Young sensation Connor Bedard will most likely be picked first overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in Wednesday night’s National Hockey League (NHL) draft. Bedard carries the Generation Player label, along with Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.
However, not all players who were drafted first in their respective drafts had career success.
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As the NHL auction takes place in Nashville on Wednesday and Thursday, we bring you five first draft picks that have disappointed over the past few decades.
-Alexandre Daigle: Ottawa Senators, 1993
pj/Photo by Peter Jones Portal
The Ottawa Senators had the honor of signing what the NHL saw as Quebec’s next big star. Daigle was dominant at the junior level with an impressive 247 point aggregate in 119 games with the Victoriaville Tigres in the QMJHL. The federal capital organization had lured him into signing a lucrative five-year deal worth $12.5 million.
Things got complicated for the Montrealer after a respectable first season with 50 points, including 20 goals, in 84 games. He played with five other NHL teams including the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild. His career included 327 points, including 129 goals, in 616 premier league games.
-Nail Yakupov: Edmonton Oilers, 2012
Photo archives, AFP
Nail Yakupov terrorized his Ontario Junior League (OHL) opponents by scoring 170 points in 110 games with the Sarnia Sting. The Russian struggled through the rain and good weather with teammate Alex Galchenyuk, who was drafted two rows later by the Montreal Canadiens. The Oilers were blessed with the first overall pick in their third straight draft and saw Yakupov as a franchise player.
His poor attitude certainly hurt him during his brief NHL career of six seasons. He has just 136 points, including 36 goals, in 350 games for Edmonton, the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche. He has spent the last six seasons in the KHL.
-Brian Lawton: Minnesota North Stars, 1983
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The Minnesota North Stars had high hopes for Brian Lawton, and with good reason. In the two seasons he spent at Mount St. Charles Academy, a Rhode Island high school team, he had amassed 171 points. The Minnesota squad picked Lawton over Pat LaFontaine, Steve Yzerman and Cam Neely. However, the New Jersey native’s career ended with 483 games and 266 points, including 116 goals.
-Patrik Stefan: Atlanta Thrashers, 1999
The 1999 NHL Entry Draft will not go down in history, nor will the Atlanta Thrashers’ first overall pick. The organization caught Patrik Stefan. The forward should never have been picked outright as former Vancouver Canucks general manager Brian Burke made a few trades to sign twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
The Czech got off to a tentative start with the defunct Atlanta team in his first-ever season on the Bettman Tour. In 72 games, he has only shown the red light five times. Stephan has never scored more than 14 career goals or 40 points. He then played just seven seasons in the NHL, including six with the Thrashers and one with the Dallas Stars, recording 64 goals and 124 assists for 188 points in 455 games.
Fans remember the blunder he made against the Oilers in January 2007. Standing alone in front of an empty cage, he completely missed his target, stumbling. This sequence resulted in a goal from Ales Hemsky in the last seconds of the duel.
-Rick DiPietro: New York Islanders, 2000
Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Sun/QMI Age
The New York Islanders saw tremendous potential in Rick DiPietro. They made the decision to trade goaltender Roberto Luongo, who the team drafted with the fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft, to give the American the goal. Mike Milbury, the Islanders’ general manager at the time, must certainly regret his decision to part ways with Luongo, now a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The New York team also awarded him a huge 15-year contract worth $67.5 million. The organization later bought out his contract in 2013 and the Islanders will continue to pay him his salary through the end of the 2028-29 season. The former NCAA Boston University Terrier has suffered many injuries throughout his career and simply hasn’t been able to establish himself as a star guard. He played for the Islanders for 11 seasons and was a starter in 319 games. His career record was 130-136-36 and he had a 2.87 clean sheet average and a .902 save average.