The 5 best and 5 worst draft picks of the last decade - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
4. Benoit Pouliot, Minnesota Wild (1st round, 4th overall in 2005)
Even if he does make it to the Canadiens and starts playing like a fourth overall pick (not likely), the Wild can console themselves knowing they also threw away early-to-mid-firsts on AJ Thelen(notes) and James Sheppard(notes) the year prior to and after drafting Pouliot ... so at least this wasn't an isolated incident.
about 2 years ago
nathaneide
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I love the jab at the Thelen and Sheppard picks too.
Glad to see we’re not the only ones who hated Riser’s draft ability. Too bad the scouting staff is still in tact.
Proprietor of Hockey Wilderness - We take Minnesota hockey WAY too seriously.
hard to say who's truely at fault
the GM or the scout staff, after all they are the same ones who found, pmb, koivu, burns, harding et. el.
Will the Real Thor Please Stand Up ... ?
by the Real Thor on Dec 15, 2009 6:19 AM CST up reply actions
Credit
I’ll give them credit where it is due. Koivu is an amazing player. He should have been a no-brainer with who he is and who is brother is. He has turned out to be the only solid player the team has ever really had, save for Backstrom.
On the rest of your list… hmmm… not sure I’m ready to give them credit for them yet. All high picks who have not made it to the upper echelon of NHL players.
PMB is an artist with the puck, but if he doesn’t stop with the spinning at the blue line, he is going to get run over every time. Burns is a good player. Not a great player, mind you. He is good. I would put him as a number three d-man on most Cup contenders. His defense has suffered in the new system, and his offense has not compensated for that. Both players now have serious concussion issues, which may cloud an ability to make a solid judgment about their performance for the rest of their careers. If they fail, it will be blamed on the concussions. If they succeed and excel, then they will truly be super stars, as not many players do.
With Harding, I am very skeptical. He has never shown he is ready for a number one job. No, he hasn’t really been given the chance, but it is not like there are NHL GMs pounding down the door to get him either.
The jury is still out on all of them except Koivu. Busts? No, not one of them. But none of them are good enough to compensate for the other stupidity from that regime.
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