Wow I forget Kopi was drafted same year as Crosby. I love Kopi such a great all around player but dang for him to make that much more then Crosby blows my mind

Picked after Bobby Ryan and Benoit Pouliot at 11. Bit of a steal for the 2nd best scorer of the draft.

Yes the guy is way underrated. If he played in NYC or Toronto I think he would have been talked about a lot more. I think a lot of people respect him but I still don’t think people realize how good he really is a both ends of the ice.

Yeah. Also if he was picked 7th then he would have played for Chicago. Imagine the Chicago dynasty + Kopitar?

That would be nuts!!!! It’s crazy to look at some of these past drafts and realize what could have been with some teams and also how many first rounders really never pan out. Then you look lower and find guys like Letang, Quick, Vlasic, Yandle, Oshie etc etc. so hard to gauge players that young. Not only do you have to scout their talent but their drive, their mental makeup, their life away from the rink etc. Even top guys like Crosby could very easily turn into Alex Daigle. Such a crap shoot.

so true. in the top ten of 2005, only 4 have actually been effective. Crosby, Ryan, Johnson and Price. other than that its mostly busts. also did you know that Tuukka was drafted by TORONTO?

The Leafs had two good young goalie prospects, Rask and Pogge. They decided to keep only 1, Pogge, and they traded Rask for backup ANDREW RAYCROFT.

Wow does that look bad in hindsight. But even at the time, intelligent observers were left scratching their heads.

Rask has 291 Wins. Pogge has 1 and Raycroft 114. Rask has double the wins of these two, and to think that it was Rask for Raycroft 1 for 1. Pogge played only 7 NHL games then left for europe. toronto's goalie situation wasnt great until about 2013-14 after Belfour.