It’s a bonus, for sure.”Recent NHL history is dotted with players who became all-stars despite being passed over in the early rounds of the draft — players such as Joe Pavelski, Dustin Byfuglien, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Daniel Alfredsson.If you look at just the past five NHL seasons, since general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and his crew took over, the Winnipeg Jets are one of the more successful teams at the NHL draft.Jamie Benn — Dallas / 5th / 2007 / 508 / 448The Oilers’ draft picks have combined to play the fourth-most games of any in the NHL and have generated the fourth-most points. I don’t think they missed on those players, I just think they completely missed on every player after the first round.”With Kyle Connor and likely Patrick Laine on the way, the Jets have one of the best stables of prospects in the entire league and should have a very bright future — despite some past missteps.“The greatest draft of all time was the 1989 draft for the Detroit Red Wings,” says TSN draft analyst Craig Button, a former NHL GM. Two years after Benn was taken, they selected Scott Glennie eighth overall and he played just one NHL game.“If you want to know why the Winnipeg Jets are in Winnipeg, just go and look at the Atlanta Thrashers' draft record,” TSN draft expert and former Calgary Flames GM Craig Button says. Dallas Stars Draft Boom and Bust Biggest Boom: Jamie Benn The Dallas Stars drafted Benn in the fifth round, 129th overall, in 2007.
It was tough to pass on the rock-solid Logan Couture too. Only Paul Stastny, who was drafted by Colorado in the second round, two years before Benn, has more points over the same period among non-first rounders.The Jets have had to rebuild from the ground up and it shows in the fact they have only made the playoffs once in five years and haven’t won a single playoff game.We encountered an issue signing you up.
Benn’s 300 goals in 814 NHL games are second to Kane among players selected in the 2007 draft. I just give them a complete pass on the first round. And have you ever heard a team complain it has too many goal-scorers?”Unfortunately, the Stars traded away their first-round pick in 2007, so their was no Dallas selection to reconsider.“Since our esteemed fantasy expert went way, way, way out on a limb with the first pick, I was left with a decision between four players. Mario Lemieux didn’t make the playoffs for five years. If you don't see it please check your junk folder.While those may be some of the greatest steals in history, there have been others since 2005, the period studied by the Sun.The Oilers, meanwhile, have all kinds of potential, having drafted Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov and Connor McDavid first overall and also adding the likes of Leon Draisaitl (3rd), Darnell Nurse (7th) and Jordan Eberle (22nd).The Oilers’ best pick after the first round was defenceman Jeff Petry, who has played 365 games with Edmonton and Montreal.
“Who is going to have that growth spurt and go from 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-2? Last season, Benn revealed himself to be an elite talent playing beside Tyler Seguin in what was one of the NHL's hottest duos. Subban, especially because Twitter was about to explode in popularity.
In fact, he has 143 career points, just two fewer than Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele (seventh overall in 2011).There’s a trend here, with all the aforementioned players performing well above their position in their draft class.The Leafs also traded away their highest draft pick of the post-lockout era, a second overall in 2010, which the Boston Bruins used to grab high-scoring centre Tyler Seguin.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Toronto SUN, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.The only problem is many of those players were traded away and have carved long careers with other organizations.The biggest steals of the draft since 2005:Patric Hornqvist — Nashville / 7th / 2005 / 509 / 318The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings turned their lean years into draft picks such as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar — and combined to win five straight Stanley Cups.“All the credit goes back to him.”“He just grasped the opportunity, recognized that some of the things we were talking about were important and once he grasped the concepts he took his own game and went with it.It’s rare that a player taken that low develops into anything more than an average NHLer, with the large majority of fifth-rounders never playing a game in the league.But, again, you have to have the depth around a player like that for the organization to improve.The Stars grabbed Jamie Benn from the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League with the 129th pick that year and he has developed into one of the best forwards in the NHL, an Art Ross Trophy winner, all-star and Olympian.Surely the arrival of McDavid will change things.
The Oilers were second-worst with McDavid, the Penguins were the second-worst with Crosby, the Capitals were the fourth-worst with Ovechkin. He has scored more career points (318) than all but four of the first-round draft picks from that year (Sidney Crosby, Bobby Ryan, Anze Kopitar and T.J. Oshie).That just goes to show how bad things were when the team arrived from Atlanta.Benn has played 508 games and has 448 points — more points than all but one non-first round pick since the 2004-05 lockout. They’ve had some really good players. Beyond that, the pickings are slim.“It’s not necessarily who is the biggest, strongest and fastest at 17 or just turning 18, but it’s who projects and whose game projects,” Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff says. Oh, you mean international superstar Jamie Benn. But Benn was the pick,” NHL.com staff writer Dan O’leary said.News, analysis and opinion about the Dallas Stars delivered FREE to your inbox.The Dallas Stars made four selections before taking Jamie Benn in the fifth round of the 2007 NHL entry draft.Benn’s 127-pick jump was the highest of any player selected in the redraft’s top ten.Stand with us in our mission to discover and uncover the story of North Texas We’re talking about generational guys who made zero impact on winning for their team.”A year before the Stars grabbed Benn, they took Ivan Vishnevskiy 27th overall and received a grand total of five games out of him. He was an excellent baseball player.