Top Ten Greatest KL Draft Picks of 2010

It's late enough in the season that we can fairly reflect on our draft-day decisions. Here is my subjective ranking of the top ten draft-day steals. I took into account the fact that goalies were overvalued this year (my bad), so picks had to be compared within their positions (i.e., forwards to other forwards, etc.). I sometimes considered injuries and sometimes considered future potential, but not really. It's more art than science. 

Without further ado... 

10. Martin St. Louis, Victoria Krugars: 1st round, 15th overall

Second in scoring with 91 points - who thought he would outscore Stamkos?

9. Dustin Byfuglien, Teeyotes: 11th round, 156th overall (35th defenceman taken)

Fourth among defencemen in scoring, 52 points.

8. Kris Letang, Moilers: 12th round,169th overall (38th defenceman taken)

Sixth among d-men in scoring, 48 points - without Crosby and Malkin for half the year. More potential than Byfuglien. 

7. Alex Pietrangelo, Preydators: 17th round, 242nd overall (65th defenceman taken)

19th among defencemen in scoring, 41 points and just 21 years old.

6. Claude Giroux, Victoria Krugars: 6th round, 76th overall

Drafted after teammates Carter, Briere and Richards but leads the team with 71 points (12th overall). 

5. James Wisniewski, Fylanders: 15th round, 214th overall (53rd defenceman taken)

8th in defencemen scoring with 47 points.

4. Keith Yandle, Manitoba Roos: 8th round, 107th overall (17th defenceman taken)

Third among defencemen in scoring with 58 points. People used to make fun of Keith Yandle.

3. Lubomir Visnovsky, Victoria Krugars: 8th round, 106th overall (16th defenceman taken)

First among defencemen with 63 points - career best 67 from 05-06 is beatable.

2. Carey Price, Schizzarks: 16th round, 233rd overall (25th goaltender taken)

Yes, 25th goaltender taken. Second to only Henrik Lundqvist in KL points, thanks to eight shutouts.

1. Teemu Selanne, Winter Claassics: 17th round, 253rd overall.

10th in scoring with 75 points, 8th in points per game. Late-round gambles on aging superstars can pay off. If we could do the draft over again, he would go second round. Great pick, DC.

Honourable mention: Rafalski (Schizzarks, 8th round, 4th in d pts per game), Ryan Whitney (Fylanders, 8th round, 3rd in d pts per game), Burns (Claassics, 15th round, 43 pts), D. Sedin (Wittmen, 7th overall, leading scorer), Ribeiro (Dicklas, 7th round, 66 pts), Lundqvist (Dicklas, 8th goalie taken, first in KL points), Tanguay (P-Rangers, 13th round, 59 pts), Couture (P-Rangers, 15th round, 53 pts as rookie), T. Ruutu (Moilers, 18th round, 50 points), Vrbata (Roos, 299th/300, 46 points - but Micah picked for Roos because he had to leave early). 

Any great picks I missed?

Other observations:

1. A lot of defencemen made the list, and I think that reflects my observation that there was more unpredicatability at defence this year than at forward. Forwards, with few exceptions, either did roughly what we expected, or disappointed. The top ten scoring forwards were all drafted in the first three rounds, with the exception of Teemu Selanne. The top ten scoring defencemen were drafted in the 8th, 5th, 8th, 11th, 5th, 4th, 12th, 15th, 6th, and 9th rounds, respectively. 

2. There were two distinct "waves" of goalie pickups. 14 goalies were taken in the first five rounds. Just one was taken in the next five rounds. Nine were taken in rounds 11 to 15, and just three were taken in the last five rounds. This aligns with what we observed during the draft: the majority of GMs took a solid goalie early, with a few choosing to wait... when some GMs started taking their second goalie around round 12, the rest panicked and added their second (or first and second) goalies. Price was the Schizzarks' second goalie pick, after Backstrom in the 13th round.

3. Worst pick candidate:

Nikita Filatov, P-Rangers, 9th round.