I have written an article for the Philadelphia Flyers' official site looking at the history of second overall picks in the NHL draft.
In many ways, the 1984 and 1988 drafts symbolize the way many fans view having the first pick as opposed to the second. In 1984, of course, the Penguins took Mario Lemieux first overall. Picking second, the New Jersey Devils selected Kirk Muller. Muller had a very distinguished career in his own right but, well, Mario is a real tough act to follow. Likewise, four years later, Mike Modano went first overall and Trevor Linden second.
But there have also been plenty of cases over the years where the second pick went on to have a better career than the first pick. Cases in point: Brad Park vs. Barry Gibbs, Chris Pronger vs. Alexandre Daigle, Brian Bellows vs. Gord Kluzak, Wilf Paiement vs. Greg Joly, Wade Redden vs. Bryan Berard.
Likewise, there have been many second picks who were soon overshadowed by players taken after him in the first round: Dale Tallon vs. Reggie Leach/Rick MacLeish/ Darryl Sittler, Petr Nedved vs. Jaromir Jagr/Martin Brodeur, Pat Falloon vs. Scott Niedermayer/Peter Forsberg, Sylvain Turgeon vs. Pat LaFontaine/Steve Yzerman/Tom Barrasso.
A few drafts have produced successive top-stars-to-be in the one and two spots: e.g., Guy LaFleur and Marcel Dionne in 1971, Pierre Turgeon and Brendan Shanahan in 1987, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in 2004.
The bottom line: Unless it's a Lemieux or Crosby type of draft year where there is an absolutely clear cut first overall pick heading into the draft, history has shown there really is no particular built-in disadvantage to picking second.
The 2007 Draft should be more typical of the average draft, where any of the top handful of picks are equally likely to become stars or disappointments down the road.
http://flyers.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=318214&page=NewsPage&service=page
***
Today, NHL.com is featuring an article I wrote on the five Frölunda Indians players likely to be selected in the top three rounds of the NHL draft.
Possible first-round pick Lars Eller revealed today that he is being loaned from Frölunda's J20 team to Allsvenskan (top minor league) team Borås for the start of next season.
The move was expected. The Frölunda organization would rather see the Dane play against a higher grade of competition in Allsvenkan than play against overmatched juniors or hardly play at all for Frölunda's Elitserien team.
Eller said that he anticipates his NHL arrival time being in 2-3 years-- a year in Allsvenskan, followed by one or two years with Frölunda's Elitserien team.
The move puts an end to speculation that Eller was interested in being selected in the CHL Import Draft and playing junior hockey in Canada rather than minor league hockey in Sweden.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=318189
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»