Chip McCleary: Kekalainen at the Draft: 2003-2004 Part 1 of a 4-part series looking at the Blues drafts under Jarmo Kekalainen.

Look forward to seeing how this all plays out!

Interesting stat you pulled up yesterday on the average distance of shots. It's been a problem for a while now, I saw a stat like this about two years ago that said pretty much the same thing. The blues may give up a low number of total shots but the shots they do give up are more often in prime scoring areas.

Now you can't say it's completely on the defense because some of those close in shots are coming off juicy rebounds that we've all seen both Elliott and Halak give up that should have been smothered or caught. But yeah the big problem is that the Blues D is not tough enough in front of the net. Way too many of the goals they've given up have been scored within a few feet of the goal by a player who was untouched by the defense.

For a while last year, the Blues were playing a good puck possession, team defense game and were getting great goaltending. You can't expect to play that way forever and now that the goaltending isn't there, the instability among defensemen personnel is even more magnified.

This is fantastic. I love it. Honestly might be the best or top 3 article I've read on HB ever. Seriously. I would love to see all teams broken down and maybe that's something you could keep in your back pocket and work with another writer or two for the summer?

Good read.

Nice. I am interested in seeing how you grade Kekalainen's job in more recent years since I think that will have more bearing on how he will perform drafting for the Jackets. Although I will caution that he enters this draft working with mostly the same scouting staff that Howson hired as opposed to his own team. There really isn't enough time to overhaul the scouting department ahead of this draft so let's hope these scouts are doing a good job.

Wow, awesome article! cant believe how much research you would have had to do to write this whole series. Would love for you or someone to do this for all teams for the past decade, see how they did, especially relative to who was still available at that specific pick. Maybe this summer you could do it for the leafs?

Anyhow great work!

Chip McCleary: Kekalainen at the Draft: 2003-2004
Part 1 of a 4-part series looking at the Blues drafts under Jarmo Kekalainen.
- Chip McCleary

Good blog.

nice article, but a lot of poop drafting by the blues.

nice article, but a lot of poop drafting by the blues.
- wingz4life

Every team has plenty of sh!tty picks, it's just the law of averages. I'm pretty sure that overall, Kekalainen did a great job with the Blues drafting and developing, at least better than 20 of the other teams in the NHL during his time with the Blues.

nice article, but a lot of poop drafting by the blues.
- wingz4life

In the same period, the Red Wings had exactly three (3) of their 16 draft picks make it to the NHL.

-- Jimmy Howard (#64, 2003)
-- Kyle Quincey (#127, 2003)
-- Johan Franzen (#97, 2004)

For all of Franzen's greatness, in 20 more GP he has 24 more goals but 3 fewer points than Backes - and with Franzen being 5 years older, it's quite likely Backes will pass him in total production when their respective careers are over.

If the Blues had "a lot of poop drafting" the Red Wings were even worse in that same period.

In the same period, the Red Wings had exactly three (3) of their 16 draft picks make it to the NHL.

-- Jimmy Howard (#64, 2003)
-- Kyle Quincey (#127, 2003)
-- Johan Franzen (#97, 2004)

For all of Franzen's greatness, in 20 more GP he has 24 more goals but 3 fewer points than Backes - and with Franzen being 5 years older, it's quite likely Backes will pass him in total production when their respective careers are over.

If the Blues had "a lot of poop drafting" the Red Wings were even worse in that same period.
- Chip McCleary

you going to address howard too? i get what your saying but to say the wings were worse?

you going to address howard too? i get what your saying but to say the wings were worse?
- wingz4life

So what about Howard? He's a #1 goalie, but let's not pretend he's some elite-level guy. He's a guy that's played a bunch of games on some really good Red Wings teams and has a bunch of W's as a result - and then there was 2010-11, when he racked up 37 W's but posted a GAA and SV% that were easily in the bottom 1/5th of all NHL goalies who played 40+ games that year. On a team that went 47-25-10 and was 2nd in the league in scoring at 3.13 goals per game, and needed most of them because he was pretty damn mediocre.

However, this is about the draft records of the Red Wings - and the bottom line is that they were 3 of 16. You can't even look at the other 13 guys and say, "they were good enough we were able to use them as trade bait to get ______." You got a mid-level #1 goalie, an overage top-line forward who's closer to retirement than the start of his NHL career, and a maybe top-4 defenseman. That's it. If that's your idea of being more successful, you have really low expectations for the Red Wings and incredibly high expectations for the other 29 teams.

So what about Howard? He's a #1 goalie, but let's not pretend he's some elite-level guy. He's a guy that's played a bunch of games on some really good Red Wings teams and has a bunch of W's as a result - and then there was 2010-11, when he racked up 37 W's but posted a GAA and SV% that were easily in the bottom 1/5th of all NHL goalies who played 40+ games that year. On a team that went 47-25-10 and was 2nd in the league in scoring at 3.13 goals per game, and needed most of them because he was pretty damn mediocre.

However, this is about the draft records of the Red Wings - and the bottom line is that they were 3 of 16. You can't even look at the other 13 guys and say, "they were good enough we were able to use them as trade bait to get ______." You got a mid-level #1 goalie, an overage top-line forward who's closer to retirement than the start of his NHL career, and a maybe top-4 defenseman. That's it. If that's your idea of being more successful, you have really low expectations for the Red Wings and incredibly high expectations for the other 29 teams.
- Chip McCleary

Most teams are thrilled if they get three good NHL players out of their drafts if they are picking outside the top-10 in round one. You need to at least get two IMO to offset losses of roster players due to free agency and/or retirement.

Most teams are thrilled if they get three good NHL players out of their drafts if they are picking outside the top-10 in round one. You need to at least get two IMO to offset losses of roster players due to free agency and/or retirement.
- Glen Miller

This is covering 2 drafts. Detroit got a player and a half per draft, falling short of your 2 per draft.


Great blog, looking forward to seeing the next few years of Jarmo results.

This is covering 2 drafts. Detroit got a player and a half per draft, falling short of your 2 per draft.


Great blog, looking forward to seeing the next few years of Jarmo results.
- Antilles

Yes which is part of the reason I responded to Chip; to support his statement. I certainly wasn't defending the Red Wings draft record for those two years.

Nice work, Chip. That's a solid blog and will be good for informing Blue Jackets fans of what to expect draft-wise from Jarmo.