The 2024 NHL Draft is just around the corner, and while a lot of the build-up to the event is looking toward the future and imagining the careers to come from the players selected, I thought it’d also be fun to take a look back at the best players to come out of the draft – or better yet, the best player taken with each selection.
Thanks to Hockey DB, we have the ability to look at all the players selected at each draft slot, so figured I’d try and identify the best player taken with each pick. Over the next seven days, we’re going to cover Rounds 1-7 and picks 1 all the way to 224. That means we’re following the current format; the Draft used to be longer, with as many as 293 players picked across nine rounds as recently as 2000.
Today, it’s Round 7, where we really start to look at players just for making lengthy careers in the NHL.
As a disclaimer: “Round 7” means picks 161-192. So you’ll find some “seventh-rounders” here who were eighth or ninth-rounders in their actual draft years.
193. Brooks Laich
Also Considered: Eric Boguniecki
Laich managed to put together a lengthy career in the NHL, mostly with the Capitals, playing 776 games and twice surpassing the 50-point mark. While he did miss out on the Caps winning their first Stanley Cup by two years, he did get some Selke Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy votes over the years.
194. Carl Gunnarsson
Also Considered: Deryk Engelland, Matt Roy
Both Gunnarsson and Engelland managed to play 600+ games in the NHL, and while Engelland is the only one with an individual award, it’s more of a recognition for his off-ice role than his on-ice one with the Mark Messier Leadership Award. Instead, I’ll go with Gunnarsson, who outscored Engelland, had votes for the Lady Byng and won a Cup with the Blues in 2019.
195. Fernando Pisani
Also Considered: Joe Vitale
Neither Pisani nor Vitale saw massive success at the NHL level, with no Cups or even votes on any awards. So, I opted to go with Pisani with this one, as he had more longevity in the league and was more productive than Vitale at his peak and over the course of his career. Also, he will forever live on in immortality for his miraculous 2006 playoff run in which he buried 14 goals in 24 games for the Edmonton Oilers.
196. Arturs Irbe
Also Considered: Dave Hannan
Both players managed to have lengthy stays in the NHL, and while Hannan had two Cups with the Oilers and Avalanche, Irbe had a bit more individual success, finding his name on the ballot for the Vezina Trophy on four occasions, and for the Hart Trophy on two occasions.
197. Gord Sherven
Also Considered: Andrew Gordon, John Blue
“Considered” is carrying a lot of weight here, as all three players were the only players to consider. That’s right, pick #197 has had just three players play NHL games, and none of them even hit 100 games. Sherven at least had 97 games, with 35 points to go along with it.
198. Bret Hedican
Also Considered: Anton Stastny, Nic Dowd
Anton Stastny was technically an option as he was drafted twice in his career, but the Flyers never signed him after drafting him here, and he already was a pick in this series. Instead, I went with Hedican, who was never the best at his position, but managed to play 1,039 games in his career. However, Dowd could certainly usurp him in future editions, especially after getting Selke votes this past season.
199. Dominik Hasek
Also Considered: Willie Mitchell
This was by far the easiest choice up to this point in this list. Hasek is arguably the greatest goaltender of all-time, as shown by his trophy case. In 735 games, he had six Vezinas (which is tied for the second-most all-time), two Harts (which is the most by a goaltender), two Lester B. Pearson Awards (which is now known as the Ted Lindsay Award), and two Cups to wrap up a Hall-of-Fame career.
200. Sergei Kostitsyn
Also Considered: Corey Schwab, Kari Takko
Technically Schwab is the only player of this bunch to have any type of success, but that was by winning a Cup with the Devils in 2003 as the backup. Instead, I went with Kostitsyn, who had a decently productive career in his brief time in the NHL before he decided to spend the rest of his career in the KHL.
201. Justin Braun
Also Considered: Viacheslav Fetisov
Much like Stastny, Fetisov has already made an appearance on our list since he wasn’t signed by the Canadiens when he was drafted at pick #201 and was redrafted. So while he would be the pick, I decided to go with Braun, who played 842 games in the NHL as an excellent shutdown defenseman.
202. Greg Hawgood
Also Considered: Kevin Miller, Andreas Johnsson
Miller had the longer career at pick #202, but Hawgood put up somewhat similar production as a blueliner, and also got some recognition by voters during his rookie season that saw him put up 40 points in 56 games in 1988-89, eventually finishing 7th in Calder Trophy voting that year.
203. Igor Ulanov
Also Considered: Mika Alatalo, Frazer McLaren
Everyone at pick #203 that cracked had the NHL had relatively pedestrian careers, so Ulanov is the obvious pick for his longevity. He’s the only player to play more than 200 games played, and he got into 739, so he’s far and away the most successful pick here.
204. Nikolai Khabibulin
Also Considered: Tomas Kaberle
Khabibulin and Kaberle won a Cup in their careers, and while that evens them up in terms of the awards they won over their career, Khabibulin had a much bigger impact on his Cup win. Kaberle had Norris votes over the years, but Khabibulin had back-to-back seasons with Vezina and Hart votes, solidifying his case at this pick.
205. Henrik Lundqvist
Also Considered: Joe Pavelski
Why must the elite talents always be at the same picks! It’s quite unfair for a player that’s had Pavelski’s career to not get picked when he was drafted this late, but Lundqvist is called the King for a reason. He’s one of the most consistent goalies to ever play the game, capturing a Vezina in 2012, finishing as a finalist for it four more times, and he was even a Hart finalist once, resulting in him being a first-ballot Hall of Famer last year.
206. MacKenzie Weegar
Also Considered: Anton Khudobin
Khudobin had some nice peaks in his career that earned him some consideration, but considering that MacKenzie Weegar has almost doubled Khudobin’s games played at only 30, and earned some Norris votes in 2021 and 2022, he gets the spot here.
207. Hal Gill
Also Considered: Alexander Semak
Semak certainly had the better production and peak seasons, but with only 289 games played and no accolades to go off of, I decided to go with Gill. He finished his career with 1,108 games played, so he had a lot more longevity, and he retired with at least one accomplishment – a Cup win with the Penguins in 2009.
208. Ondrej Palat
Also Considered: Andrew Ference
Ference has more games played at this point in time, but Ondrej Palat only needs a couple more healthy seasons to surpass him there, and then it’s all in favour of Palat. He was certainly the more productive player, he got some Selke votes over the years, and he won two Cups with the Lightning, playing a strong secondary role in those wins.
209. Scott Wilson
Also Considered: Richard Zemlak
Once again, we find ourselves with limited options that don’t have a lot of experience or production, so we go with the easy pick of the player with the most games and points in Scott Wilson. It also just so happens that Wilson has a Cup from 2017, and he played a good chunk of that season too.
210. Henrik Zetterberg
Also Considered: Dave Taylor
EVERY TIME! Taylor had a productive career over 1,111 games with the Kings, amassing 1,069 points in that span, and he would probably get the pick in most other slots in this round. But, Zetterberg had a more successful career with a Cup win and a Conn Smythe, produced a bit less than Taylor but in a tougher era to score in, and also had plenty of Hart and Selke votes over the years.
211. Erik Condra
Also Considered: No one
This isn’t even close because there isn’t even another option to consider. Condra is the only one to play even a shortened season’s worth of games, and his career was spread across eight seasons in the NHL, and he brought a solid defensive game to the table.
212. Radim Vrbata
Also Considered: No one
When you’re the only player to get to 1,000 games in your career, and not a single other person hits 100, there’s no one else that needs consideration. He had a couple of really good seasons, hitting the 60-point plateau twice, with one of them earning him a fourth-place Hart vote in 2012.
213. Alexei Gusarov
Also Considered: Wes Jarvis
While Gusarov didn’t ever get any consideration for any awards, he did finish his career with the most games played and points among the #213 picks, and also won a Cup with the Avs in 1996.
214. Igor Larionov
Also Considered: No one
While pick #214 had its fair share of bottom six/bottom pair players that stuck it out in the NHL for a long time, Larionov is the easy choice here. Over the course of 921 games, he earned himself the nickname of “The Professor” for his two-way play that earned him Selke votes on five occasions, and Hart votes in 1994, playing a big role in the Red Wings three Cups in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s and earning him a spot in the Hall of Fame.
215. Matthew Lombardi
Also Considered: Scott Clemmensen
Lombardi certainly had the longest career out of anyone at pick #215, playing 536 games and actually producing at a solid rate before a concussion in 2011 basically ended that. Still, with Calder and Selke votes early in his career, he’s an easy choice here.
216. Anton Stralman
Also Considered: Michael Ryder
This was a close contest, especially with a Cup win in 2011 almost leaning this pick in Ryder’s favour. But Stralman also had an excellent career as an underrated defensive defenseman, and finally got some recognition for it with Norris votes when he joined the Lightning in 2014.
217. Tim Thomas
Also Considered: Garnet Exelby
Thomas had one of the weirdest development paths in NHL history. He didn’t land a consistent gig in the NHL until he was 31, and then he turned into one of the best goalies in the league shortly after, winning two Vezinas, Hart votes in both of those seasons, and capturing the Conn Smythe during the Bruins 2011 Cup win. He even had a .938 save percentage in one of those seasons.
218. Johan Hedberg
Also Considered: No one
Hedberg was never really the best at his position at any point in his career, but considering that he was one of three players at pick #218 to play in the NHL, and the next closest only had 31 games played, it’s an easy pick.
219. Evgeni Nabokov
Also Considered: Mike Grier
Grier is the last player on this list to play 1,000 games, but Nabokov had an excellent career in the crease for the Sharks and Islanders (we’ll ignore his brief stint as a Bolt). He won a Calder in his rookie season, and then went on to be a Vezina finalist once, get votes in five other seasons, and also get Hart votes in six separate seasons.
220. Anson Carter
Also Considered: Paul Gaustad
Gaustad gets a shoutout for having the longest careers out of the #220 picks (and also being one of the most surprising players to get dealt for a first-round pick), but Carter was much more productive, including multiple 60-point seasons, while playing in 50 less games.
221. Vladimir Konstantinov
Also Considered: Johnny Oduya, Valeri Zelepukin
Oduya and Zelepukin had longer careers, but it’s actually the shorter career that makes me lean Konstantinov here, especially with the “what if” factor when his career ended abruptly after a limousine accident resulted in paralysis. In his 446 games, he won a Cup on the ice in 1997 (and was given special permission to have his name engraved on the Cup in 1998 after his injury), and finished four and second in Norris votes in 1996 and 1997, getting Hart votes in the former season.
222. Jonas Hoglund
Also Considered: George Parros, Kyle Cumiskey
Parros and Cumiskey have Cup wins, but that came largely in depth roles. Hoglund managed to have the longest career of the bunch, was by far the most productive player of the three, and is the only one to get any consideration for an individual award with Calder votes in 1997.
223. Craig Adams
Also Considered: Danil Markov
It’s slim pickings here, but Adams managed to give himself the longer career between himself and Markov, did get a bit of individual recognition with a Selke vote in 2011, and got his name on the Cup twice with the Canes and Penguins.
224. Antti Miettinen
Also Considered: Matt Hunwick
And with the final pick in the All-Time NHL Draft, Miettinen takes the spot. He and Hunwick had somewhat lengthy careers at 500+ games played largely in depth roles, but Miettinen got some Selke recognition in 2009, including a first-place vote, to earn him the honor of being the final pick in this series.
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More entries in the Best Player by Draft Pick series
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