The NHL Draft; A History Of Impressive Late Round Gems

By Matt Wood
Every year about this time, things start heating up surrounding the forthcoming NHL Draft. The world junior tournament is over, CSB Mid season rankings are out, the CHL all star and prospect games have been decided and the playoffs are near. Although its no surprise that so much focus is placed upon the top junior prospects, NHL teams employ more pro scouts and invest more money than ever before into the entire draft process for a reason. In taking a close look at past drafts its interesting to see how many of the more successful guys in the league made it, when the odds were so clearly stacked against them. Here’s a few late round gems from the early 80′s until 1996. 

1996 Round  8 - Tomas Kaberle
     Round  7 - Pavel Kubina

1995 Round  7 - P.J. Axelson and Peter Worrell
     Round  9 - Danil Markov

1994 Round  6 - Daniel Alfredsson and Alexander Selivanov
     Round  9 - Steve Sullivan
     Round 10 - Richard Zednik, Sergei Berezin, and Tomas Holmstrom

1993 Round  7 - Todd Marchant and Darren Van Impe
     Round  9 - Mike Grier and Pavol Dimitra
     Round 10 - German Titov

1992 Round  7 - Ian Laperriere
     Round  8 - Stephan Yelle
     Round  9 - Nikolai Khabibulin
     Round 10 - Jonus Hoglund, Anson Carter, and Dan McGillis

1991 Round  8 - Dmitri Mironov, Brian Savage, Janne Laukkanen, and Corey Hirsch

1990 Round  7 - Jason York, Robert Lang, and Eric Lacroix
     Round  8 - Andre Kovalenko, Peter Bondra, and Alex Karpotsov
     Round 11 - Valeri Zelepukin, Steve Dubinsky, and Tommy Soderstrom
     Round 12 - Sergei Nemchinov

1989 Round  8 - Derek Plante
     Round  9 - Donald Audette
     Round 10 - Vladimir Malakhov and Arturs Irbe
     Round 11 - Vladimir Konstantinov

1988 Round  7 - Dixon Ward, Valeri Kamensky, and Keith Jones
     Round  8 - Marty McInnis, Shjon Podein, and Sean Hill
     Round  9 - Tony Twist
     Round 10 - Bret Hedican and Alexander Semak
     Round 11 - Alexei Gusarov
     Round 12 - Claude Lapoint

1987 Round  8 - Jim Dowd, Guy Hebert, and Theo Fleury

1985 The Year of Late Round Tough Guys!

These five guys combined for almost 8000 PIMS in close to 3000 games.

              - Stu Grimson
              - Jamie Huscroft
              - Kelly Buchburger
              - Ken Baumgartner
              - Rudy Poeschek.

Other Notables in 85'

     Round  8 - Randy Burridge
     Round 11 - Igor Larionov

1984 Round  6 - Kirk McLean, Brett Hull, and Kjell Samuelsson
     Round  7 - Mike Stapleton and Cliff Ronning
     Round  8 - Don Sweeny
     Round  9 - Luc Robitaille and Gary Suter
     Round 10 - Mike Peluso, Paul Cavellini, and Kevin Miller

10 of the Greatest Late Round Gems in NHL Draft History

 1. 1983 Domenik Hasek  - Round 10
 2. 1990 Peter Bondra   - Round 8
 3. 1993 Pavol Dimitra  - Round 9
 4. 1989 Donald Audette - Round 9
 5. 1987 Theo Fleury    - Round 8
 6. 1984 Luc Robitaille - Round 9
 7. 1984 Brett Hull     - Round 6
 8. 1982 Doug Gilmour   - Round 7
 9. 1980 Steve Larmer   - Round 6
10. 1994 Steve Sullivan and 1984 Gary Suter - Both Round 9