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Last week we examined the top 30 defensemen scoring charts for the past ten seasons. Over the course of that time, first round draft picks consumed a majority of that list. So, if teams are looking for offensive defensemen that they are hoping will dominate on the offensive side of the puck, drafting one in the first round may make that team more comfortable about that player’s future offensive ability. However, is that warranted?
Sure first round picks have dominated the top 30 scorers when it comes to defensemen, but are more defensemen drafted in the first round than other rounds? Are there many offensive gems to be had year after year in the later rounds? Or are later gems hard to come by?
Let’s examine the production of defensemen draft picks from the years 1994 through 2004:
1994 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 8 3398 305 883 1188 4407
2nd Round 5 1768 86 225 311 1417
3rd Round 13 873 96 182 278 1190
4th Round 7 630 22 89 111 365
5th Round 12 411 14 63 77 323
6th Round 6 531 19 60 79 502
7th Round 8 477 14 43 57 565
1995 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 9 4750 294 1017 1311 4544
2nd Round 8 922 13 88 101 1367
3rd Round 9 312 16 40 56 160
4th Round 6 379 21 77 98 144
5th Round 8 182 4 16 20 580
6th Round 7 970 82 257 339 467
7th Round 8 852 37 118 155 745
1996 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 13 3555 234 726 960 3661
2nd Round 8 1342 33 193 226 1694
3rd Round 7 1507 168 447 615 1758
4th Round 7 1224 88 311 399 914
5th Round 12 179 12 20 32 70
6th Round 5 455 31 88 119 233
7th Round 11 747 97 213 310 921
1997 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 8 3281 348 779 1127 3806
2nd Round 7 512 53 81 134 409
3rd Round 8 607 11 64 75 681
4th Round 13 443 62 138 200 180
5th Round 8 3 0 2 2 2
6th Round 12 555 44 209 253 179
7th Round 8 179 5 30 35 96
1998 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 10 4714 275 899 1174 3576
2nd Round 9 982 30 114 144 1123
3rd Round 8 1055 35 130 165 1300
4th Round 7 219 3 15 18 321
5th Round 12 1194 78 278 356 939
6th Round 8 793 83 287 370 472
7th Round 8 58 1 4 5 22
1999 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 8 2088 114 352 466 2273
2nd Round 16 1322 72 221 293 1251
3rd Round 10 1180 66 305 371 578
4th Round 11 0 0 0 0 0
5th Round 11 23 1 2 3 8
6th Round 6 11 0 1 1 8
7th Round 5 4 0 0 0 0
2000 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 7 2041 99 419 518 1764
2nd Round 13 1574 80 309 389 981
3rd Round 7 356 5 28 33 250
4th Round 14 1021 96 278 374 609
5th Round 15 824 73 198 271 584
6th Round 12 150 3 12 15 128
7th Round 6 4 0 0 0 4
2001 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 8 2052 86 398 484 1886
2nd Round 10 755 40 144 184 526
3rd Round 10 362 18 52 70 286
4th Round 10 633 48 152 200 463
5th Round 10 241 25 82 107 404
6th Round 10 981 64 272 336 804
7th Round 10 246 15 51 66 141
2002 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 8 2026 196 656 852 1624
2nd Round 10 899 54 182 236 909
3rd Round 12 280 5 18 23 344
4th Round 12 214 20 69 89 85
5th Round 8 185 14 53 67 208
6th Round 11 266 17 74 91 212
7th Round 6 144 6 16 22 72
2003 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 7 1695 178 480 658 1650
2nd Round 11 695 74 163 237 520
3rd Round 9 212 13 41 54 142
4th Round 14 312 10 76 86 208
5th Round 8 189 6 19 25 129
6th Round 8 307 10 56 66 180
7th Round 10 176 8 35 43 159
2004 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 9 1195 102 303 405 1051
2nd Round 10 209 8 35 43 95
3rd Round 11 314 25 70 95 169
4th Round 6 114 0 8 8 28
5th Round 13 23 1 2 3 16
6th Round 8 165 2 24 26 122
7th Round 11 331 31 93 124 183
You are probably thinking that you have now seen enough charts to last a lifetime, but we have more. Before moving to the totals from the numbers above, we should point out that the first round selections led in every single category in each season-- aside from players drafted.
Now, let’s look at the totals:
1994-2004 Players drafted Games Played Goals Assists Points Penalty Minutes
1st Round 95 30795 2231 6912 9143 30242
2nd Round 107 10980 543 1755 2298 10292
3rd Round 104 7058 458 1377 1835 6858
4th Round 107 5199 370 1213 1583 3317
5th Round 117 3454 228 735 963 3263
6th Round 93 5184 355 1340 1695 3307
7th Round 91 3218 214 603 817 2908
A couple of things jump out from these statistics. First off, the shocking fact that from the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, specifically the fourth round through the eighth round, the defensemen drafted have played a total of 38 NHL games. Looking at all the other seasons puts into perspective just how poor that year was.
That poor draft aside, it was interesting to note that the total numbers above went from almost the exact highest to the exact lowest until rounds six, where the numbers between rounds five, six and seven became somewhat mixed. Remember, this is not really a shock because as we’ve seen before, later round draft pick selection value is fairly insignificant.
However, what these numbers do seem to establish is that a team’s best chance to draft an offensive defenseman is clearly in the first round. The numbers above indicate that first round defensemen draft picks have dominant statistics as compared to other rounds. Also of note, is the fact that these numbers also include games played, which should help to take into account defensive defensemen.
All in all, what these statistics appear to indicate is that a team’s best chance to draft an offensive defensemen is high up in the draft—especially in the first round. The difference in games played, goals, assists, points and penalty minutes from the first round to the rest was a bigger spread than what separated many of the other rounds combined.
So, if your team is drafting in the first round and is looking at both a high-scoring defenseman and a scoring forward, the chance to find that scoring defenseman probably falls off a lot more after the first round than will the chance at drafting a scoring forward.
Richard Pollock is an author of Puck Prospectus. You can contact Richard by clicking here or click here to see Richard's other articles. Richard is also Editor for the hockey website Illegal Curve.
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