The 2000 NHL Entry Draft was the first chance for the NHL’s two newest clubs, the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets, to begin to build their own home-grown prospects.  The 2000 draft won’t go down as the draft that saw an abundance of talented players get chosen, but there have emerged a few exceptional players who have made their marks as NHL’ers. Not surprisingly, most of these talented individuals were early first round selections. In fact, it can be argued that the top six picks of this draft have turned out to be the best players in this draft class.

 

After New York Islanders GM Mike Milbury engineered a blockbuster trade that saw Roberto Luongo end up in South Florida with the Panthers, the stage was set for history to be made. With the Islanders now in need of a goaltender, and with college phenom Rick DiPietro available, the Islanders and DiPietro matched up perfectly. Never before had a goaltender been chosen first overall, but that changed when the Islanders made DiPietro the first pick of the 2000 NHL draft. While he has taken longer than expected to develop, he established himself as a solid No. 1 goaltender for the Islanders. The next two picks saw the Atlanta Thrashers and expansion Minnesota Wild take two young scoring studs in Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik respectively, who have established themselves as bona fide NHL superstars. Rounding out the top six, we saw the Columbus Blue Jackets take mammoth defenseman Rostislav Klesla, the New York Islanders take Raffi Torres and the Nashville Predators take Scott Hartnell.

 

After those six players were selected, NHL clubs look to have mostly struck out, but a good number of them remain viable prospects for NHL teams. With quite a few players on the cusp of cracking the NHL, the grade for this draft class may improve considerably over the next season or two.

 

Below is a summary chart of the 2000 NHL draft, with NHL teams in order by average number of NHL games played by picks in the draft class (first column). In the second column is the number of selections each team had. In the third column, is the number of draftees who are now NHL players. In the fourth column is the number of draftees who are still considered NHL prospects. Bolded numbers represent a high in a category, while bolded and italicized numbers represent a low in a category.

 

 

Teams	Avg. NHL Games Played	Number of Picks	NHL Players	NHL Prospects
Minnesota Wild	84	9	3	3
Philadelphia Flyers	62	8	2	1
Los Angeles Kings	55	11	3	1
Washington Capitals	43	6	2	1
Carolina Hurricanes	39	8	1	3
Columbus Blue Jackets	26	11	1	2
Nashville Predators	25	12	1	7
Calgary Flames	24	9	2	2
New Jersey Devils	24	13	4	4
Atlanta Thrashers	24	14	2	3
New York Islanders	21	9	2	1
Boston Bruins	21	12	0	4
St. Louis Blues	20	9	2	3
Colorado Avalanche	20	13	3	5
Phoenix Coyotes	19	8	2	2
Anaheim Mighty Ducks	18	5	0	2
Tampa Bay Lightning	16	10	0	2
Pittsburgh Penguins	15	10	1	4
Ottawa Senators	13	10	2	1
Dallas Stars	12	10	1	2
Montreal Canadiens	10	11	0	7
Edmonton Oilers	8	10	1	5
Chicago Blackhawks	7	15	0	6
Toronto Maple Leafs	3	10	0	3
Vancouver Canucks	2	7	0	2
Detroit Red Wings	2	11	1	3
San Jose Sharks	1	7	0	3
Buffalo Sabres	Less than 1	8	0	3
Florida Panthers	Less than 1	8	0	3
New York Rangers	Less than 1	9	0	3

 

 

Analysis

 

The then expansion Minnesota Wild, who selected Marian Gaborik and Nick Schultz, lead the way with an average of 84 NHL games per pick. They turned nine selections into three NHL’ers and three prospects. Their expansion bretheren, the Columbus Blue Jackets ranked sixth with a total of 26 games per pick. However only Rostislav Klesla has made the jump to full time NHL’er, and many of the organization’s inaugural selections have not panned out as hoped as nine of their 11 choices look to be busts.

 

At the other end of the scale are the San Jose Sharks, who had seven choices in the draft and got only four NHL games out their draft class. The New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres, each have less than one game played per pick.

 

When analyzing the number of selections in correlation to the number of NHL’ers or NHL prospects, there really is not a distinguishable pattern. More than half of the NHL clubs had more than 10 choices, but more picks didn’t necessarily mean more success at the draft table. However, having more picks does increase the margin for error. It should be noted though that five of the teams in the top of the games played per pick category had less than 10 picks. The Blackhawks had a high of 14 picks, and ranked 23^rd in terms of games played per pick. The Mighty Ducks had a low of five picks, but sit in the middle of the pack in the game played per pick category at 16^th.

 

In terms of NHL’ers, not surprisingly, the strong drafting New Jersey Devils lead the way with four players at the NHL level, though one of those players, Mike Danton, is done playing and currently serving time in jail. Defensemen Paul Martin and David Hale have one full NHL season under their belts for the Devils and Mike Rupp established himself with New Jersey before being dealt in 2003-04 to the Coyotes organization.

 

The Wild, Kings and Avalanche are next in line with three established NHL’ers each.  Naturally, most of the teams in the bottom third of the games played per pick category have no established NHL’ers out of their draft class. In fact, of the bottom 10 teams, only Matthew Lombardi and Niklas Kronwall have established themselves as NHL’ers, and both are only coming off their rookie seasons.

 

With prospects, there are fair number of teams with an abundance of prospects who have either just cracked the NHL level, or are on the brink of making it to the big show. The Nashville Predators lead the way with seven prospects. While many of them are not considered high-end prospects, they are still prospects none the less. Interestingly, three of the top 10 teams in NHL games played per pick have only one prospect to speak of, those teams being the Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals. Another point of interest is that 18 of the 30 teams have three or more prospects either still in the organization or with another organization, showing that this draft class may be lagging in terms of player maturity.

 

Who fared well

 

The Minnesota Wild did quite well in landing Gaborik, a feared NHL sniper, and Schultz, who is one of the top blueliners for the Wild. And with Marc Cavoise possibly challenging for a checking line role in the near future, the Wild have to be happy with how their first draft panned out.

 

The Kings fared quite well too, appearing to make good on their first four choices. Most notably, the Kings No. 1 choice, Russian winger Alexander Frolov is on the cusp of stardom. It should be noted that two of the Kings choices were overage Europeans, Andreas Lijla and Lubomir Visnovsky, but just like drafting junior-aged players, drafting overage Europeans is never a sure thing just because they are further along in their development. Prospect Yannick Lehoux was on his way to a breakthrough season in the AHL before breaking his leg, but he should recover and challenge for a spot with the Kings when the NHL starts up again.

 

The Devils made good use of their 13 picks, with four established NHL’ers and four good to above average prospects. Paul Martin and David Hale are two building blocks on the blueline. Mike Rupp, the Devils 2000 Stanley Cup hero was dealt to the Phoenix Coyotes for Jan Hrdina, but is a budding power forward. And who can forget Mike Danton, who had appeared to carve out a fourth line role with the St. Louis Blues, but now is more infamous for his involvement in a murder for hire plot that landed him a seven-year jail sentence. Alexander Suglobov is the most notable of the four prospects from the 2000 draft class who are still in the Devils system.

 

Another team that made out decently was the Colorado Avalanche, though they have not reaped all the benefits of a good 2000 draft class. They appear to have an offensively gifted blueliner in John-Michael Liles, who had a solid rookie season, but many of the other picks are no longer with the organization. Kurt Sauer has bounced around the league, but now finds himself back in Colorado, while first rounder Vaclav Nederost was dealt to the Florida Panthers. Prospects Jared Aulin (Kings) and Sergei Soin (Predators) were dealt and Darryl Bootland (Red Wings) was signed as a free agent.

 

Who fared poorly

 

There are quite a few teams who would like to forget the 2000 draft all together. Some teams are still waiting for some prospects to come through, so it’s hard to make a final judgement that those particular teams totally drafted unsuccessfully just yet.

 

The San Jose Sharks may not get any more NHL games out of their 2000 draft class. Only one player from that class, goaltender Nolan Schaffer, is currently with a Sharks affiliate and his chances of cracking a Sharks team deep in goaltending, or any other NHL club for that matter, is very slim. All the other players the team selected are either toiling in Europe or with other organizations in the minor pro leagues.

 

The Panthers and Rangers had sub-par drafts as well. The Panthers did acquire franchise goaltender Roberto Luongo on draft day, but their draft class has turned out to be a forgettable one. More than half of the Panthers picks can be considered busts, and the picks that are prospects, are marginal prospects at best. In Henrik Lundqvist and Dominic Moore, the Rangers have a couple respectable prospects for the future, but other than that the organization would sooner forget its 2000 draft crop.

 

Considering they had 15 picks, the Blackhawks haven’t really reaped the benefits of having an abundance of draft choices. While they do have some solid prospects from that class, including first round forwards Mikhail Yakubov and Pavel Vorobiev, no player from that draft class for Chicago has established himself as a legitimate NHL player.  While there still is time for the likes of Yakubov and Vorobiev to forge NHL careers, they, along with the other prospects from the 2000 class for Chicago have been slow or stagnant in developing.

 

Best value selections by round

 

Round 1: Alexander Frolov, 20^th overall – Kings, Justin Williams, 28^th overall – Flyers

 

Round 2: Nick Schultz, 33^rd overall – Wild, Antoine Vermette, 55^th overall – Senators, Paul Martin, 62^nd overall – Devils

 

Round 3: Mike Rupp, 76^th overall – Devils, Kurt Sauer, 88^th overall – Avalanche

 

Round 4: Niclas Wallin, 97^th overall – Hurricanes, Lubomir Visnovsky, 118^th overall – Kings

 

Round 5: Mike Danton, 135^th overall – Devils, John-Michael Liles, 159^th overall – Avalanche

 

Round 6: Roman Cechmanek, 171^st overall – Flyers, Darcy Hordichuk, 180^th overall – Thrashers

 

Round 7: Matthew Lombardi, 215^th overall – Oilers

 

Round 8: Lubomir Sekeras, 232^nd overall – Wild

 

Round 9: Simon Gamache, 290^th overall – Thrashers

 

 

It is pretty safe to say when looking back on the 2000 NHL draft, that it was lackluster compared to other years. The first six choices have been superb, but after that, it was hit and miss with selections. However, there appear to be a handful of players from this draft year who still could make an impact down the road, including first rounders, Yakubov, Vorobiev, Brent Krahn, Ron Hainsey, Marcel Hossa and Brad Boyes. Second round picks who could achieve their NHL dreams in the near future include Brad Winchester, Andy Hilbert, Ilya Bryzgalov, Aulin and Alexander Suglobov. 

 

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