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Poll: Which Team Is The Most Improved This Offseason?

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This offseason, there were some teams that made quite a few large-scale moves. The New Jersey Devils inked contract extensions with forwards Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt, as their Metropolitan division rival, the New York Islanders, handed out an eight-year contract to arguably the best goaltender in the NHL, Ilya Sorokin.

Although those contract extensions are important deals in their own right, this poll is specifically about which team is most ’improved’ after this offseason, not necessarily which team had the ’best’ offseason.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who already had two former MVP winners in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, as well as a defenseman who has received plenty of Norris votes throughout his career in Kris Letang, went for the big fish and acquired Erik Karlsson in a three-team trade. There are certainly some defensive issues that come into question in this deal, but it’s hard to see how acquiring not only the reigning Norris Trophy winner but a defenseman who scored over 100 points only a season ago, as anything other an improvement.

Even after winning their first playoff series in quite some time, the Toronto Maple Leafs 2023 playoff run was still considered a failure in many ways. In an attempt to get even deeper into the playoffs next spring, the Maple Leafs brought in John Klingberg, Ryan Reaves, Max Domi, and Tyler Bertuzzi just to name a few. At the very least, both Bertuzzi and Domi had solid playoff performances last season, and add extra grit to Toronto’s lineup.

Not considered even a fringe playoff team for this season, there is an argument to be made that the Chicago Blackhawks are actually the most improved team this summer. No other team in the NHL was able to select Connor Bedard, and if everything goes as expected, will make even Connor McDavid look human. After an early summer trade with the Boston Bruins, the team will also be able to position Taylor Hall on Bedard’s wing, as well as adding Nick Foligno and Corey Perry as extra forward depth.

There are even more teams than these three alone that could have been considered as the most improved. That is why we ask, who do you think is the most improved team after this offseason?

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Twelfth Overall

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)
10th Overall: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Edmonton Oilers (6)
11th Overall: Ryan Ellis, Nashville Predators (11)

The Nashville Predators retain their original selection at 11th overall by the slimmest of margins in our reader poll. At the time of writing, Ellis edged out Dmitry Orlov by just one vote and earned just 22.6% of the total vote in one of the most wide-open polling sessions thus far in this series.

Drafted out of OHL Windsor, Ellis would remain in junior hockey for two more seasons to great success, recording a phenomenal 100 points in 58 games from the point in the 2010-11 campaign, winning CHL Defenseman of the Year and Player of the Year honors. He turned pro the following year, splitting the season between Nashville and AHL Milwaukee but losing his rookie designation by playing 32 games. In fact, Ellis wouldn’t become a full-time fixture in the Nashville lineup until the 2013-14 campaign, and it would be another few years until he cemented himself as a top-four fixture.

He did eventually get there, though, averaging over 20 minutes per game for the first time as a 25-year-old in the 2015-16 season. Once he did, however, he solidified himself as a premier two-way talent, routinely putting himself on pace for at least 40 points in a full season and logging significant time on both special teams units. He played a large role in Nashville’s run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, skating 23:26 per game and recording 13 points in 22 contests and a +4 rating.

Unfortunately, Ellis would run into significant injury trouble in the campaigns that followed. While Nashville captured the President’s Trophy in 2018 thanks to a spectacular 117-point campaign, Ellis was only available for the latter half of the campaign after missing the first 38 games due to a knee injury. He would play a full 82 games in 2018-19, but he missed 20 games with an upper-body injury in both 2019-20 and 2020-21 before they traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers the following summer. Ellis’ injury troubles, now well-documented, continued with the Flyers – after recording five points through his first four games, he exited the lineup with an injury later revealed to affect his psoas muscle. He has not played since, and Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones doesn’t believe he’ll ever return.

Because of that, Ellis’ 566 career NHL games aren’t all that much compared to his 2009 peers. Still, his 275 career points rank sixth among defenders from the draft class, and his +116 career plus-minus rating is fourth among all 2009-drafted skaters.

Now, after picking Hedman first overall in our redraft, the Islanders are on the clock again with the 12th overall pick, one they acquired from the Minnesota Wild on draft day after a series of pick swaps involving the Columbus Blue Jackets. They selected defenseman Calvin de Haan, who’s gone on to have a respectable NHL career and is still active, but he likely won’t be the pick in our next reader poll. Which brings us to the question: out of the candidates remaining, who would you award to the Islanders at 12th overall in our 2009 redraft? Vote in our poll below:

If you can’t access our poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Eleventh Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)
10th Overall: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Edmonton Oilers (6)

PHR readers have opted to give the Oilers an addition on defense rather than offense with the 10th overall pick this time around, awarding them Ekman-Larsson with 30% of the vote. In doing so, the original top seven selections are now off the board, with Kane and Ekman-Larsson, our biggest fallers so far, dropping four selections each.

Unlike many other defenders, Ekman-Larsson’s development was not a slow burn. His best seasons came before his 25th birthday, consistently earning Norris Trophy consideration while holding down a top-pair role for the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes. He had captured a top-four role before his 21st birthday, playing in all 82 games during his sophomore 2011-12 season and posting 32 points while averaging over 22 minutes per game.

However, after four more seasons of producing like a top-flight defender, Ekman-Larsson began to show signs of decline. His point production waned slightly, and while his combined -53 rating between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons is much more a reflection of the team around him, his possession numbers were not nearly up to par with the more dominant two-way play he’d displayed in the years prior. The Coyotes named him captain in 2018 after the retirement of Shane Doan, but his play continued to slowly dwindle until the organization cut ties in 2021, dealing him, along with Conor Garland and other ancillary pieces, to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks bought out the remainder of his eight-year, $66MM extension signed with Arizona in 2018 this summer, resulting in the largest non-compliance buyout in league history.

The 32-year-old defender will now try and turn things around nearly as far away from Vancouver as you can get in the NHL, signing a one-year, $2.25MM deal with the Florida Panthers in free agency. He recorded two goals and 22 points in 54 games for the Canucks last season, alongside a -24 rating and a career-worst -3% relative Corsi For at even strength.

Despite his downfall, Ekman-Larsson’s peak years with the Coyotes were much better than any defender the Oilers had to offer at the time, and drafting him could have easily changed the team’s trajectory throughout the early 2010s. Of course, that would mean losing out on Connor McDavid and the first-overall pick in 2015.

Now, we move to the 11th overall selection in 2009: the Nashville Predators. They’re likely happy with their original choice, Ryan Ellis, as he contributed in a top-four role for the better part of 562 games with the franchise before a psoas muscle injury cut his career short after a deal to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2021. However, do you think there’s a better player not yet taken in our series? Vote in the poll below:

If you can’t access the poll above, you can click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Tenth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)

The Senators get a marked upgrade over their original ninth-overall pick, defenseman Jared Cowen. Schenn won our polling by a narrow margin, beating out Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the honors by just a handful of percentage points.

Instead, Ottawa takes Schenn, who, had he stayed in Ottawa his whole career to date, would rank third in franchise all-time scoring behind Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. While never quite growing into the elite echelon of players some expected him to be, thanks to his fifth-overall billing, Schenn has been a consistent contributor and is arguably getting better with age, putting up some of his best (and most consistent) point totals in recent seasons. His 589 career points in 858 games are certainly nothing to scoff at, and he ranks fifth in scoring among his draft class – making it a bit of a surprise he’s fallen this far in our reader polling.

A member of the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in 2019, Schenn has now cracked the 60-point mark twice in a Blues uniform after recording 65 last season, something he never did earlier in his career with the Kings and Philadelphia Flyers.

Now, the Edmonton Oilers are on the clock at tenth overall. Their original pick continued a trend of three underwhelming selections: first Scott Glennie in Dallas, Cowen in Ottawa, and now Swedish winger Magnus Pääjärvi in Edmonton. He’s certainly the best out of those three players, getting into 467 NHL contests over the course of nine years, but he lasted just three seasons in Edmonton and fizzled out quickly after a strong rookie campaign in 2010-11 that saw him post 15 goals and 34 points in 80 games as a 19-year-old.

He looked like quite a solid pick at the time. He spent nearly all of the 2008-09 season playing Swedish pro-level hockey with Timrå IK in the Elitserien (the SHL’s predecessor) and had decent middle-tier production, recording seven goals and 17 points in 50 games. He took a step forward in his post-draft year, recording 29 points in 49 games in 2009-10, but he could just never regain his offensive confidence after posting just eight points in 41 games during his sophomore year with Edmonton. After later stints with the Blues and Senators, Pääjärvi is now back in Europe playing for Timrå.

While he did have a good stint in the NHL as a depth player, there are surely better options for Edmonton available with the tenth overall selection. Who would you pick, PHR readers? Make your voice heard below:

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Poll: Where Will Patrick Kane Sign?

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When Patrick Kane said he’d be undergoing a hip resurfacing procedure in June, it became clear he wouldn’t sign a new contract anywhere until deep into his recovery, closer to the start of the 2023-24 season. That’s exactly what happened – more than two months into free agency, the three-time Stanley Cup champion remains unsigned but, if you ask him, is ahead of schedule in his return to playing health.

Now, in the dog days of summer, rumors have been ramping up about where the longtime Blackhawks winger might end up. The Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and New York Islanders were named as potential suitors by The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta last month, while the Chicago Daily Herald’s John Dietz reported yesterday a desire to reunite with former teammate Alex DeBrincat may influence Kane to sign with the emerging Detroit Red Wings – if they come calling, that is. There’s been no reporting to suggest Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has interest in acquiring Kane.

What remains a complete unknown is what Kane is willing to take in terms of payment on his next deal. He won’t receive anywhere close to his previous $10.5MM AAV, but how low is he willing to go on a one-year deal to join a potential contender? He’s also one year away from being eligible for a 35+ contract, meaning he cannot receive performance bonuses on a contract signed for this season.

The answer to that question could very well determine his options. If he wants something with more significant compensation, Colorado or Detroit will be his two options among the reported potential destinations. The Avs still have around $2MM in cap flexibility as captain Gabriel Landeskog is destined for LTIR, per CapFriendly, while the Red Wings have slightly over $5MM in space remaining. Dallas or New York wouldn’t be able to accommodate much above the league minimum $775K salary unless a corresponding trade is made.

The Buffalo Sabres, Kane’s hometown team, remains a wildcard option. There’s been nothing concrete connecting the two parties throughout the offseason, however – it remains just speculation.

Signing Kane would give Detroit a bonafide core of four top-six wingers with him, DeBrincat, David Perron, and Lucas Raymond, but is Kane still going to be able to handle first-line minutes on a playoff team without the star-studded help he had around him with the New York Rangers post-deadline last season? Given his pre-injury decline and recovery from such a severe procedure, it’s a fair worry to have.

All that said, we ask you, PHR readers: Where do you think Kane will end up when he signs for the 2023-24 season? Vote in our poll below:

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Ninth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)

With Dallas originally taking Scott Glennie at the eighth spot, this selection certainly represents a significant improvement in outcomes for the Stars with 31.5% of the votes from our readers going to the power forward.  That was twice as many votes as the next-highest player.

Kane was originally drafted fourth overall by Atlanta after a dominant showing with WHL Vancouver and they moved him right to the NHL.  While it took him some to adjust to playing at the top level, his third season was a breakout campaign as he picked up 57 points in the franchise’s first season with Winnipeg.  To date, that is his career-best in a single season.

However, Kane wasn’t without controversy during his time with the Jets and he later admitted that he requested a trade basically every offseason.  Eventually, that request was granted – while he was on the injured list, no less – as Winnipeg moved him to Buffalo in February of 2015 in what some would call a blockbuster move at the time.  Zach Bogosian also went to the Sabres as part of the swap with Tyler Myers, Joel Armia, Drew Stafford, Brendan Lemieux, and a first-round pick all coming to Winnipeg.

Things weren’t much better for Kane in Buffalo.  The injury struggles continued while he produced at close to the same level as he did with the Jets.  With his contract coming to an end in 2018 and the Sabres out of contention, he was moved to San Jose at the trade deadline.

This time, the change of scenery helped as Kane played well enough down the stretch and in the playoffs to earn a seven-year, $49MM contract.  In his first two full seasons with the team, he had 56 goals and it looked like he had found a long-term home.

However, he didn’t make it past the halfway point of the deal.  The relationship between Kane and the Sharks soured amid off-ice allegations that were investigated by the league and found to be unsubstantiated.  Then, Kane submitted a fake vaccination card in 2020, resulting in a 21-game suspension and an immediate assignment to the AHL upon its conclusion.  Two months later, they terminated the contract, citing a breach of contract and failure to adhere to COVID protocols.  Kane and the NHLPA filed a grievance which was settled last September.

In the meantime, Kane caught on with Edmonton in 2022 and was quite productive down the stretch with 39 points in 43 games, earning himself a new four-year deal that still has three years remaining.  Injuries limited him to just 41 regular season games in 2022-23 but he was still an important part of their top six and projects to be in that role for the foreseeable future.

Now, we move on to the ninth selection, which was held by the Ottawa Senators.  They initially took Jared Cowen out of WHL Spokane but he was only able to hold on to a depth role for a handful of years before calling it a career in 2016.  Clearly, he isn’t the best option available in our redraft.  Who is?  Make your selection for the Sens below.

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Poll: Which Team Had The Worst Offseason?

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During this time of year, some organizations have plenty of excitement surrounding their clubs, as fans are eager to see new players wear the jerseys of their favorite teams headed into training camp. Whether picking up exciting players through the draft, free agency, or trades, there are plenty of teams that significantly improved their rosters heading into next season. However, there are some teams that have been unable to improve or have even seen the talent on their roster take a substantial decrease this summer.

One of the most important teams that factors into this conversation, is the defending President Trophy champions, Boston Bruins. This summer, the Bruins have had to deal with the untimely retirements of franchise legends Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, while also watching Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno, Taylor Hall, as well as several others join separate organizations for the 2023-24 season. Seeing their name pop up in plenty of trade conversations lately, their cap situation has halted Boston from replacing any of these players on their team. The team still features top-end talent such as David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, but in arguably the strongest division in the NHL, their competitive window may take a brief hiatus.

Unlike the Bruins, one team who had been projected to be competitive last season, but ultimately failed short of the playoffs at season’s end, was the Calgary Flames. The organization is only a season away from seeing quite a few players hit unrestricted free agency, but with an open wild-card situation in the Western Conference, the team did not do much to improve their chances next year. The organization may be banking on a serious change in direction from new head coach, Ryan Huska, but after trading away Tyler Toffoli to the New Jersey Devils early in the summer, the team only brought in Yegor Sharangovich, Dryden Hunt, and Jordan Oesterle. Time will tell if Huska truly has the ability to move the needle for the Flames behind the bench, but the acquired players this summer do not generate much confidence in that happening.

Lastly, for another straight summer, the New York Islanders did very little to address their lack of goal-scoring. The team did hand long-term deals to both Pierre Engvall and Scott Mayfield but failed to bring in any players such as Jason Zucker or Vladimir Tarasenko, who could have provided an extra boost to their offense. They may benefit from a full season from center Bo Horvat, but even after deploying him for over 35% of the season last year, still finished 22nd in the league in Goals For. The team is limited by the way of salary cap space and does typically put much more emphasis on keeping the puck out of their net, but the lack of additional goal-scoring is severely limiting this team in their quest for success.

There are other teams that may be in contention for the worst offseason, and now it’s time for a vote.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Eighth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall: Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)

With Toronto’s initial selection being plucked by the Coyotes one pick prior, PHR voters opted to give the Leafs a defenseman, doling out the biggest riser so far in Ekholm. It was a rather sizable win for the Swedish defender, earning 31% of the PHR reader vote, coming in ahead of second-place Evander Kane, who’s now fallen at least four spots from his original fourth-overall billing. He received 19% of the vote.

Like most defenders, especially those drafted in the later rounds, it took Ekholm a few years to develop into a full-time NHLer. After playing single-digit game totals the previous two seasons, Ekholm played 62 contests for Nashville in 2013-14 as a 23-year-old, losing his rookie status. It was another couple of years until Ekholm transformed into the top-four fixture we know today, however. That came in the 2015-16 campaign when he eclipsed the 20-minutes-per-game average for the first time and notched a career-high eight goals, 27 assists and 35 points while playing in all 82 games.

Since then, Ekholm has been a model of consistency, logging heavy minutes while posting consistent point totals and possession metrics. His career-best season came in the 2018-19 campaign, when his 44 points, +27 rating and 23:22 average ice time per game earned him some Norris Trophy consideration, finishing tenth in voting that year. The Predators certainly got their value out of Ekholm, finally moving on from him earlier this year after 12 years and 719 games. He’s now part of perhaps the most skilled core in the league with the Edmonton Oilers, projecting to play a crucial role in helping develop young Evan Bouchard as his defense partner.

Now, we move to the Dallas Stars at eighth overall – a pick on which they’d certainly love a mulligan. They had the only complete whiff of the top ten, selecting speedy winger Scott Glennie from the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. It looked like a fine pick at the time – he’d just rattled off 70 points in 55 games during his draft year. His development stunted once he turned pro in 2011, however, and he would play just one NHL game for the Stars in the 2011-12 season.

There are a handful of solid options for the Stars to pick from here. Kane is still on the board, as mentioned earlier, as are fifth-overall pick Brayden Schenn and sixth-overall pick Oliver Ekman-Larsson. PHR readers, tell us: Who would you take from the remaining crop at eighth overall? Vote in our poll below:

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Seventh Overall Pick

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)

Rather than have history repeat itself by selecting Oliver Ekman-Larsson with the sixth pick, PHR readers instead opted to give the Coyotes a center with nearly 30% of the votes cast coming in for Kadri.

It took some time for Kadri to find his footing in the NHL but a breakout performance in the lockout-shortened 2012-23 campaign saw him secure a full-time role.  That year, he posted a 0.93 points per game average and it looked like Toronto had found a true impact center, a vacancy they had dealt with for several seasons by that time with the likes of Mikhail Grabovski, Tyler Bozak, and Matt Stajan playing big minutes in the previous seasons.

However, it took a while for Kadri to really take off as he wasn’t able to produce like a true top-line middleman with consistency.  In fact, it wasn’t until Auston Matthews arrived in 2016-17 that Kadri was able to reach the 30-goal mark, a milestone he then reached in back-to-back years.  Unfortunately for Toronto, discipline issues became too much of a concern and in the 2019 offseason, he was traded to Colorado with Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot as part of the package coming the other way.  Barrie lasted one season in Toronto before signing with Edmonton while Kerfoot held a middle-six role for each of the last four years and signed with Arizona last month.

Meanwhile, with the Avs, Kadri started slow, recording just 30 goals in his first two seasons combined, spanning 107 games.  But in 2021-22, he had a career year, exploding for 87 points; his previous career-high was only 61.  He then followed that up with an impressive playoff performance, notching 15 points in 16 games while helping lead Colorado to the Stanley Cup.

That made Kadri one of the more sought-after players last summer and while it took a while for Calgary to create enough cap room to sign him, a seven-year, $49MM deal eventually got done.  Year one didn’t go so well (as was the case for many Flames) as his production dipped to 56 points.  That’s still the third-best single-season mark of his career but they were undoubtedly hoping for a bit more from him as Calgary ultimately missed the playoffs.  With six years left on that contract, he should be a fixture in their lineup for a while.

While Ekman-Larsson was a franchise fixture in the desert for more than a decade, they spent a lot of that time also searching for a center and it certainly is interesting to wonder what might have been had Kadri been the pick for them.

In the meantime, we move on to Toronto with the seventh selection.  Obviously, their original pick (Kadri) is off the board so they’ll be getting someone new here.  Who should they take?  Make your selection using the ballot below.

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)

At fifth overall, PHR voters elected to take one of the draft’s better goal-scoring specialists in Kreider, who received 25% of the total votes. Selected straight out of high school, Kreider was drafted as a center but would end up on the wing for the New York Rangers, who took him in the mid-first round. It took him a few years to make the NHL, but he quickly became a dependable middle-six winger once he did, posting solid two-way numbers and routinely scoring over 20 goals. The last two seasons have done wonders for Kreider’s legacy, though, posting 88 markers over 160 games.

Coming up to the podium at sixth overall is the Phoenix Coyotes. The era of Wayne Gretzky behind the bench is now over after four underwhelming seasons, and the franchise is still looking to return to postseason play for just the third time since the year 2000.

They selected Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had spent the entire 2008-09 campaign playing pro hockey with Leksands IF in the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. He posted a massive two-way season there, recording 17 points in 39 games and a +44 rating. Few argued with the pick at the time, and given his peak with the Coyotes, it’s hard to argue they truly made the wrong selection.

He played one more season in Sweden before coming over to the Coyotes in 2010, splitting his rookie year between the NHL and AHL but getting decent NHL action with 48 games, albeit in a bottom-pairing role. He broke into a top-four role during his sophomore season and never looked back, routinely earning Norris Trophy votes and was eventually named the team’s captain in 2018 after the retirement of Shane Doan.

His all-around game began to decline significantly beginning with the 2019-20 season, though, and in the summer of 2021, the Coyotes were able to offload his contract on the Vancouver Canucks in a deal that’s turned out quite well for Arizona, in retrospect. That doesn’t change the fact he provided the Coyotes with solid top-pairing performance for the better part of a decade, however, finishing his stint in the desert with 388 points and averaging 23:26 per game across 769 games.

He didn’t last particularly long in Vancouver, either, and the Canucks executed the largest non-compliance buyout in NHL history this summer to get out of the remaining four years of his massive eight-year, $66MM extension signed with the Coyotes that kicked in just as his decline began in 2019. He’ll suit up for the Florida Panthers next season, looking to prove he can turn things around on a one-year deal.

Ekman-Larsson trails only Hedman and Nick Leddy in total games played for a defenseman from the 2009 class with 902, and he’s third in career points behind Hedman and Tyson Barrie with 439. Despite his solid tenure as a member of the Coyotes, though, should the team have gone in a different direction? Let us know who you think the Coyotes should have selected below:

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