freelancer

Edmonton • Canada • 25 Years Old • Male

Drafted Players on Pacific Teams

The most proven way for building a quality NHL roster while managing cap space effectively is through the draft. Drafted players are controlled for the longest period of time. A team's ability to draft NHL players through multiple rounds of the draft directly correlates to long term success.

For this endeavor I took a look at every roster in the Pacific Division from the 2017-2018 season. I am only including players who played at least 20 games last season.

I also am not including the Vegas Golden Knights as a single draft is not an accurate display of their drafting ability.

Anaheim Ducks
Total Drafted Players - 14

1st Round
Ryan Getzlaf (19th Overall - 2003)
Corey Perry (28th Overall - 2003)
Cam Fowler (12th Overall - 2010)
Rickard Rakell (30th Overall - 2011)
Hampus Lindholm (6th Overall - 2012)
Nick Ritchie (10th Overall - 2014)

2nd Round
John Gibson (39th Overall - 2011)
Marcus Pettersson (38th Overall - 2014)
Brandon Montour (55th Overall - 2014)

4th Round
Sami Vatanen (106th Overall - 2009)
Kevin Roy (97th Overall - 2012)

5th Round
Chris Wagner (122nd Overall - 2010) *Traded to Islanders

6th Round
Josh Manson (160th Overall - 2011)

7th Round
Ondrej Kase (205th Overall - 2014)

Quick Analysis
- The Ducks have been great over the past decade in drafting talent.
- There was a weak stretch pre 2010 but the Ducks have selected some strong talent in the mid first round in Fowler, Rakell, Lindholm, and Ritchie.
- The Ducks have a fantastic scouting team in assessing back end talent; since 2009 Vatanen, Manson, Montour, Fowler, Lindholm and Pettersson have been developed by the organization.
- The Ducks are one of two Pacific teams that have drafted their starting goaltender.

Arizona Coyotoes
Total Drafted Players - 9

1st Round
Oliver Ekman-Larsson (6th Overall - 2009)
Max Domi (12th Overall - 2013)
Brandon Perlini (12th Overall - 2014)
Dylan Strome (3rd Overall 2015)
Clayton Keller (7th Overall - 2016)
Jakob Chychrun (16th Overall 2016)

2nd Round
Jordan Martinook (58th Overall - 2012)
Christian Dvorak (58th Overall - 2014)
Christian Fischer (32nd Overall - 2015)

Quick Analysis
- May be the worst team in the NHL at drafting past the first two rounds.
- Not much else to say here. A good core due to high first round selections but they need to be much better.

Calgary Flames
Total Drafted Players - 9

1st Round
Mikael Backlund (24th Overall - 2007)
Mark Jankowski (15th Overall - 2012)
Sean Monahan (6th Overall - 2013)
Sam Bennet (4th Overall - 2014)
Matthew Tkachuk (6th Overall - 2016)

4th Round
T.J. Brodie (114th Overall - 2008)
Johnny Gaudreau (104th Overall - 2011)
Brett Kulak - 105th Overall - 2012)

5th Round
Micheal Ferland (133rd Overall - 2010)

Quick Analysis
- Interesting that the Flames have no talent from the second or third round. One can argue however that they have made up for it with the talent they have selected from the 4th round. Gaudreau is an absolute steal.
- The Flames have lacked scoring depth over the past couple years and that is on display here. Aside from Gaudreau and some complimentary help from Ferland there aren't many natural wingers on display here.

Edmonton Oilers
Total Drafted Players - 9

1st Round
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1st Overall - 2011)
Oscar Klefbom (19th Overall - 2011)
Darnell Nurse (7th Overall - 2013)
Leon Draisaitl (3rd Overall - 2014)
Connor McDavid (1st Overall - 2015)
Jesse Puljujarvi (4th Overall - 2016)

3rd Round
Jujhar Khaira (63rd Overall - 2012)
Anton Slepyshev (88th Overall - 2013)

6th Round
Brandon Davidson (162 Overall - 2010) *traded to Islanders

Quick Analysis
- The Oilers are very good at following Bob McKenzie's List.
- The lack of defensemen in later rounds hurt Edmonton. (Note: Ethan Bear was drafted in the 5th round and played 18 games last season)
- Considering the team traded Brandon Davidson and Slepyshev may be in the KHL next season this list starts looking worse.

LA Kings
Total Drafted Players - 16

1st Round
Dustin Brown (13th Overall - 2003)
Anze Kopitar (11th Overall - 2005)
Trevor Lewis (17th Overall - 2006)
Drew Doughty (2nd Overall - 2008)
Derek Forbort (15th Overall - 2010)
Tanner Pearson (30th Overall - 2012)
Adrian Kempe (29th Overall - 2014)

2nd Round
Mike Cammalleri (49th Overall - 2001) *originally played as a King
Kyle Clifford (35th Overall - 2009)
Tyler Toffoli (47th Overall - 2010)

3rd Round
Jonathan Quick (72nd Overall - 2005)
Andy Andreoff (80th Overall - 2011)
Nick Shore (82nd Overall - 2011) *traded to Ottawa Senators then Flames
Mike Amadio (90th Overall - 2014)

4th Round
Alec Martinez (95th Overall - 2007)

5th Round
Jonny Brodzinski (148th Overall - 2013)

Quick Analysis
- Arguably is the best in the Pacific as they have the most players on their current roster which were drafted by the Kings.
- The Kings have 7 first round selections on their roster but only one of those players (Doughty) were drafted in the top 10.
- The Kings are the second of the Pacific teams to have drafted their starting goaltender.
- Look for Jonny Brodzinski to become a permanent member of this roster by December next season.

San Jose Sharks
Total Drafted Players - 11

1st Round
Logan Couture (9th Overall - 2007)
Tomas Hertl (17th Overall - 2012)
Timo Meier (9th Overall - 2015)

2nd Round
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (35th Overall - 2005)
Chris Tierney (55th Overall - 2012)

6th Round
Dylan DeMelo (179th Overall - 2011)
Kevin Lablanc (171 Overall - 2014)

7th Round
Joe Pavelski (205th Overall - 2003)
Justin Braun (201 Overall - 2007)
Joakim Ryan (198th Overall - 2012)

Quick Analysis
- Sharks are freaks in the later rounds. Pavelski, Braun, Lablanc.
- The Sharks organization has done a great job of developing players. None of the players listed above played with the Sharks the year after they were drafted.

Vancouver Canucks
Total Drafted Players - 8

1st Round
Daniel and Henrik Sedin (2nd and 3rd Overall - 1999) *retired
Brendan Gaunce (26th Overall - 2012)
Jake Virtanen (6th Overall - 2014)
Bo Horvat (9th Overall - 2013)
Brock Boesser (23rd - 2015)

3rd Round
Alexander Edler (91st Overall - 2004)

5th Round
Ben Hutton (147th Overall - 2012)

Quick Analysis/TLDR
- For being as bad as the Canucks have been over the past few seasons they don't have too much to show for it at the draft.
- Boesser is an exciting player to watch but the fall off afterwards is dramatic.
- Horvat becomes the defacto top line centre with H. Sedin gone. Are Canucks fans comfortable with that?

Thanks for reading!