NHL Draft: Where Have all the Franchise Players Gone?

In a response to my most recent article, Other Rick posted a list that I confess both intrigued and shocked me. Namely, an inventory of the NHL’s first overall draft selections dating back to 2015.

My friend and PP colleague correctly asserted that there hasn’t been a true franchise player taken since Auston Matthews went first overall to the Leafs in 2016 and Connor McDavid to the Oilers the year before that.

While others, most notably 2023 top pick Connor Bedard, have been touted as such, they’ve yet to achieve that rarified status.

Perhaps it’s just my imagination, to borrow from an old Temptations hit, but I thought the frequency of franchise-level players was greater. Much greater. However, the proof was there in stark black type, or whatever font color we use.

Juraj Slafkovsky (’22) and Owen Power (’21)? Good and promising players both, but nowhere near superstars, let alone franchise level.

Heavily hyped Alexis Lafrenière?

Not even close.

Maybe my brain’s permanently fixed on the golden era of the early 2000s. Beginning in ’04, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos rolled off the draft assembly line like shiny new cars in the heyday of the Motor City.

Generational talent Evgeni Malkin, a top selection in virtually any other year, went second overall behind Ovi in ’04.

While you could argue that Stamkos and Kane are a notch below generational, Stammer’s closing in on 600 career goals and once netted 60 in a season. Kane has three Cups, a Hart, a Ross, a Pearson, a Calder and a Smythe in his trophy case, the same as Geno.

All this made me curious about No. 1 picks pre-Ovi, so I decided to expand on Other Rick’s list by going back to 1983, the year before we drafted franchise savior Mario Lemieux.

The top pick that year was New Jersey-born, high-school phenom Brian Lawton. Drafted with a pick that originally belonged to our Pens, Lawton proved to be no more than a serviceable pro who topped out at a modest 21 goals during a rather pedestrian NHL career.

He wasn’t alone. Sprinkled among the likes of Mario (’84), Mike Modano (’88), Mats Sundin (’89) and the original Next One, Eric Lindros (’91), were Joe Murphy (’86), Alexandre Daigle (’93) and perhaps the biggest flop on the far side of Nail Yakupov, Patrik Stefan (’99).

All of which serves to underscore that when it comes to drafting franchise players and generational talents, it often boils down to the luck of the draw, not to mention the available talent pool.