It is all too easy to look at the NHL Draft and focus on the major finds. Whether it be at the top of the draft or a late-round gem, the draft is how the best teams in the league build a foundation that keeps them in contention for years to come.
Unfortunately, some franchises get the pick wrong. In some instances, it goes so wrong that it makes the worst kind of list possible: this one. Let’s take a closer look at the not-so-great selections that have gone with the 11th overall pick in the NHL Draft.
The Success Stories
Since we are in the fun, speculative times ahead of the draft, let’s put a focus on the positive to start. There have been some very good, even Hall of Fame, players taken with the 11th pick. It really underscores just how tough it is to find the right fit for the right team at the right time.
Related: The Best 11th Overall Draft Picks in NHL History
Jarome Iginla is the best of the best. Given his 625 goals and Hall of Fame selection, that seems understandable. Jeff Carter, Anze Kopitar, and Filip Forsberg are just a couple of the names that have paid off in one way or another throughout their careers.
The Worst 11th Overall Draft Picks Ever
Onto the ugly. There will be some good and bad in the 2024 NHL Draft, but it is too early to know who will thrive and who will fall by the wayside. With the benefit of hindsight, we can definitively talk about who the very worst 11th-overall picks have been in NHL Draft history.
David Cooper (1992, Buffalo Sabres)
The 1992 NHL Draft was tough sledding for many of the teams in the first round. With names like Mike Rathje, Ryan Sittler, and Brandon Convery in the top 10, finding a success turned out to be quite difficult. Roman Hamrlik and Alexei Yashin went at the top of the draft but would be just two of the five All-Stars to be taken in the first round.
With the 11th overall pick, the Buffalo Sabres took Medicine Hat defenseman David Cooper. There were only two notable names to go after him – defenseman Sergei Gonchar (14th overall to Washington) and center Martin Straka (19th overall to Pittsburgh) – so it was going to be tough for the Sabres virtually no matter who they took.
Cooper had a completely forgettable career. He spent four years with the Rochester Americans, ultimately moving to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization without a single game in Buffalo. He suited up in just 30 career games, registering just three goals and 10 points. He was out of North America altogether by 2001, playing seven more seasons as a pro in Germany, Russia, Italy, and Denmark.
Jeff Heerema (1998, Carolina Hurricanes)
The 1990s featured a rough slate of drafts with far more busts in the first round than productive NHL players. The 1998 NHL Draft is no different, featuring just four All-Stars among the 27 first-round picks. First-overall pick Vincent Lecavalier is the highlight of the draft, but even he didn’t live up to expectations.
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Picking 11th, the Carolina Hurricanes took solid scoring winger Jeff Heerema of the Sarnia Sting. Though decent NHLers like Dmitri Kalinin, Robyn Regehr, Scott Parker, and Jiri Fischer all went later, the three biggest names the Hurricanes could have had are Alex Tanguay (12th, Colorado), Simon Gagne (22nd, Philadelphia), and Scott Gomez (27th, New Jersey).
Heerema was an unmitigated bust by any metric. He scored just three goals in 10 games for the Hurricanes and even that didn’t come until 2002-03. Like Cooper, he spent much of his North American career in the American Hockey League (AHL) before heading overseas to continue plying his craft. His tantalizing 2001-02 AHL season with the Lowell Lock Monsters – 33 goals, 70 points – was ultimately the best of his pro career.
Lauri Tukonen (2004, Los Angeles Kings)
For the most part, the 2004 NHL Draft is notable for a pair of Russians at the top of the draft. Alex Ovechkin went with the first pick to Washington and Evgeni Malkin with the very next pick to Pittsburgh. The rest after that seems a moot point.
The Kings used the 11th pick that year on Finnish winger Lauri Tukonen. A good skater with good size who didn’t shy away from physicality, he came with a fair bit of hype. Unfortunately for the Kings, he never delivered on that. The rest of the first round had solid players like Devan Dubnyk, Alexander Radulov, Travis Zajac, Cory Schneider, and Mike Green still available.
Tukonen got a cup of coffee with Los Angeles, appearing in five games across two seasons. After just one game in 2007-08, he would head back home to Finland. He carved out a solid career for himself in the SM-liiga, 13 seasons there, most of which with Lukko Rauma. His game never translated to the NHL, and he perhaps felt that going home was his best move far earlier than other prospects.
Duncan Siemens (2011, Colorado Avalanche)
The top 15 of the 2011 NHL Draft was loaded. Unfortunately for the Colorado Avalanche, most of those big names went in the top 10. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mika Zibanejad, Mark Scheifele, Sean Couturier, and Dougie Hamilton all went in the top nine.
Duncan Siemens was a big, mobile defenseman showing potential offensively in his third year with the Saskatoon Blades. Taken ahead of names like J.T. Miller, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Rickard Rackell, it is easy to see that there were better choices for the Avs.
Siemens spent his first three years with the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL and got just four games with the franchise in six seasons after his draft year. A final 16-game stretch in 2017-18 would be his last chance, and he was out of hockey altogether by 2018-19.
Samuel Morin (2013, Philadelphia Flyers)
Everyone talks about the top half of the first round when referring to the 2013 NHL Draft. Good reason, too, since the top 10 includes names like Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Drouin, Seth Jones, Elias Lindholm, Darnell Nurse, Bo Horvat, and Valeri Nichushkin.
With names like Max Domi, Josh Morrissey, Ryan Pulock, and Shea Theodore on the board, the Flyers took hulking defenseman Samuel Morin from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He had great size at 6-foot-6 and showed enough offensive upside to be intriguing.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, his skating was nowhere near up to par for the NHL. Morin struggled to adjust to the pro game, earning a whopping 29 games in the NHL, with just a single goal to his name. He spent several years with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL, mostly for a handful of games each year. By 2021, his career was finished altogether.
Final Thoughts
In the end, any pick in the draft is far from a sure thing. Names like Alexandre Daigle, Patrik Stefan, Pavel Brendl, Daniel Tkaczuk, and others litter the draft’s history of busts. When the draft rolls around in June, the Sabres (presuming they keep the pick) will have a chance to be on the right side of history this time.