NHL Draft: 2004 Preview

1st Round Draft Order

1. Washington
2. Pittsburgh
3. Chicago
4. Columbus
5. Phoenix
6. NY Rangers
7. Florida
8. Carolina
9. Anaheim
10. Atlanta
11. Los Angeles
12. Minnesota
13. Buffalo
14. Edmonton
15. Nashville
16. NY Islanders
17. St. Louis
18. Montreal
19. Calgary
20. Dallas
21. Colorado
22. New Jersey
23. Ottawa
24. NY Rangers (from Toronto)
25. Edmonton (from Philadelphia)
26. Vancouver
27. Washington (from Boston)
28. San Jose
29. Detroit (option to Washington)
30. Tampa Bay

First overall picks since 1969

The 2003 NHL Entry Draft was considered one of the deepest in the years. Some said it was the deepest in the past ten or 15 years. No one is saying that about this year's draft.

"Last year’s draft was solid all the way through to about 15 or 16, where you really liked the hockey players that were there," Pittsburgh Penguins head scout Greg Malone said on the team's official web site. "This year you’re probably looking at maybe the top five, top six if you want to squeeze it out.  That’s the difference between this year and last year."

Chicago Blackhawks scout Bruce Franklin agrees.

"Last year was an excellent draft and this year is not as deep," he said on the team's official web site. "I think there are some good players out here. Some guys might fall into the second round, but you're still going to get a good player. It's just that they may need a little more seasoning than the guys that are going to go early."

Last year's draft was so deep that eight first round picks (Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal, Nathan Horton, Nikolai Zherdev, Milan Michalek, Brent Burns, Dustin Brown and Ryan Kesler) spent time playing in the NHL this past season.

Staal spent the entire season with Carolina, picking up 11 goals and 20 assists in 81 games. Horton and Zherdev both played 50-plus games and reached double figures in goals scored.

Minnesota Wild assistant general manager Tom Thompson says this year's draft will be more of a challenge when it comes to selecting players.

"It’s a difficult year because the top two players are going to be tremendous players unless they get injured," he said on his team's official web site. "The next two players, I think I know who they’re going to be. But then picks five through 11 - there’s a group from about five to 17 or 18 - where it really depends what they’re looking for in these particular players. None of them are finished products. Each of them probably has one thing about them that people are uncertain about."

New York Rangers vice-president for player personnel, Don Maloney, put it this way in a story on NHL.com: "I think No. 10 could be 40 or even 80. It is a little bit all over the map."

But there could be advantages to that, especially for teams with a lot of draft picks. Teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, who have five picks in the first two rounds, including the third overall pick.

"You might get a player in the second round that might be as valuable as somebody after the first five (overall)," Dale Talon, the assistant general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, told NHL.com. "We have four second-round picks and we are excited about our positioning. We have 16 picks in the draft and we think we will get a couple of good players."

But the cream of the crop are the top five or six picks in the draft, especially the top two.

"Basically you can break it down to about three or four guys that are pretty good hockey players," said Pittsburgh's Malone.  "Both [Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin of Russia] are very good candidates.  There’s also a guy, [Rostislav] Olesz, that’s a very talented hockey player that plays very well, in the Czech Republic. 

"Some of the kids in North America have played very well.  The kids from out west [Cam Barker and Andrew Ladd] have played very well, and the goaltender [Alvaro Montoya] obviously played very well at Michigan."

Ovechkin has been considered to be a lock to be the first overall pick in this year's draft, but there is some intrigue on that front. Washington, which owns the first pick, has said it hasn't made up its mind yet about the Russian forward yet.

"The process has not finished and we have more interviews to do and the list will take the final shape the day before the draft," Washington GM George McPhee told NHL.com last week. "That's why our process is not complete.

 "There are some real good players on the top there and I do not think it will help us to disclose who we will take."

There are reports that the Caps have a great deal of interest in Cam Barker, a defenseman from Medicine Hat. And Chicago, which owns the third overall pick in the draft, made it known last week that it is aggressively trying to cut a deal with the Caps for the first overall pick. There are said to be other teams pursuing the top pick as well.

And there could be more than just teams swapping picks. There is speculation that some general managers could be looking to dump salary in anticipation of the new CBA. That means teams may try to move restricted free agents they don't want to tender qualifying offers.

"You're going to see some bizarre deals," Atlanta Thrashers general manager Don Waddell predicted in an interview with ESPN.com.