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2007 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 2007 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?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)
6th Overall: Jakub Voracek, Edmonton Oilers (7)
7th Overall: Ryan McDonagh, Columbus Blue Jackets (12)
8th Overall: James van Riemsdyk, Boston Bruins (2)

The first player on our list that ended up below where he originally went is van Riemsdyk, who drops six spots but remains in the top-10. The big winger from New Jersey would have fit in perfectly alongside some of the other impressive young forwards in Boston and certainly would have been an upgrade over Zach Hamill. Alas, he was already gone when the actual draft happened and the Bruins didn’t have a chance to put van Riemsdyk and Phil Kessel together—a duo that would find themselves skating together in Toronto years later.

While Hamill played just 20 NHL games and never recorded a single goal, van Riemsdyk has made a living off of putting the puck in the net. The 30-year old winger has scored 228 goals in his 675-game career, putting him sixth among all players drafted in 2007. Interestingly his 441 points put him ninth however, behind several names that we’ve yet to see in our redraft series.

Still, it’s easy to see why our voters believe he’s the right choice here. After scoring a career-high 36 goals in 2017-18, van Riemsdyk ended up back in Philadelphia where he registered another solid season. With 27 goals and 48 points in just 66 games he showed he could still be an effective top-six option and deserving of the $35MM contract he signed in 2018.

After Boston whiffed on their pick, the San Jose Sharks were on the clock. Not only would they pick one of the best players from the draft with their first selection, but San Jose would have one of the best drafts in the entire league. Logan Couture was the ninth selection of the first round, five spots after he went in our redraft. The OHL center was actually considered something of a reach by the Sharks given he was ranked #19 among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. The team actually traded up to secure Couture, sending the St. Louis Blues an extra second-round selection to swap picks in the first (the Sharks had already added an extra first by trading Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell to the Toronto Maple Leafs).

After going back to the Ottawa 67’s for two seasons there were actually some who doubted whether Couture would really be a top offensive player at the professional level. After all he never really did have a dominant OHL season, trailing John Tavares in the scoring race by 14 points in 2008-09 despite being two years older. He never even got the chance to suit up for Team Canada at the U20 World Juniors.

Maybe junior hockey just wasn’t made for Couture though, as it didn’t take long for him to show the world what he was all about when he reached the professional ranks. In his first full season he recorded 53 points in 42 games for the AHL’s Worcester Sharks and made his presence known in the playoffs for San Jose with four goals in 15 games. The following year he recorded his first 30+ goal season and finished second in Calder Trophy voting to Jeff Skinner. He never looked back. Though Couture’s 240 career regular season goals are impressive, it’s his postseason performances that have made him into such a superstar in the league. With 48 goals and 101 points in 116 playoff game he has put himself among the elite in terms of “clutch” players in the NHL. Add in that he’s capable at both center and the wing and can play the powerplay and penalty kill and there isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t pay up to get Couture on their roster.

Unfortunately in our redraft, the Sharks will never get a chance to pick him. The talent is getting thinner but there are still several names worth considering.

With the ninth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the San Jose Sharks select? Cast your vote below!

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2007 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 2007 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?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)
6th Overall: Jakub Voracek, Edmonton Oilers (7)
7th Overall: Ryan McDonagh, Columbus Blue Jackets (12)

Three different Montreal Canadiens draft picks have now moved up into our top-ten, with McDonagh joining Subban and Pacioretty. Amazingly none of the three are still with the team, and McDonagh didn’t even really get a chance. After his selection as the fourth defenseman off the board in 2007, McDonagh followed through on his commitment to attend the University of Wisconsin and immediately became a full-time player for the school as a defensive stalwart. After his sophomore season ended however his draft rights were included in a trade to acquire Scott Gomez from the New York Rangers, as the Canadiens were desperately looking for help at the center position. Gomez had just recorded 138 points over two years with the Rangers but was still owed quite a hefty salary. He would fall off the proverbial cliff in Montreal, scoring just 20 goals and 108 points in three seasons and ending up with a buyout in 2013.

McDonagh meanwhile quickly became a household name in New York, eventually ascending to the captaincy in 2014 after participating in the Olympics with Team USA. His presence as one of the premier two-way defensemen in the league was rarely questioned through the years with the Rangers, especially in the postseason where he suited up 96 times. In 2018 with McDonagh getting closer to unrestricted free agency and the Rangers starting the process of a rebuild he was flipped to the Tampa Bay Lightning where he set a new career-high with 46 points in 2018-19.

The 30-year old defenseman’s 287 regular season points put him behind only Subban among 2007 drafted defensemen (and 14th overall), while his leadership qualities and solid presence in the defensive zone continue to make him an extremely valuable player. His place at No. 7 comes as no surprise and the Blue Jackets certainly would have welcomed him to the organization if given the chance.

In hindsight, the team selecting after Columbus likely should have taken McDonagh instead. The Boston Bruins came up to the podium in 2007 with the eighth overall pick, and with it decided to select star WHL center Zach Hamill. Ranked ninth among all North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, Hamill was coming off a 93-point season with the Everett Silvertips, breaking several franchise records and leading the entire WHL. Unfortunately, that’s really where his playing career peaked.

He returned to Everett the next season and didn’t have quite the same offensive production, before failing to really establish himself as a star in the AHL the following two years. Over three seasons from 2009-12, Hamill suited up 20 times with Boston but recorded just four points. He hasn’t played an NHL game since, instead finding himself in the German second league in 2018-19. Unless something incredible happens in the next few year Hamill will never score a single goal in the NHL, making him the first real draft bust of the 2007 group. The Bruins would obviously like a do-over, but who comes next in our draft?

With the eighth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Boston Bruins select? Cast your vote below!

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*Tragically, 17th overall pick Alexei Cherepanov died at the age of 19 and would never get a chance to suit up in the NHL. He has not been included in this vote.

Poll: Who Are The Best Defensemen In The NHL?

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Earlier this month the NHL Network started their annual exercise rating the top players in the NHL by position, and gave us Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov as the best players in the world at their respective spots. The rest of the lists created such debate that we polled the members of the PHR community and came up with our own rankings, which differed quite a bit. In fact, for the second year in a row our readers picked Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin at the top of each list.

We asked readers to select the best 20 wingers in the NHL. Our PHR community-voted Top 20 Wingers list currently looks like this:

  1. Alex Ovechkin (691 votes)
  2. Patrick Kane (644 votes)
  3. Nikita Kucherov (618 votes)
  4. Artemi Panarin (543 votes)
  5. Mitch Marner (517 votes)
  6. Taylor Hall (482 votes)
  7. Vladimir Tarasenko (459 votes)
  8. Brad Marchand (451 votes)
  9. Johnny Gaudreau (442 votes)
  10. Leon Draisaitl (412 votes)
  11. David Pastrnak (407 votes)
  12. Mikko Rantanen (384 votes)
  13. Mark Stone (340 votes)
  14. Claude Giroux (327 votes)
  15. Jamie Benn (306 votes)
  16. Patrik Laine (294 votes)
  17. Blake Wheeler (289 votes)
  18. Gabriel Landeskog (274 votes)
  19. Matthew Tkachuk (254 votes)
  20. Phil Kessel (228 votes)

Now, the network has released their ranking of the best defensemen in the NHL and the debate has heated up once again. Brent Burns jumped up to the top of the list after an outstanding 83-point season, while Mark Giordano’s Norris Trophy vaulted him to third despite not appearing anywhere on the list a year ago. Burns set a new high in points for his career despite turning 34 in March, while Giordano had nearly 20 more points than his next closest season. The undrafted Calgary Flames defenseman will turn 36 in October but was unstoppable at both ends of the rink.

The rest of the list is populated by both veterans and youngsters, with names like Ryan Suter coming in right next to Miro Heiskanen. While young players are taking over the forward position there is still plenty of older talent locking it down on the back end. One player with a huge jump is somewhere in between; Morgan Reilly finds himself seventh on the board after breaking out in his sixth NHL season. The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman is still just 25 but is now one of the longest-tenured players on the roster with 470 games under his belt.

Just like our forward polls, we want the PHR community to let us know who the best defensemen in the world are. Unlike the last poll however, we’ll ask you to select just 10 names.  Make sure to leave a comment below on who you think deserves to be recognized, or your thoughts on how the other two polls ended. We’ve included many names that could be considered, but if you think we’ve missed someone important (which we undoubtedly have) make sure to leave his name down below.

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Poll: Which GM Will Be Fired Next?

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Despite missing the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, the Vancouver Canucks decided to extend GM Jim Benning today. The reasons for that are complicated—and obviously do not hinge entirely on his postseason record—just as they were when the Minnesota Wild made the decision to fire Paul Fenton just 14 months into his tenure with the team. The inner workings of an NHL front office are almost never made public (unless there is an intrepid reporter like Michael Russo of The Athletic who gets the incredible story), and it is hard to see why some decisions are made.

Still, even the most casual fan can see the seat of specific executives and coaches heating up. When the Edmonton Oilers decided to move on from Peter Chiarelli during another disappointing season, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. On the other hand, it was easy to see why the Carolina Hurricanes recently locked up Don Waddell after he interviewed for another job.

Looking around the league, who is next? Which GM will be let go, either this year or next summer?

It might be easy to look at the teams that have struggled recently, but many of them have replaced their top hockey operations executive over the last few seasons. The Oilers brought in Ken Holland to change the culture in Edmonton, while Steve Yzerman returned to the Detroit Red Wings to bring a new voice to a stagnant team. Florida has gone through quite a bit of turmoil in the front office since their ownership changed but Dale Tallon now seems to be entrenched as a veteran leader.

There are others though that may not be so lucky. The Ottawa Senators are heading in a new direction after shedding their previous core, but if the young talent doesn’t develop as hoped Pierre Dorion could be held responsible. John Chayka was the youngest GM in history when he took over the Arizona Coyotes in 2016, but they still haven’t made the playoffs under his watch and now have new ownership of their own. Jason Botterill was expected to have success in Buffalo after finding so much of it in Pittsburgh, but the Sabres haven’t been able to build a full roster around Jack Eichel despite some outstanding individual players.

Nothing is certain when it comes to front offices however. Cast your vote below and explain just why you think they’ll be the first to go!

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*We’ve used Kelly McCrimmon as the Vegas GM, though he won’t officially take that title from George McPhee until September

2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Seventh 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 2007 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?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)
6th Overall: Jakub Voracek, Edmonton Oilers (7)

While the Oilers were probably pretty happy with the way Sam Gagner turned out for them through the first part of his career, our community believes that there was a better forward option available. Voracek had already come over to North America the season leading up to his draft and put up an impressive rookie campaign in the QMJHL. In fact, his 110 points in 71 games for the Halifax Mooseheads during the 2006-07 season earned him the league Rookie of the Year award along with a place on the CHL prospects team. The young forward also participated in the World Junior despite being just 17 years old and scored three points in six games for the Czech Republic.

Voracek has blossomed into an exceptional offensive player at the NHL level too. Stepping into the league full time in 2008, he registered 38 points with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a total that he would eclipse in every season thereafter. His best production came just two years ago with Philadelphia when he put up 85 points in 82 games, but there have been other outstanding years dotted throughout his career. In total, Voracek has 639 points in 846 career games which actually ranks him third among all players picked in 2007.

Even with all of that success, Voracek’s name likely rings of pain for Blue Jackets fans. Not for anything he did, but something the front office decided to do in June, 2011. Voracek, coming off a 46-point season with the club, was traded along with a first and a third round pick the day before the 2011 draft. The return? Jeff Carter, who was coming off an outstanding 36-goal season with the Flyers. Voracek was scheduled to be a restricted free agent coming off his entry-level deal and was leveraged to get a player considered an elite talent in the league. Carter was in the early stages of an 11-year contract (which he is still under) and the Flyers needed some extra room to go after free agent goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

Unfortunately, nothing went right for the Blue Jackets after that. Carter would get hurt and eventually force another trade after voicing his displeasure in Columbus, going to Los Angeles in exchange for Jack Johnson and another first round pick in 2013. You would think that pick would help balance out what they gave to Philadelphia in the first place, but where the Flyers selected Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins with their two picks in 2011, Columbus grabbed Marko Dano in 2013. Carter would continue to star in Los Angeles and win two Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal in three years, while Voracek and Couturier are still the backbone of the Flyers offensive attack (along with Claude Giroux, of course).

Looking back, it’s hard to argue with the selection of Voracek at seventh overall. But perhaps if they had picked someone else none of that would have happened. Now you’ll get the chance to re-write history since the Czech forward is already off the board.

With the seventh pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Columbus Blue Jackets select? Cast your vote below!

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*Tragically, 17th overall pick Alexei Cherepanov died at the age of 19 and would never get a chance to suit up in the NHL. He has not been included in this vote.

2007 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 2007 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?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)

The Montreal Canadiens have now lost two players to the redraft top five, but amazingly neither of them were their first pick that year. Pacioretty was selected well ahead of Subban however, and he deserved it. Coming into the 2007 draft, the USHL star was already listed at over 6’1″ and weighed in at 203 pounds. He was a grown man already, ready to take on the next level of hockey at the University of Michigan. The goal-scoring forward ended up registering 39 points in 37 games as a freshman and won the CCHA Rookie of the Year award. He would also suit up for Team USA at the World Juniors, though he was held scoreless in the tournament.

Scoreless wasn’t something said to describe Pacioretty for long. Jumping to the AHL following just one year in college, he recorded 29 points in 37 games for the Hamilton Bulldogs and got into 34 contests with Montreal. After bouncing back and forth the next two years he broke out in his first full NHL season with 33 goals and 65 points in 2011-12, establishing himself as one of the premier goal-scoring wingers in the league. Though the next season was shortened by a lockout, Pacioretty would go on to record four more 30+ goal seasons between 2013-2017, taking on the Canadiens’ captaincy in the process.

Traded to the Vegas Golden Knights prior to last season, Pacioretty trails just Kane and Benn in goals from the 2007 draft class. His 488 points put him sixth in the group. In 45 career playoff games he has 15 goals and 30 points, and has routinely done most of his damage at even-strength. Though he may not have the high ceiling that players like Kane and Benn bring, Pacioretty has been a consistent top-six forward in the league for quite some time and is still an effective option. Not bad from a pick in the last third of the first round.

In hindsight, the Edmonton Oilers may have rather used the sixth pick on Pacioretty. Instead they decided to go with Sam Gagner, who was ranked sixth among all North American skaters after a simply incredible season for the London Knights of the OHL. Coming from the USHL himself, Gagner put up 118 points in 53 games centering a line with Kane and Sergei Kostitsyn. Unlike Kane however he also took home the gold medal as part of Team Canada at the World Junior, despite not even being drafted yet.

There was little doubt that Gagner was going to be an NHL talent. While some may have wondered if his offense would be good enough without Kane alongside him, he quickly put that thought to rest stepping directly into the NHL with the Oilers. Gagner put up 49 points in that 2008-09 season, finishing seventh in Calder Trophy voting. Unfortunately the 79 games he played that season would be the most he ever had in a single year with the Oilers as nagging injuries took away small chunks of playing time regularly throughout his career in Edmonton. Still he recorded at least 37 points in every season before bouncing around the league the last several years.

Gagner’s NHL career may be almost over at this point after spending the majority of the 2018-19 season in the minor leagues, but that doesn’t mean it has been a disappointment. In 802 career games the 30-year old has 446 points, which actually puts him eighth among all 2007 draftees. Sure, the Oilers may have had better options but Gagner was far from a bust. That doesn’t mean he’ll necessarily be the pick in our redraft though!

With the sixth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Edmonton Oilers select? Cast your vote below!

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Poll: Who Are The Best Wingers In The NHL?

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Last week the NHL Network started their annual exercise rating the top players in the NHL by position, and gave us Connor McDavid as the best center in the world. The rest of the list created such debate that we polled the members of the PHR community and came up with our own ranking, which differed quite a bit. In fact, for the second year in a row our readers picked Sidney Crosby as the top center just barely ahead of McDavid. Nathan MacKinnon took up residence in spot three, while Auston Matthews managed to maintain his position ahead of Patrice Bergeron and the rest of the group.

Our PHR community-voted Top 20 Centers list currently looks like this:

  1. Sidney Crosby (838 votes)
  2. Connor McDavid (823 votes)
  3. Nathan MacKinnon (607 votes)
  4. Auston Matthews (509 votes)
  5. Patrice Bergeron (488 votes)
  6. John Tavares (445 votes)
  7. Steven Stamkos (350 votes)
  8. Evgeni Malkin (304 votes)
  9. Ryan O’Reilly (298 votes)
  10. Aleksander Barkov (283 votes)
  11. Jonathan Toews (264 votes)
  12. Mark Scheifele (242 votes)
  13. Brayden Point (209 votes)
  14. Jack Eichel (207 votes)
  15. Nicklas Backstrom (175 votes)
  16. Tyler Seguin (166 votes)
  17. Evgeny Kuznetsov (133 votes)
  18. Sebastian Aho (132 votes)
  19. Anze Kopitar (116 votes)
  20. Elias Pettersson (96 votes)

Now, the network has released their ranking of the best wingers in the NHL and the debate is even hotter. Nikita Kucherov took down the top spot once again following his 128-point MVP season. The Tampa Bay Lightning forward took home three individual awards after his incredible year but failed to help the team get out of the first round of the playoffs (or even win a single postseason game). Nevertheless, Kucherov is a rock solid choice at the top of the list and looks to be on a Hall of Fame path through the first six years of his career.

Behind him are a pair of players who will undoubtedly reach the Hall quickly after retirement. Patrick Kane and Alex Ovechkin continue to dominate the league in different ways, but have rarely found themselves out of the conversation of best wingers in the world. The rest of the top five is where the real debate happens however, as Atlantic Division rivals Brad Marchand and Mitch Marner round out the group. 2017-18 Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall dropped all the way to 15th, something the NHL Network fan vote corrected in their version of the list.

Just like our poll of centers, we want the PHR community to let us know who the best wingers in the world are. Unlike the last poll however, we’ll ask you to select 20 names because of the huge number of options.  Make sure to leave a comment below on who you think deserves to be recognized, or your thoughts on how the center poll ended. We’ve included many names that could be considered, but if you think we’ve missed someone important (which we undoubtedly have) make sure to leave his name down below.

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Poll: Which Team Has Improved The Most This Offseason?

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In two consecutive years a superstar offensive talent in his prime has changed teams in unrestricted free agency. Something that was previously almost unheard of went down in 2018 when John Tavares ditched the New York Islanders in favor of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, and this summer featured a sequel. Artemi Panarin took the money and ran to the New York Rangers for a whopping seven-year, $81.5MM deal, leaving the Columbus Blue Jackets searching for an answer up front. That wasn’t the only thing the Rangers did. Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox have reshaped the right side of their defense, while they also just so happened to nab Kaapo Kakko with the second overall pick.

Does that make them the early winners of the offseason? New York wasn’t the only team making sweeping changes.

Just down the highway the New Jersey Devils weren’t going to be left behind. Adding Jack Hughes and P.K. Subban in a matter of days completely changed the face of the franchise, while Wayne Simmonds and Nikita Gusev came a little later to the party. If the big task for GM Ray Shero this summer was showing Taylor Hall the team was heading in a competitive direction, mission successful.

The Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres have all made meaningful additions through trade as well, acquiring names like Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Erik Haula, Jimmy Vesey, Colin Miller and Henri Jokiharju. The latter came to Buffalo in a deal from the Chicago Blackhawks, who have certainly shaken things up over the last couple of months.

You can’t forget the Arizona Coyotes who finally have that star forward to build their offense around in Phil Kessel. The team has plenty of young talent and will happily welcome in the two-time Stanley Cup Champion, while also accepting a new owner into the fold.

Several teams around the league have taken drastic steps forward in their pursuit of playoff glory, but who had the best offseason of them all? Cast your vote below and make sure to explain yourself in the comments!

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2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Fifth 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 2007 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?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)

After seeing the second and third picks going to players that weren’t even picked in the first round, Couture’s bump is only a small one from the ninth slot but it’s certainly a well-deserved one as he has emerged from one of the top scorers from this draft class.

Interestingly enough, Couture didn’t exactly get off to a great start.  His post-draft year was underwhelming as his production dipped by 20 points while he failed to show much progression in his development.  That took him off the radar of making the big club for the following year and it turned out that one more year in junior was great for him.  His production jumped back to a level where it should be for a top prospect in his second post-draft year and with his team being ousted from the playoffs early, he was able to get a head start on his pro career, joining AHL Worcester for their postseason.

That experience certainly made a difference as in 2009-10, his first full pro campaign, he averaged well over a point-per-game with the Baby Sharks and earned two stints with the big club.  The second came about a month before the playoffs and Couture was there to stay.

While his offensive numbers weren’t eye-popping in that first year, Couture made a big leap in his first full NHL season with 32 goals and 24 assists in 79 games.  Since then, he has been the model of consistency, ranging between 0.69 and 0.86 points per game in the eight seasons since then on his way to becoming the fourth-leading point-getter in this draft class.  The high mark actually came in 2018-19.  Even more impressive is that Couture has been more productive in the playoffs over the years relative to his regular season production which is something that can’t be said for a lot of players.  He’s entrenched as a core piece in San Jose and it’s hard to imagine they’re not anything but thrilled with how his selection turned out.

Let’s shift our attention to the next pick now which was held by the Washington Capitals.  A decade ago, stay-at-home defensemen were still in demand and Washington opted to go in that direction with the selection of Karl Alzner from Kelowna.  While he had shown some offensive upside in his draft year, his ceiling was viewed as a shutdown defender.

For the most part, he has lived up to that reputation as he logged an average of over 20 minutes a night over parts of nine seasons with the Capitals which isn’t necessarily a bad outcome from a first-round selection.

Things haven’t gone quite as well since he left to go to Montreal, however.  He has not adapted well to the requirements for a defender in the current NHL which prioritize mobility and puck-moving skills.  While the Canadiens played him in every game in 2017-18, he saw just nine games of NHL action last season and cleared waivers twice.  With three years left on his contract with a $4.625MM AAV, his contract is going to be an anchor on Montreal’s books for a while.  Needless to say, Alzner worked out a whole lot better for the Capitals than he has for the Canadiens and he currently sits tenth in games played from this draft class.

With the fifth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Washington Capitals select?  Cast your vote below!

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*Tragically, 17th overall pick Alexei Cherepanov died at the age of 19 and would never get a chance to suit up in the NHL. He has not been included in this vote.

Poll: Which 35+ Free Agent Would You Rather Sign?

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Despite the lingering availability of Jake Gardiner on the market, most teams are just about done with their unrestricted free agent shopping. We saw Kevin Shattenkirk snapped up quickly as soon as he became available, but Michael Stone hasn’t had the same luck so far. Younger players like Ben Hutton may have to wait until the restricted free agent situations around the league are solved, just like some of the older names out there.

Like every year, August brings a lot of questions surrounding the future of long-time NHL skaters. Is it time to hang up their blades, or will there be a team offering a chance at one more kick at the can? In the NHL, multi-year contracts given out to players over the age of 35 come with some added risk. If that player decides to retire at any point, the full average annual value is still applied to his team’s salary cap and he becomes a burden on the books. That only really affects teams that give out expensive deals to aging players though, and one-year contracts for those veterans can actually be quite beneficial to both sides. One-year contracts signed by players over 35 are eligible to include performance bonuses, something that cannot be given to most other players during their NHL careers. We’ve seen plenty of these contracts handed out in the past, and they can be a perfect blend of low risk for the club and high reward for the player.

The group of 35+ skaters this year still without a contract is quite impressive. While last summer our community thought Scott Hartnell was the best “old guy” available late into free agency, this year has some names that could still provide quite an impact. Joe Thornton is one of those names that sticks out, though he is still expected to re-sign with the San Jose Sharks at some point. The (literal) graybeard has made it clear he wants to play again but only for the Sharks, though he’ll likely have to take a pay cut to do it.

Thornton doesn’t even lead the way in terms of 2018-19 production even though he had 51 points last season. Justin Williams takes the cake in that department after his impressive 23-goal, 53-point year with the Carolina Hurricanes. Williams is a respected leader and can still add some offense, but is still making his decision on whether to come back for another year.

Those two aren’t the only useful players in the group however, meaning there might be several 35+ deals handed out over the next month. If you could get one of them on a one-year deal for your team, who would it be? Cast your vote below and make sure to explain why in the comment section.

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