The biggest draft bust for every NHL team

The Ducks have nailed a couple of high picks recently in Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke, and their first-ever pick was Paul Kariya. However, the franchise hasn’t been perfect. A couple of late first-round picks never played in the NHL, but Smirnov was a 12th-overall pick. He basically played half a season in the NHL during the 2002-03 campaign; by 2006-07, he had dropped all the way down to the ECHL, and then he returned to Russia, but played below the KHL level save for one season.

With the older-school franchises, we did avoid the NHL’s earliest drafts. It’s reasonable to accept that teams may not have really known what they were doing yet, and routinely, guys would never play in the NHL. There is no excuse like that for Jonsson, though, whom the Bruins took seventh in 2000. The Swedish defenseman was no Ray Bourque, or even a Chris Bourque. He never played for the Bruins, and his NHL career consisted of eight games with the Flyers.

The Sabres have absolutely nailed some first-round picks, though several of them (Dave Andreychuk, Tom Barrasso, Jack Eichel) had great success with other franchises. By the way, that Barrasso pick was such a wild swing, and it worked out remarkably well. Zagrapan was a 13th-overall pick, which isn’t super high, but he is the first player on this list not to play a game in the NHL. Though he is Czech, Zagrapan played juniors in the QMJHL, but in three seasons in the AHL he never topped 49 points, and the Sabres didn’t want to give him a roster spot. So, after the 2008-09 season, Zagrapan headed to the KHL, where he scored 10 goals in 51 games and washed out.

Did the Flames not read his last name closely and assume Daniel was a member of the now-fabled Tkachuk hockey family? The first five picks of the 1997 NHL Draft were nailed, ranging from defenseman Eric Brewer, who played in over 1,000 games, to Joe Thornton. Tkaczuk was the first bust taken in that draft, going sixth overall. In 1999-00, he showed out in the AHL, earning him a shot with the Flames in 2000-01. He played 19 games and scored 11 points, and that marked the beginning and end of his NHL career.

Sure “Jeff Heerema” is a fun name, but that’s not going to save the Hurricanes on this one. It was 1998, and the Hurricanes had played one season in Raleigh. They picked 11th overall and took the Canadian forward. Heerema’s NHL career included 32 games and six points, and only 10 of those were with the Hurricanes. However, there may have been a silver lining. Heerema was a cousin of some up-and-coming young hockey players with the last name Staal.

Yes, busts can be guys drafted in the middle of the first round who barely play in the NHL, or never play at all. However, there are also guys who weren’t very good but were drafted particularly high. Barker is such a player. Barker was a defenseman who played in 310 regular-season games, most of them with Chicago, and when he headed to the KHL, he had 96 points to his name. Once he had 40 points in a season. Yes, that’s more than, say, Jeff Heerema had in his career. Barker was the third-overall pick in the 2004 NHL draft. It was Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and then him. To avoid being a bust, Barker needed to be at least a regular 40-point defenseman in the NHL. Instead, he barely doubled that number in his career.

With the second-overall pick in 2011, the Avalanche drafted Gabriel Landeskog, which worked out quite well…and also covered the team's second first-round pick that year. With the 11th pick, Colorado took the defenseman Siemens. He played 20 NHL games, scoring one goal and recording one assist. Notably, unlike a lot of these guys, Siemens never went to Europe, instead becoming a career-long AHL player.

It would not be until the Jackets’ 10th NHL Draft that they picked outside the top 10, but most of those picks worked out reasonably well. Picard did not. Like Barker, Picard was picked in 2004 with the eighth overall pick. Columbus gave him his shots. He saw action in five different NHL seasons for the team. However, in the course of 67 NHL games, he picked up all of his two points as assists. That makes him an even bigger bust than Barker, which takes some pressure off him.

The Stars picked late in the first round for years and would occasionally trade out of the first round. As such, in 2009 the franchise picked in the top 10 for the first time since 1997. They took the Canadian wing Glennie with the eighth pick. He played in one game. Hey, they were rusty!

After a lengthy playoff streak that yielded four Cups, the Red Wings hit the reset button hard. The franchise never got lottery luck, picking between fourth and ninth from 2017 through 2023. Now, the Wings nailed a couple of those picks in Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. They did whiff on Zadina, though. Detroit took the Czech wing sixth overall, but he never clicked in the NHL. He lasted a few seasons, but totaled only 91 points before heading to Switzerland. While the 2018 Draft was not a good one for forwards, it must hurt that, with the seventh pick, the Canucks took Quinn Hughes.

The inverse of the Red Wings: between 2010 and 2015, the Oilers picked first four times. Those picks ran the gamut. Of course, Edmonton got Connor McDavid, one of the 10 best players in NHL history. Taylor Hall became a really good player, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had a long, solid career, and then there is Yakupov. Yakupov is one of the worst first-overall picks in history. Because the Oilers were so bad, and because they had invested a first-overall pick in him, Yakupov got plenty of playing time. That being said, a top pick that finishes his NHL career with 136 points is remarkably bad.

We won’t label third-overall pick Nathan Horton a bust because a back injury cut his career short. Taticek has no such excuse. He was one of two top-10 picks the Panthers had in 2002. Jay Bouwmeester turned out to be a solid enough player for a third-overall pick, but Taticek went ninth and never registered a point in the NHL.

This is one of the earlier draft picks on this list, a credit to the Kings’ recent picks and to Alex Turcotte still being only 25. Ultimately, this was an ‘80s toss-up. McBean, a defenseman, played in 211 games and had 49 points. Dan Gratton, a center, played in seven games and had one goal. However, Gratton was the 10th pick in 1985, and McBean was the fourth pick in 1987. Expectations differ significantly between being drafted fourth and being drafted 10th. Thus, we lean McBean.

Thelen is our third player from the 2004 NHL Draft. It's hard to believe that year started with Ovechkin and Malkin! Thelen was drafted 12th, but the Wild have drafted well overall. Three of their first four first-round picks were Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu, and Brent Burns. Not only did Thelen never play in the NHL, but he also played only 10 games in the AHL and was largely an ECHL player.

Terry Ryan was the eighth overall pick in 1995, and he played 8 NHL games. However, the expectations of being a first-overall pick weigh heavily. Wickenheiser was the first pick in 1980. He played in 556 games and had 276 points. Three Hall of Famers went in the top six that year. Had he been the 10th pick, Wickenheiser’s career would have looked fine. Alas, he was a first pick.

Honestly? The Predators have largely drafted poorly. Outright busts, though, have been rare. Finley was a bust. He was the second-ever first-round pick for the Predators, a goalie who went sixth overall. Finley ended up playing in four NHL games, and when he hung up the skates, he became a cop up in Ontario.

Between 1984 and 1987, the Devils drafted second, third, third, and second. Kirk Muller and Brendan Shanahan were picks they nailed, and defenseman Craig Wolanin played in 695 regular-season games and scored 173 points. Brady, though, was a bust. The third pick in 1986, Brady did score the first goal in Ottawa Senators history. It was one of 31 points he scored in the NHL.

Wow, the Islanders gave us a lot of options. In the end, though, we went with Reinhart, a member of one of the worst top picks in NHL history. The defenseman went fourth in 2012, and he finished his NHL career with only two points. It’s not always bad to have fewer career points than your draft pick number, but it is when you are a first-round pick (who isn’t a goalie).

One more 2004 pick for you! Montoya was drafted sixth, and he was a goalie. When you take a goalie in the first round, especially early, he has to become a longtime, above-average starter. Montoya never played for the Rangers; Henrik Lundqvist showed up, and he became a journeyman backup. He played in 168 NHL games and had a career .908 save percentage. A sixth-overall pick goalie never became a number-one netminder and was a below-average player.

After a slow start, the Senators picked in the top three in each of their first five seasons. Before its second season, Ottawa got the first pick and took Daigle. He stuck around for a bit and had three 51-point seasons. Of course, he was a top pick. Franchise players don’t top out at 51 points. They don’t finish their NHL career with 327 points. Daigle wasn’t a bad player, but for a first-overall pick, clearly he was a bust.

Nolan Patrick and his unfortunate migraine disorder that made an NHL career unviable do not count, obviously. Neither does Cutter Gauthier, who seems like he is going to be really good even if he pushed his way out of town before playing a game with the Flyers. Sittler was taken seventh in 1992 straight out of American high school, the kind of thing that would never happen now. However, he had something going for him, and that was the fact his father was Darryl Sittler. While Sittler had ongoing injury issues, he still managed to play over 110 games in the AHL and ECHL while playing zero in the NHL, so that’s still enough to fairly call him a bust.

Why are we talking about a guy who went 20th in his draft? Because we want to talk about the power of narrative. The Penguins took Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Jordan Staal with either a first or a second in four consecutive drafts. The next year, 2007, early in the process, Esposito had gotten a lot of buzz as one of the best, or the best, players in the draft class. Now, by the time the draft rolled around, he was ranked eighth among North American skaters by the Central Scouting Bureau, but he had name recognition, and then he started to fall, and then the Penguins drafted him. “The rich get richer!” some lamented. “Rigged!” others declared. Esposito never played an NHL game. He presumably is the one who added the fact that he is a “real estate investor and landlord” to his own Wikipedia page. Sometimes, a player's hype dies down for a reason.

It was either a guy drafted 12th who ever played, or a guy drafted eighth a decade later who wasn’t very good. Ultimately, going in the top 10 really does ratchet up the “bust” possibilities. It’s tricky, because Setoguchi is one of those guys during the magical days of Joe Thornton in San Jose that burnt brightly but faded quickly, not unlike one-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner Jonathan Cheechoo. Setoguchi had three 20-goal seasons in a row, but in two of those seasons he had under 20 assists. When all was said and done, he played in 516 NHL games and had 131 goals and 130 assists. There are certainly bigger busts on this list, but Setoguchi tops the charts for the Sharks.

Hey, fair is fair, and so we will include the Kraken. Of course, it’s possible Sale won’t be a bust. What we know is this. The Kraken have made six first-overall picks. Matty Beniers and Shane Wright are young and on reasonable pathways to not be busts. Berkley Catton is arguably ahead of the curve for being the eighth pick in 2024. The two most recent picks haven’t even kicked their careers off yet. Sale was taken 20th in 2023, but he’s spent the last two seasons in the AHL, so  to date, he’s the closest to a bust for the Kraken.

The Blues have one of the better draft histories. Even Erik Johnson, while overdrafted, wasn’t a bust. Osborne is one of only a few true busts for the Blues. Taken 12th in 1987, the forward played 16 games and tallied only four points.

Russian guys who quickly bounced back to Russia have to be considered differently, but Svitov wasn’t quite that. He gave it a go in America, playing here for five seasons. Svitov played in 179 games and had 37 points. This was from a guy who went third in 2001. Mostly, Svitov was known for being undisciplined, taking a bunch of penalties, and fighting a lot.

On a similar note, do you want to take a gritty third-line winger/enforcer with the third-overall pick? That’s what Thornton was. He did, to be fair, play in the NHL for a long time. Thornton played in 941 games. He also had 285 points. Thornton had one 20-goal season and one 40-point season. Yes, he played for a long time, but a third-overall pick who becomes Jordan Martinook is a bust.

The Mammoth have sworn off the Coyotes’ history and are considered an expansion team, but they've been around for three seasons, and none of their draft picks have played in the NHL yet. As such, we’re going back to the Coyotes. We considered third-overall pick Kyle Turris, but he was more of a disappointment than a bust. Perlini was the 12th-overall pick in 2014, but after tallying 81 points in the NHL, he headed to Switzerland, where he currently plays.

The 2016 draft class was strong, and Juolevi went fifth. Matthew Tkachuk and Clayton Keller went right after him. Of course, Juolevi is a defenseman, but the Canucks had some good choices on that front, and they opted to make the Finn the first defenseman taken that year. Ultimately, he totaled three points in 41 NHL games. He was a sizable bust, though the Oilers took Jesse Puljujarvi right before him, and he gives Juolevi a run for his money on that front.

The Golden Knights haven’t been big on drafting, and they’ve drafted 13th or lower every time except once. Also, they took Nick Suzuki with that 13th pick, and while he moved to Montreal, he’s become a great player, so they nailed that pick. Glass was the franchise’s first-ever pick, and they went sixth in 2017. Glass is still playing and is just 27, but he has 119 points to his name as he approaches a decade since he was drafted. Obviously, it hasn’t been a terrible career, but what were we going to do? Go with the guy drafted 30th in 2021 who's only played nine games?

The Capitals drafted two guys in 1995 who each played only two NHL games, but they were taken 17th and 23rd. The Capitals drafted Volchkov the next year, but he went fourth. Though he was Russian, he wasn't a mystery man. Volchkov had come over to play in the OHL as a junior. The Capitals still whiffed, though. Volchkov did better than the two guys drafted in 1995, at least. He played in three NHL games.

We opted not to include Atlanta Thrashers history, but if we did, the answer would be Patrik Stefan. The Jets have drafted well, though, and the only guy who hasn't totally panned out thus far unfortunately had to retire after he found out he had a tissue disorder. Heinola was drafted 20th, really making it tricky to be a bust. He was drafted in 2019, though, and he’s only played in 58 games and has 12 points. It still seems like he'll hit the “bust” threshold.