Poll: 2005 NHL Draft Take Two: Fourteenth Overall Pick

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 2005 NHL Draft, which kicked off the salary cap era and ushered in many of the current NHL superstars. The question we’re looking to answer is knowing now what we didn’t know then, how different would this draft look now with the benefit of hindsight?

Here are the results of our redraft so far:

1st Overall: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
2nd Overall: Carey Price (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim)
3rd Overall: Anze Kopitar (Carolina Hurricanes)
4th Overall: Jonathan Quick (Minnesota Wild)
5th Overall: Kris Letang (Montreal Canadiens)
6th Overall: Tuukka Rask (Columbus Blue Jackets)
7th Overall: Bobby Ryan (Chicago Blackhawks)
8th Overall: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (San Jose Sharks)
9th Overall: Ben Bishop (Ottawa Senators)
10th Overall: James Neal (Vancouver Canucks)
11th Overall: T.J. Oshie (Los Angeles Kings)
12th Overall: Keith Yandle (New York Rangers)
13th Overall: Paul Stastny (Buffalo Sabres)

Now we move forward to the 14th pick, which was held by the Washington Capitals.

To recap how this works:

• We will go through the 2005 NHL Draft and have our readers select, through a voting process, who they think should have been taken with the selection.
• The entire first round will be redrafted, spanning picks one through thirty. The new selection is chosen by the majority of votes.

Back in 2005, Washington selected hulking blueliner Sasha Pokulok.  It’s safe to say they’d love a do-over with this one.  Pokulok was drafted out of Cornell and turned pro early one year later.  He spent the bulk of his entry level contract in the ECHL and was let go shortly thereafter without getting into an NHL game.  He then went overseas for a few years, spending time in Germany, Austria, Croatia, and Kazakhstan.  He currently is playing in the LNAH in his fourth season there, a minor pro league in Quebec with any hopes of making the NHL completely gone.

With the 14th pick of the 2005 NHL Redraft, who should the Washington Capitals select?  Cast your vote below!

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