Free washer | Draft three times in the first round? No guarantee…

The idea of ​​accumulating first-round picks to relaunch his organization still remains attractive.

Mathias Brunet
The Press

A majority of Canadiens fans are hoping to see Kent Hughes test the waters with Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, Tyler Toffoli, Artturi Lehkonen or even Brendan Gallagher as bait to pile up the picks.

Storing draft picks when you want to rebuild or reset is always a good idea. You still have to fish well.

Since 2007, twelve times have we seen an organization hold three first-round picks. For the purposes of our analysis, we will exclude the three most recent, in 2020 and 2021, by Columbus, New Jersey and Ottawa, whose follow-up seems promising regarding these choices.

But in the majority of other cases, the bet did not work. Of 27 of those first-round picks, only four went on to become top players, only two of them with their respective teams…

Part of the problem is that buying teams often offer late first-round picks since they’re at the top of the standings.

We also tend to give up first-round picks when we announce weaker vintages. There was less depth in 2007 and 2013, where each time two teams benefited from three first-round picks.

Let’s go into the analysis. In anticipation of the 2007 draft, the Edmonton Oilers liquidated captain Ryan Smyth and defenseman Chris Pronger. They therefore had two additional first-round picks in addition to their own sixth-round pick. Chosen sixth, Sam Gagner gave several good seasons to the Oilers, without being dominant. Alex Plant (15^and) never pierced and Riley Nash (21^and) became a support player elsewhere after being traded a few years later for a second-round pick.

The Blues did better that same year. Among other things, they drafted Lars Eller (13^and), which eventually allowed them to acquire Jaroslav Halak, and David Perron (26^and). Ian Cole (18^and) flourished elsewhere. The Blues got those extra picks by trading veterans Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk.

The 2007 vintage was weak, however. Just 17 of the first-round picks have played 500 NHL games, 11 of them in top roles.

The Canadiens did well that year, in the last of their major drafts, with the sadly stupidly traded Ryan McDonagh, Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban.

Now deposed Panthers GM Dale Tallon attempted a similar move in 2010. Shortly after taking over, he traded Nathan Horton, still in his prime, and defenseman Keith Ballard for first choice.

With his own pick, the Panthers went for third-row Erik Gudbranson, a tough and durable but very limited defender. Despite a long career, Nick Bjugstad (19^and) never became the hoped center. He has never reached the 50-point mark in a season. Quinton Howden (25)^and) never broke through.

The 2011 vintage did not yield anything for the Senators either, apart from their sixth overall pick, their own, Mika Zibanejad, unfortunately traded before he exploded in New York. Stefan Noesen and Matt Puempel were never able to establish themselves in the National League. They recovered in the fifth round with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and in the seventh round with Ryan Dzingel. That is to say…

The Calgary Flames looked bad in 2013. They sold captain Jarome Iginla and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, but drafted two players with those picks who totaled two…nine games in the National League.

To add insult to injury, the Penguins, who thus no longer had a first-round pick, but who largely benefited from the services of Iginla in the playoffs, nevertheless managed to draft them potential impact players in later rounds, goaltender Tristan Jarry and forward Jake Guentzel.

The Columbus Blue Jackets also drew a blank in 2013, with Alex Wennberg (14^and), Kirby Rychel (19^and) and Marko Dano (27^and). The 19^and and 27^and choices had been obtained for Jeff Carter and Rick Nash. Wennberg had a few good seasons early in his career, but he soon faded.

The 2015 draft by the Boston Bruins has often been mentioned in these pages. The idea of ​​selling Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton, although still young, was not bad, but we hit the butter royally with Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn, although DeBrusk claims at least one or two good seasons. Boston would be nearly invincible if then-scouting director Keith Gretzky picked three of those still-available players from Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson-Ek, Brock Boeser, Travis Konecny ​​or Sebastian Aho.

In 2017, the Golden Knights drafted three times in the first round. They traded these three young players. Nick Suzuki and Erik Brannstrom allowed them to acquire two first-line players, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty. Cody Glass reported Nolan Patrick. Vegas still managed to maximize the situation for shorter-term success.

2007 Edmonton

• 6- Sam Win
• 15- Alex Plante
• 21-Riley Nash

2007 St. Louis

• 13-Lars Eller
• 18-Ian Cole
• 26-David Perron

2010 Florida

• 3- Erik Gudbranson
• 19-Nick Bjugstad
• 25-Quinton Howden

2011 Ottawa

• 6-Mika Zibanejad
• 21-Stefan Noesen
• 24-Matt Puempel

2013 Calgary

• 6- Sean Monahan
• 22- Emile Poirier
• 28-Morgan Klimchuk

2013 Columbus

• 14- Alex Wennberg
• 19-Kirby Rychel
• 27-Marko Dano

2015 Boston

• 13-Jakub Zboril
• 14-Jake DeBrusk
• 15-Zach Senyshyn

2017 Vegas

• 6- Cody Glass
• 13-Nick Suzuki
• 15- Erik Brannstrom

2018 NYC

• 9- Vitaly Kravstov
• 22- K’Andre Miller
• 28-Nils Lundqvist

2020 New Jersey (to be continued)

2020 Ottawa (to be continued)

• 3- Tim Stützle
• 5-Jake Sanderson
• 28-Ridly Greig

2021 Columbus (to be continued)

• 5-Kent Johnson
• 12- Cole Sillinger
• 25- Corson Ceulemans

Owen Power in Buffalo shortly?

The Sabers won’t make the playoffs again this year, but their fans might have a little treat for them: 2021 first overall pick defenseman Owen Power could join the team by the end of the year. “Communication is open, we are in tune. That’s exciting. I don’t want to say too much, he has to stay in the present moment (Power will participate in the Olympics with the Canadian team), but he knows where he wants to end up and so do we. Another Sabers prospect, Quebec goaltender Devon Levi, will also be at the Games with Canada. Power, 19, has 26 points in just 24 games at the University of Michigan in the NCAA. Levi is 16-7-1 with a 1.55 GAA and .948 save percentage at Northeastern. One day, Buffalo will end up winning…

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