4 Years of St.Louis Drafting

With all of the recent talk of the need for the Blues to make a trade and to move some assets (read: prospects) it got me thinking of the amazing quality of the Blues drafting over the last 4 years. The job that Jarmo Kekalainen has done is nothing short of extraordinary. Saying that, these prospects haven’t all proven that they are going to be impact players in the NHL, but all early signs point to a very successful drafting record.

To prove, what I believe to be, the extremely high quality of drafting by the Blues, I’ll go through the draft picks from 2005 – 2008. I’ll list who the Blues took and when, and show the player (and sometimes multiple players) picked directly before them. This doesn’t give a definitive answer, I know, but it should provide everyone a good indication for the quality of players that the Blues drafted, and how easily they could have been off the board when the Blues were selecting. Let’s get this started.

2005

TJ Oshie – 24th overall.

Nik Bergfors (23rd), Matt Lashoff, Tuuka Rask, Kenndal McArdle, Jakub Kindl, Ryan Parent, Martin Hanzel and Alex Bourret(16th).

It’s not even close in choosing Oshie over those players (Rask could turn into a very good goalie). Kopitar went 11th overall, easily the steal of the draft. Pouliot, Skille, Brule, and Brian Lee were all taken pre-Kopitar.

2006

Erik Johnson – 1st Overall.

The injury last year didn’t help, but all signs still point to him being a franchise type defenceman. Staal, Toews, Backstrom and Kessel all are high end players, but none should be taken ahead of EJ.

Patrik Berglund – 25th Overall

Dennis Persson (24th), Simeon Varlamov, Claude Giroux, Bob Sanguinetti, David Fisher, Mark Mitera, Chris Stewart, Trevor Lewis, Ty Wishart, Riku Helenius(15th). Pretty safe bet that most people haven’t even heard of a few of those guys. I’m a big Claude Giroux fan, but I’d still take a big center like Berglund over him. Most people shouldn’t be overly concerned with Berglund’s start this year. It’s not a good thing, but it’s fairly common for a player like in his situation.

Tomas Kana – 31st Overall

Swing and a miss, or so it seems so far.

Jonus Junland – 64th Overall

Jamie McBain (63rd), Dick Axelsson, Simon Danis-Pepin, Jesse Joensuu, Codey Burki, Alexander Vasyunov, and Mike Weber (57th). No one on there that jumps out at me. Junland continues to tear it up in the AHL and probably deserves, and will most likely receive, a call up this year. Solid 3rd rounder to say the least.

2007

Lars Eller – 13th Overall

Ryan McDonough (10th), Brandon Sutter, Keaton Ellerby, Logan Couture, Zach Hamill, Jakub Voracek, Sam Gagner, Karl Alzner, Thomas Hickey and Kyle Turris(3rd). Some pretty good players, but none possess the ceiling that Eller has. His early stint with the big club showed flashes of what he’s capable of, and he’s been dynamite in the AHL, an impressive feat for someone adjusting to NA hockey. Turris and Voracek are the only ones on that list that you could consider taking instead of Eller.

Ian Cole – 18th Overall

Alexei Cherapanov(17th), Colton Gilles, Alex Plante, Kevin Shattenkirk(14th). Cherepanov would have been a really good player and would have went earlier if it weren’t for the lack of a Russian transfer agreement. The others don’t appear to have Cole’s potential. Book is still out on Cole until we see him in pro hockey, however all indications point to his game being better suited to the pro game than the NCAA.

David Perron – 26th Overall

Patrick White, Mikael Backlund, Jonathum Blum, Max Pacioretty, Riley Nash, Angelo Esposito and Logan MacMillan. I’m not even going to comment on this, as it’s just to plainly obvious.

2008

Alex Pietrangelo – 4th Overall

Zack Bogosian, Drew Doughty and Steven Stamkos. Nobody will argue that Petro should have went sooner, but his skill set has been easily recognizable this year, and, in my opinion, has proven why everyone said his ceiling is the highest of the three defenceman. Saying that, Doughty will still end up the best of the bunch.

Philip MacRae (33rd) and Jake Allen (34th Overall)

Voylov, Markstromm, McCollum, Leveille, Tikhonov, and Carlson. Book is still out on this one as both are still in junior. Allen is widely considered the best goalie in Canadian Junior Hockey and MacRae has been very good in the OHL. People say MacRae’s skillset at the development camp this summer. Difficult to judge this early on however. Tikhonov has gotten some time in Pheonix and Carlson just debuted with the Capitals last week and looked very good. Both picks by Jarmo still appear to be very solid.

It’s a pretty impressive list of draft picks. It shows how good of a job that the Blues scouting and front office is doing, and it also makes you realize the poor drafting record before this crew took over. You can add in Polak and Backes to the list as well, as they were both overlooked by many teams.  Ben Bishop could turn into a fantastic 3rd pick as well.

All of this talent that the Blues have compiled has been quiet of late, but it should provide some comfort for many frustrated Blues fans. A 20 game stretch of struggling to get on the scoresheet should be a concern, but a quality list such as this should provide the faith that the future is still incredibly bright for the Blues. With most of this future either in the Blues lineup (Perron, EJ, Oshie, Berglund, Polak and Backes) or very close to it (Eller, Bishop, Sonne, Palushaj, and Junland), the shine from this bright future shouldn’t be that far off.

With any luck it will arrive with some turkey this Thanksgiving weekend.