THN’s 2004 NHL Draft Preview

50 comments
  1. We have our 2004 entry today. Blackhawks really killed this one after sliding out of the 2 spot when Washington won the lottery. Bolland, Bickell and “best of the rest” Cam Barker is not a bad haul, if the lottery gods smack you out of the Ovechkin/Malkin race.

    Sorry the light quality is dodgy it’s been cloudy/not cloudy all morning here.

  2. I made a comment yesterday in the 2003 edition of this post, but I’m still not having a good time reliving just how many misses the Islanders had in some of these 2000’s drafts. Took Robert Nilsson 15th in ‘03 with Parise, Getzlaf, and Burns going in three of the following five picks, and here in ‘04 we took Nokelainen 16th with Zajac going four spots later. Please I beg show me no more 😭

  3. Malkin with 8 points and 31 PIMs in the world under-18 tourney is a hilarious preview of what became his NHL career.

  4. Last post there were 3 guys who look about as old as they do now, this year I’m only seeing Ladd to fit that

  5. Just remember, any time you think NHL scouts are something extra special, one NHL scout said Lauri Tukoken will “be a player in the NHL.”

    Tukonen played 5 games.

  6. >Malkin was superb. He captained Russia to a gold medal at the world under-18 championship and had eight points and 31 penalty minutes.

    Homeboy let us know exactly who he was right from the start.

  7. I used to write in who took also. I’d add the number they where taken also

  8. Interesting to see how they ranked Blake Wheeler 72nd yet he still went #5. Usually isn’t that much of a misprojection

  9. Oilers 03 draft still makes me angry trading down with Devils and Oilers selecting Pouliot 🤦‍♂️. This draft not has bad but still horrible. Lowe and the Oilers scouts were god awful.

  10. Lol Radulov one “I’ve seen some nights where I thought he was a Finn, that’s how hard he was working” also his picture looks like a photo of a Dateline murderer

  11. At least the Avs got shootout specialist Wolski. He was magical when the shootout started.

  12. they had Nokelainen’s strengths nailed but wasn’t enough for a regular NHL gig. I think he had some injuries in there too.

  13. Ovechkin at 6’2 and 212 as an 18 year old is terrifying.

    Didn’t fall an iota short of the hype.

  14. Idk about you guys, but I don’t think the top 2 picks will pan out. Would love opinions on this.

  15. Almost came in to yell at you for a repost until I realized it was a different year and you posted 2003 yesterday. You rock. Carry on.

  16. AJ Thelen will always remain a “what if”. Unfortunately, he was too hard on his body.

  17. As not only a draft nerd, but an equivalency nerd it’s mind boggling how few of these players even had notable euro careers

    Some worth mentioning:

    – Sergei Shirokov: was one of the best players outside the NHL for a few years, 2.4 career pts/60 in the KHL

    – Julien Sprunger: years of point per game in NLA which is a solid bottom six NHLe, played in an Olympics

    – Roman Wick: same as Sprunger except he also has a Calder cup and played in two Olympics

    Almost everyone else who didn’t make the NHL was just kinda meh as a pro which is almost impossible

    Surreally bad draft outside the known players

  18. I went to school in this era with so many guys who looked just like Travis Zajac.

  19. After the top 2 there wasn’t much else going on. Mike Green, Blake Wheeler, and Cory Schneider are about it.

  20. Thanks for posting these, probably the most interesting content on this sub.

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