Polls

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.

Our look back at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft is now in full swing as we poll the PHR community to see who would have been selected in the first round and in what order knowing what we know now.  Through the first five picks we’ve already seen potential Hall of Fame players switch teams, and multiple captains move up the board.

Here are the results of the redraft so far:

1st Overall: Jonathan Toews (St. Louis Blues)
2nd Overall: Claude Giroux (Pittsburgh Penguins)
3rd Overall: Nicklas Backstrom (Chicago Blackhawks)
4th Overall: Brad Marchand (Washington Capitals)
5th Overall: Phil Kessel (Boston Bruins)

The Bruins didn’t change a thing about their 2006 draft, picking University of Minnesota standout Kessel with the fifth-overall pick. Our community overwhelmingly agreed that Kessel was the right pick, giving him over 77% of the vote. It’s hard to argue with that, especially when Kessel leads all 2006 draft picks with 914 regular season games, and trails only Backstrom in career points. With two Stanley Cups under his belt, and an iron man streak that has lasted more than eight seasons, Kessel is truly one of the best players of his class.

Now we’ll move forward to the sixth pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, which was held by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Back then, the Blue Jackets decided to go after another one of the top centers available, picking QMJHL offensive dynamo Derick Brassard. Brassard had just finished a season in junior that saw him score 116 points in 58 games, and had been named the top prospect in his league. Unfortunately the talented young forward would suffer a shoulder injury in the following preseason and miss all but 14 regular season games with Drummondville, and miss out on a chance to potentially lead the QMJHL in scoring. He’d jump to the NHL quickly after that though and has developed into a solid player with a long career.

Brassard now has 428 points in 716 games, but is he the best selection for the Blue Jackets with the benefit of hindsight? Is there someone else who would be more valuable given their career to date? With the sixth pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Columbus Blue Jackets select? Cast your vote below!

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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.

Our look back at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft is now in full swing as we poll the PHR community to see who would have been selected in the first round and in what order knowing what we know now.  Through the first four picks we’ve already seen potential Hall of Fame players switch teams, and multiple captains move up the board.

Here are the results of the redraft so far:

1st Overall: Jonathan Toews (St. Louis Blues)
2nd Overall: Claude Giroux (Pittsburgh Penguins)
3rd Overall: Nicklas Backstrom (Chicago Blackhawks)
4th Overall: Brad Marchand (Washington Capitals)

The Capitals were reeling when their target of Backstrom went off the board to the Blackhawks, but they still get an incredible talent in the fourth spot. Barely edging out Phil Kessel for the right to go to Washington is Marchand, who moves up 67 spots from where he was actually selected. The Boston Bruins pulled a rabbit out of their hats by selecting Marchand 71st-overall back in 2006, and he’s proven to be much more than a third-round selection in the year’s since.

Now we’ll move forward to the fifth pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, which was held by the Boston Bruins.

Incredibly, the Bruins may very well end up with the same player they chose more than a decade ago when they decided that Kessel was the best available. An outstanding scoring talent that had just put up 51 points in just 39 games as a freshman for the University of Minnesota, Kessel was once in contention for the first-overall pick. Though it wouldn’t work out in Boston, there isn’t much to argue with when you look at Kessel’s career numbers through 2018. With 914 games played he leads all 2006 draft picks, and his 741 points trail only Backstrom. Two Stanley Cup victories with the Penguins don’t hurt, though there are several other contenders for the fifth pick.

Will Boston choose the same player in Kessel all these years later, or could top picks Erik Johnson and Jordan Staal make it a race? With the fifth pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Boston Bruins select? Cast your vote below!

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Over the last few weeks the NHL Network has been releasing their lists of the best players in the league, detailing the Top 20 Centers, Top 20 Defensemen and Top 20 Wingers in separate polls. In response, we’ve polled the PHR community to give our own thoughts on the very best talents around the NHL and have come up with significantly different lists. Among centers, Sidney Crosby edged out Connor McDavid for the top spot here at PHR, while Erik Karlsson overcame his down 2017-18 to take the spot on the blue line.

On the wings, NHL Network had Nikita Kucherov as the very best in the league after his 100-point campaign alongside Steven Stamkos. That didn’t impress the PHR readers though, who have Kucherov at #4 behind three more veteran options. Alex Ovechkin takes home the trophy to place on his overburdened shelf alongside his recent Conn Smythe award for playoff MVP and seventh Maurice Richard trophy. It’s difficult to overcome 607 goals and more than 1,100 points now that Ovechkin has a Stanley Cup to go with them. Our PHR community-voted Top 20 Wingers currently looks like this:

1. Alex Ovechkin (632 votes)
2. Taylor Hall (532 votes)
3. Patrick Kane (531 votes)
4. Nikita Kucherov (521 votes)
5. Patrik Laine (510 votes)
6. Vladimir Tarasenko (476 votes)
7. Brad Marchand (425 votes)
8. Artemi Panarin (392 votes)
9. Jamie Benn (371 votes)
10. Claude Giroux (370 votes)
11. Johnny Gaudreau (345 votes)
12. David Pastrnak (329 votes)
13. Phil Kessel (323 votes)
14. Blake Wheeler (320 votes)
15. Filip Forsberg (263 votes)
16. Mitch Marner (195 votes)
17. Brock Boeser (175 votes)
18. Logan Couture (166 votes)
19. Jakub Voracek (156 votes)
20. T.J. Oshie (132 votes)

Continuing the series, the NHL Network today released their ranking of the Top 10 Goaltenders, sparking quite a bit of debate among the hockey world. Sergei Bobrovsky takes home their top spot after collecting Vezina votes again last season. The Columbus Blue Jackets netminder has won the trophy twice and consistently puts up some of the most impressive numbers in the league. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer, giving the Blue Jackets a very tough decision on whether to make him the most expensive goaltender in the league or watch him walk away.

Stanley Cup Champion Braden Holtby is second, despite being benched at the beginning of the playoffs by his club in favor of Philipp Grubauer. Holtby would eventually regain the net and carry the Capitals to the promised land, but not without at least some doubt in his ability down the stretch.

Incredibly, Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist, the two highest-paid goaltenders in the NHL don’t appear on the list making their contracts seem quite excessive. Lundqvist at least has a long history of success during his current deal, something that Price will have to prove as he starts in on his eight-year $84MM extension.

Like all of the other polls, we’ll ask the PHR community to give their own thoughts on who deserves at the top of the list. We’ve included a huge number of NHL goaltenders and ask you to cast your vote by selecting 10 names. Make sure to leave a comment below on who you think deserves to be recognized, or on how the Top 20 Wingers list turned out.

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