Why The NHL Draft Is Insignificant

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Millions of hockey fans worldwide will be watching the 2017 NHL Draft this Friday. The New Jersey Devils will make the first pick. Will it be Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, or Casey Mittelstadt that will don the NJ on their sweater? The answer is “Who Cares”. Most of the players that get drafted either don’t make it into the NHL or their career is so short it’s just a small blip on the radar. This is why in the long run the NHL Draft is insignificant.

Let’s take a look at a few stats provided by Quanthockey.com. Over half of all NHL players play less than 100 games during their career. That is a little over one season. 5% of these players only play one game. Only 4% or 1 out of 25 players play 1000 games. Your average NHL player at the very least plays one season. The record for most seasons is tied between Gordie Howe and Chris Chelios at 26 seasons. The average career in the NHL lasts 5.72 seasons with a median of 4. This tells us that the average career in the NHL is not only short, but most of them will hardly don the sweater that the team drafted them.

So if this is the case, then why is it that these teams draft these players fully knowing that most of them will barely even touch NHL ice? The short answer to this question is to have depth on a team so that if someone gets hurt, there is someone on the farm team to fill in on short notice. Based on the stats, for most of these players, they are nothing more than cannon fodder who will never make it out of the minors.

Let’s say there is a high profile draft pick that everyone is saying “This kid is going to be the player of this generation!” An impressive boast, but we will never see it until he plays his first season in the NHL. Guys like Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Patrik Laine are the real deal. McDavid won the Art Ross trophy this year with 100 points, Matthews came in third for most goals in a season with 40, and Laine scoring a solid 36. Barring injury, these guys will have solid careers in the NHL. What about guys who are busts? Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Our first player is Alexandre Daigle of Laval, Quebec. Daigle was supposed to be the next “French Canadian Superstar” being drafted number one by the Ottawa Senators in 1993. His combined 80 goals, 167 assists, and 247 points in two seasons with the Victoriaville Tigers of the QMJHL looked impressive. Daigle had a mindblowing starting salary of $12.5 million over five years. This was the biggest starting salary in NHL history at the time. What most people forget is that Daigle had a descent first season with 24 goals, 27 assists and 51 points. The next season he had 37 points in 47 games during a shortened season due to a lockout in the 1994-1995 season. In 1996-1997 he had a 51 point season after having some struggles. The wheels came off after that.

The next several years Daigle was a journeyman playing for the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the New York Rangers with a layover with the Hartford Wolfpack in the AHL. By the time Daigle was 25, he retired from the NHL. Two years later after dating Pamela Anderson and playing Beer League Hockey in Los Angeles, he decided it was time to return to the NHL. He did well enough to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but was traded to the Minnesota Wild. He would pit up his third 51 point season with the Wild in 2003-2004 season. By 2006 he was playing in the Swiss A League with HC Davos. Daigle is the poster boy for a bust in the NHL. He said “I am glad I got drafted first because no one remembers number two.” Who was number two that year? Chris Pronger.

Probably the most expensive bust in NHL history was netminder Rick DiPietro; DiPietro played one year of college hockey for the storied Boston University Terriers. With the Terriers, DiPietro rocked an 18 wins, 5 losses, 770 saves, and a GAA of 2.45. He was named Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year, and set the NCAA record of most saves in a game with 77. He was drafted by the New York Islanders and inked a 15 year $67.5 million contract. Mike Milbury, the Islanders GM at the time said “We’re hanging a lot of reputation on this kid…It’s gutsy, and maybe crazy … but we think he’s a really special player.” DiPietro had a little over confidence. AHL goaltending partner Wendell Young once told Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber that “Ricky’s going to need two seats on that plane: one in coach for his body and one in first class for his ego.”

DiPietro’s best season was in the 2006-2007 season with 32 wins, 19 losses, 1761 saves, and a 2.58 GAA. He had a .919 save percentage and was ranked 6th out of 53 goalies in the NHL. Unfortunately for DiPietro, injuries were his Achillies Heel. He had a litany of injuries during his career including a concussion and hip injury in 2007, groin injuries, a hernia and a number of knee injuries starting in 2008. When 2010 came around his play had significantly decreased to 8 wins, 14 losses, .344 GAA, and a save percentage of .886. By the time 2013 had come around DiPetro’s contract was bought out by the Islanders. This was probably the biggest waste of money in the history of the NHL.

Finally we come to Nikita Filatov picked 6th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2008 NHL Draft. Filatov was an impressive Junior playing for CSKA Moscow averaging three points a game when he was fifteen years old. During the 2007-2008 season playing for the CSKA Junior Team, Filatov racked up 23 goals and 24 assists in 23 games.

After the Blue Jackets drafted him, I remember seeing him play scoring a hat trick one game and then all of a sudden, he disappeared winding up in Ottawa. He was in a draft class with the likes of Steve Stamkos, Drew Doughty, and Luke Schenn. Filatov was the top ranked European player that year by the NHL central Scouting Bureau. With several disputes with then head coach Ken Hitchcock, he was sent to CSKA Moscow for the rest of the 2009-2010 series. He was traded to Ottawa during the 2011 Draft. Things didn’t go well in Ottawa either. The Sens sent him back to CSKA Moscow of December that year. The hat trick I saw was only half the goals he scored in his NHL career winding up with 6 goals, 14 points, and 53games in four seasons.

Here is my point. While the NHL Draft is exciting and fun to watch in the short run, it is filled with disappointment and heartache in the long run. The statistics and numbers never lie and history repeats itself with never will be’s, Johnny come lateleys. And expensive busts. I’m not saying that we won’t see some of history’s greatest players get drafted. What I’m saying is that it’s usually not worth the hype.