Each NHL Team’s Best And Worst Draft Pick Of The Past Decade

[TBone]

From The Athletic so there's probably a paywall for some of you.

For those who aren't, enjoy.

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Each NHL team’s best and worst draft pick of the past decade

By The Athletic NHL Staff
June 21, 2025

The Stanley Cup Final is over, and the 2025 NHL Draft is now less than a week away. To get into the spirit, The Athletic asked its NHL staff to look back and identify what they think is each team’s best and worst draft pick of the past 10 years.

In response, we heard about the hits, misses, steals, busts and even duds between the 2015 and 2024 drafts.

Here are the selections.

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St. Louis Blues

Best: Jordan Kyrou

In 2016, Blues goalie Brian Elliott wanted to be a No. 1 netminder and asked the team to facilitate a trade. General manager Doug Armstrong obliged, sending him to Calgary in a deal that included a second-round draft pick (No. 35) coming the other way. The Blues used it to select Kyrou, and since the start of the 2019-20 regular season, he leads the franchise with 150 goals. That’s tied for ninth among all players drafted in 2016.

Worst: Evan Fitzpatrick

In 2017, Klim Kostin slipped in the first round and was worth a shot. In 2018, Scott Perunovich was a Hobey Baker winner and had upside. That year, the Blues also traded up to get Dominik Bokk in the first round but were able to package him in a deal with Carolina for Justin Faulk. So the vote goes to Fitzpatrick, a second-round pick in 2016 (No. 59) who played 11 AHL games for the organization. Norris winner Adam Fox went seven picks later. — Jeremy Rutherford

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/643706 ... aft-picks/

[DawgDad]

Kyrou vs Thomas seems ripe for debate. My pick here would be Tage Thompson for obvious reason.

[bluetunehead]

Kyrou vs Thomas seems ripe for debate. My pick here would be Tage Thompson for obvious reason.

I presume they went with Kyrou because he was a 2nd whereas Thomas and Tage were 1sts.

[netboy65]

Kyrou vs Thomas seems ripe for debate. My pick here would be Tage Thompson for obvious reason.

I’d imagine the criteria was limited to guys that did the most for the team that picked them. Tage helped us indirectly but not with the Blue Note on his chest

[skilles]

(bleep), it seems crazy Parayko was all the way back to 2012

My vote is Thomas and really I don't see how its even a question.

[moose-and-squirrel]

(drat), it seems crazy Parayko was all the way back to 2012

My vote is Thomas and really I don't see how its even a question.

I tend to agree with this, but getting the value they have out of a 2nd round pick is quite amazing

[Cahokanut]

Our best has to be Binnington.

Management would say.
Mr Big Game Hunter, Keeps us in the green.

[DawgDad]

Our best has to be Binnington.

Management would say.
Mr Big Game Hunter, Keeps us in the green.

Too old, per the decade criteria, but yeah, if you include Parayko and Binner and consider value for draft position it's a three or four-way race.

[netboy65]

(drat), it seems crazy Parayko was all the way back to 2012

My vote is Thomas and really I don't see how its even a question.

I would disagree ONLY because RT was a first round pick performing like one. JK was a 2nd round performing like a first.

[moose-and-squirrel]

(drat), it seems crazy Parayko was all the way back to 2012

My vote is Thomas and really I don't see how its even a question.

I would disagree ONLY because RT was a first round pick performing like one. JK was a 2nd round performing like a first.

RT is outperforming his draft position as well

[seattleblue]

This is ridiculous work from JR. He arbitrarily drew a line after the first round so that he was choosing from among only:

Kessel
Perunovich
Hofer
Tucker
Toropchenko
Kyrou

I mean come on. Kyrou went 35, but 20-26 don't count as great picks since everything above 31/32/33 was supposed to be that good? That is ridiculous.

Selecting Fitzpatrick as the worst pick is hilarious. He has no idea how to compare the degrees of "not making it" among busted prospects. He literally grouped all the second round picks during this period (there are literally only 4 to choose from before Ralph and Fischer last summer: Kyrou, Fitzpatrick, Perunovich, Alexandrov) and said thus the worst pick is Fitzpatrick since he has no NHL games.

Also half of this arbitrary "decade" is incomplete. Since JR is completely out of his depth on prospects, it's hilarious to imagine him actually assessing more recent picks compared to the ones he can already see haven't proven out. He cannot do that, so his answer to an exercise he can't do is worthless.

Finally, and it's ticky tack, but Niko Mikkola was selected 9 years and 360 days ago so if he's going to arbitrarily slop a timeline around then that is absolutely the best depth pick of the last "decade."

JR's Grade: F

[STL fan in MN]

This is ridiculous work from JR. He arbitrarily drew a line after the first round so that he was choosing from among only:

Kessel
Perunovich
Hofer
Tucker
Toropchenko
Kyrou

I mean come on. Kyrou went 35, but 20-26 don't count as great picks since everything above 31/32/33 was supposed to be that good? That is ridiculous.

Selecting Fitzpatrick as the worst pick is hilarious. He has no idea how to compare the degrees of "not making it" among busted prospects. He literally grouped all the second round picks during this period (there are literally only 4 to choose from before Ralph and Fischer last summer: Kyrou, Fitzpatrick, Perunovich, Alexandrov) and said thus the worst pick is Fitzpatrick since he has no NHL games.

Also half of this arbitrary "decade" is incomplete. Since JR is completely out of his depth on prospects, it's hilarious to imagine him actually assessing more recent picks compared to the ones he can already see haven't proven out. He cannot do that, so his answer to an exercise he can't do is worthless.

Finally, and it's ticky tack, but Niko Mikkola was selected 9 years and 360 days ago so if he's going to arbitrarily slop a timeline around then that is absolutely the best depth pick of the last "decade."

JR's Grade: F

I absolutely hate articles like these. I bet there’s 31 identical ones like it that the Athletic made the other beat writers writer too. These formulaic, “let’s look at this precise thing and try to draw a conclusion from it” types of articles are just garbage.

[a smell of green grass]

I updated the algorithm to include each player's playoff results in the score. Kyrou is now our 5th best pick. You gotta watch those algorithms.