NHL First Round Picks

Ah, the draft a chance to bolster your teams hopes for future success, or is it an opportunity to lessen your teams chances with squandered picks of unworthy hopefuls. Alas this is the age old question. When drafting 18 year olds how accurate a read can scouting departments have on thier prospects eventual development. It really is a game of hit and miss, throw in untimely injuries and even some solid choices can fall by the wayside quickly, never having a chance to make an impact in the bigs.

How important is that first round pick, anymore than the third or second. Most would surmise that it is, but many solid contributers or even superstars can be uncovered in the later rounds, see Luc Robitaille. Scouting does seem to have evolved through the years and the amount of totally wasted first rounders seems to be declining. But amazingly enough about half of the players taken in the first round since 1980 have failed to make any impact at all in the NHL.

In 656 first round choices since the 1980 draft only 306 of those selected gone on to have any kind of career in the league, by any kind of career I mean more than a cup of coffee, or irregular service for three seasons or less.Of course one must take into account many first rd picks from the last four years or less still have plenty of time to make thier mark, so you could possibly add another thirty or so to the made it number. While many teams have success drafting after the first rd, generally when talking about the top players in the game, they have been drafted with a first rounder.

With all this in mind I thought it might be interesting too take a walk down memory lane and analyze all the teams in the leagues first rd choices from the last 27 years. Starting with the 1980 draft, and grading teams on the mastery or lack thereof that they have displayed with these choices. This will be accomplished in a two part series one for each conference. I will focus mostly on the success's and will refrain from mentioning the washouts, except for giving the number of picks teams completely missed on, zero impact or even games at the NHL level.Check it out.

For the part 1 of this great article visit www.creasecrashers.com