Advertisement

A decade of drafts: Part 1

Dave Molinari 8 years ago

Drafting teenaged hockey players is a most imprecise science, as evidenced by how many can’t-miss prospects have done just that over the years.

Nonetheless, the annual infusion of prospects that the NHL draft provides is critical to keeping a team competitive for the long term. Mistakes in evaluating young players are inevitable, but making too many can create holes in a team’s depth chart for years.

In this two-part series, we will take at look at every player the Penguins have chosen in the past 10 NHL drafts.

Here is Part 1, covering 2005-2009.

2005

Round 1 – C Sidney Crosby, Rimouski (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). Was touted as a potential franchise cornerstone long before the Penguins won a league-wide lottery to get him. Despite a series of major lost-time injuries, he has largely lived up to those rarefied expectations.

Round 2 – D Michael Gergen, Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school (Minn.). Never made it past the East Coast Hockey League after spending four years at Minnesota –Duluth.

Round 3 – D Kris Letang, Val d’IR (QMJHL). Despite several serious health issues, ranging from a stroke to multiple concussions, he has become one of the top defensemen in the NHL and is an important piece of the Penguins’ core.

Round 4 – D Tommi Leinonen, Karpat Jrs. (Finland). Has never played outside of Europe.

Round 5 – RW Tim Crowder, Surrey (British Columbia Hockey League). Never made it past the ECHL after spending four years at Michigan State.

Round 6 – D Jean-Philipp Paquet, Shawinigan (QMJHL). Career peaked when he played 39 games for St. Georges Cool 103.5 FM in the North American Hockey League.

Round 7 – C Joe Vitale, Sioux Falls (United States Hockey League). Put in three-plus seasons with the Penguins, mostly as a fourth-line center, before signing with Arizona as a free agent a year ago.

2006

Round 1 – C Jordan Staal, Peterborough (Ontario Hockey League). Was projected as a strong defensive presence who could complement Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as a No. 3 center, and filled that niche well before being traded to Carolina in 2012.

Round 2 – D Carl Sneep, Brainerd (Minn.) High School. Appeared in just one NHL game, with the Penguins in 2011-12, after attending Boston College.

Round 3 – D Brian Strait, U.S. national under-18 team. Is a depth defenseman with the New York Islanders, who acquired from him from Penguins on waivers in 2012.

Round 5 – G Chad Johnson, Alaska-Fairbanks (Central Collegiate Hockey Assoc.). Has made it into 56 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Phoenix, Boston and the Islanders.

Round 7 – D Timo Seppanen, Helsinki (Finland SM-liiga). Spent his entire career in Finland, except for one year in Sweden.

2007

Round 1 – C Angelo Esposito, Quebec (QMJHL). Once the top-ranked prospect in his draft class, he ultimately slipped to the Penguins at No. 20 overall. Their gamble on him didn’t pay off, but they cut their losses by including him in the 2008 trade that brought Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis from Atlanta.

Round 2 – C Keven Veilleux, Victoriaville (QMJHL). Veilleux had impressive size, but never come close to realizing his potential, in part because of a serious knee injury.

Round 3 – D Robert Bortuzzo, Kitchener (OHL). He developed into a solid third-pairing defensive defenseman before being traded to St. Louis for Ian Cole late in the 2014-15 season.

Round 3 – LW Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Merritt (BCHL). The Penguins thought he was a dark horse candidate to mature into an impact player as a pro. His next NHL game will be his first.

Round 4 – LW Luca Caputi, Mississauga (OHL). Caputi showed power-forward potential early in his pro career, and some were surprised when he was included in a trade that brought Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto. Turned out to be a deal that did little for either team.

Round 4 – D Alex Grant, Saint John (QMJHL). A prospects-tournament injury impeded his development, and he made his only two NHL appearances for Anaheim in 2013-14. Is now in Ottawa’s organization.

Round 5 – D Jake Muzzin, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL). A serious back problem caused his pre-draft stock to plummet, and the Penguins eventually decided it might well prevent him from getting to the NHL. They were wrong, and he won a Stanley Cup in Los Angeles last year.

Round 6 – C Dustin Jeffrey, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL). A role player capable of playing any forward position, he has logged 124 NHL games, the first 100 of them with the Penguins. Now part of the New York Islanders’ organization.

2008

Round 4 – C Nathan Moon, Kingston (OHL). The highlight of his pro career likely was seven playoff games with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League in 2011.

Round 5 – G Alexandre Pechurski, Magnitogorsk Jrs. (Russia). Was pressed into emergency service during a Penguins game in Vancouver in 2010-11, stopping 12 of 13 shots in his only NHL appearance.

Round 6 – G Patrick Killeen, Brampton (OHL). Kicked around the minor leagues for three years before playing college hockey in Canada last winter.

Round 7 – D Nicholas D’Agostino, St. Michael’s (Ontario Junior League). Plays a decent two-way game and has spent most of the past two seasons with the Penguins’ farm team in Wilkes-Barre after attending Cornell.

2009

Round 1 – D Simon Despres, Saint John (QMJHL). Still a work-in-progress, but Despres has the skills set to fill a top-four role. General manager Jim Rutherford already has expressed regret about trading him to Anaheim for Ben Lovejoy earlier this year.

Round 2 – D Philip Samuelsson, Chicago (USHL). Has the potential to land steady work in the NHL at some point, but the Penguins’ defensive depth made him expendable and he went to Arizona in the Rob Klinkhammer trade last season.

Round 3 – RW Ben Hanowski, Little Falls (Minn.) High School. Was a prolific goal-scorer in high school, but has yet to show that touch as a pro. Has played 16 games for Calgary, which acquired him in the Jarome Iginla trade in 2013.

Round 4 – RW Nick Petersen, Shawinigan (QMJHL). Spent the better part of three seasons in the minors, mostly the American Hockey League, before heading to Germany. Played for the Iserlohn Roosters in 2014-15.

Round 5 – D Alex Velischek, Delbarton (N.J.) High School. The son of former NHLer Randy Velischek, he’s knocked around the lower minors since leaving Providence College.

Round 5 – LW Andy Bathgate, Belleville (OHL). Great bloodlines – he’s the grandson of Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate – are his only connection to the NHL. He’s another who has bounced around the lower minors since turning pro.

Round 6 – D Viktor Ekbom, Oskarshamn (Sweden). Aside from three forgettable games in Wilkes-Barre in 2010-11, he has not played outside of Europe, and there’s no reason to believe that will change.

Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Nicholas D’Agostino are the only players from these five draft classes who remain in the organization.