets
There were three Russians taken in the first round. Tarasenko should have been the first, and he was not. Evgeny Kuznetsov (great read here) should have been the second, and he also was not. The guy that bumped them down was Alexander Burmistrov, who spent some time in the AHL, some time in the KHL, and now finally plays for the team that (kind of) drafted him.
The Pick: Kuznetsov. Be better, teams from the Southeast United States.
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