Mining Gems Outside the First Round, Who's the Worst GM?

For details on how I went about determining these numbers see the last post

THE WORST GMS

01. DALE TALLON, Chicago (5 Drafts, 11%, 38 Picks, 4 Gems): Though Tallon's found more Gems than most of the GMs this high on the list (4), I'm putting him at #1 because of the massive amount of picks he had (38!) which is at least 4 more than any other GM over this time period. Plus, those first four drafts Tallon oversaw were all high, high draft picks (7th, 3rd, 1st and 11th). WORST DRAFT: He had a few, but 2006 stands as the worst. Eight draft picks, including two 2nds, 1 3rd and two 4ths and the only one outside of first rounder Jonathan Toews to make it into the NHL was 7th rounder Peter LeBlanc who played 1 game for Washington this past season. Just doing a quick bit of revisionist history, here, but Tallon could have come out of the 2006 draft with Jonathan Toews, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Tom Sestito, James Reimer, Matt Beleseky, Andrew MacDonald, Mathieu Perreault and Derek Dorsett instead of, you know, Jonthan Toews and Peter LeBlanc. Just saying... WORST PICK: It's pretty apparent that whoever scouted Simon Danis-Papin saw his size listing and thought "Yup, that's our guy", because the fact of teh matter is that Danis-Papin not only flopped as an NHL prospect but has also not got the ability to be an AHL player as he only managed to get into 75 AHL games in the 5 years he's played professional hockey.



02. PETE CHIARELI, Boston (3 Drafts, 0%, 14 Picks, 0 Gems): I don't think there are too many Bruins fans who would like to see Chiarelli dismissed, based on the Bruins Cup win in 2011, as well as Cup appearance in 2013. But Chiarelli has not drafted well, at all, since taking over as Bruins GM. In fact, what's particularly striking about his failure (Besides the fact that he turned up 0 Gems in 3 drafts! The only other GMs to not turn up a Gem were Mike Milbury and Mike Keenan who only oversaw 3 drafts between them!) is that Chiarelli's two predecessors: Mike O'Connell and interim-GM Jeff Gorton, both actually had solid drafts in this time frame. In 2005, O'Connell found Vladimir Sobotka in the 4th round and he's gone on to play 381 NHL games (3 other O'Connell non-first rounders also saw limited NHL time). Meanwhile, Gorton turned in one of the finer 1 draft performances in 2006, landing the Bruins 485 GP power forward Milan Lucic late in the 2nd round in and picking up 300 GP pest Brad Marchand in the 3rd. Both were key players in the Bruins two Cup appearances. WORST DRAFT: Take your pick. Was it Chiarelli's first draft in 2007 where he failed to turn up a Gem in 5 non-first round picks? Was it the 2008 draft where 5 non-first rounders yielded 3 NHL players, though just 5 games played (Though Michael Hutchinson is having a wonderful AHL playoff run right now...with Winnipeg)? Or was it the 2009 draft where 4 picks yielded 1 NHL player, Lane MacDermid who played 21 NHL games before deciding to retire after a midseason demotion by Calgary. It's probably 2007. It's not just that the players failed to make the NHL, it's the fact they failed to come close, really. Tommy Cross is still a prospect in the AHL for the Bruins, but Denis Reul, Alain Goulet and Radim Ostrcil never even signed NHL deals while Jordan Knackstedt hung around the AHL for a while before ending up in Italy, Sweden and finally back in North America for Bakersfield of the ECHL this past season. WORST PICK: Maxime Sauve was a 47th overall 2nd rounder who has only played 1 NHL game and is currently on an AHL deal. The fact his pick came just 6 slots before Derek Stepan probably cements it. Tommy Cross merits a mention as this was the first year he able to cement himself as a regular AHL player and he was a high 2nd rounder (35th overall) who came just 8 picks before Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban.

03. DON WADDELL, Atlanta (5 Drafts, 10%, 31 Picks, 3 Gems): Boy, was Waddell's run with Atlanta fairly disappointing on all fronts. In all his drafts over this period, he had exactly one pick outside the first round turn into an NHL player and that's Ondrej Pavelec (41st overall in 2005, though there is still hope that Paul Postma, Zach Redmond, Carl Klingberg and Jeremy Morin can still get there). WORST DRAFT: It's a toss-up between 2005 and 2006. While 2005 yielded more games played (296, of which 288 belong to Pavelec vs. 15), I have to go with 2005 as the worst because of where the picks took place. While he had more picks to work with in 2006, it's fait to point out that four of the 8 picks were over the 6th and 7th round. In 2005, Waddell had THREE second rounders and came up with Pavelec and nothing else as neither Chad Denny or Andrew Kozek were even really close to playing in the NHL. WORST PICK: Again a toss-up, it's between Kozek and Denny here, but we'll go with Denny as he was a higher pick and is farther from being an NHL player now than Kozek. While Kozek is playing in the Austrian professional ranks, at least he has played exclusively pro hockey since leaving the NCAA. After a few middling seasons in the AHL, Kozek played a year in Japan, followed by two seasons in Austria (He is signed for a third next season). Denny, meanwhile, signed an NHL deal with Atlanta, played one season mostly in the ECHL, followed by season mostly in the AHL, then two more in the ECHL, then on to Canadian College Hockey, and played last season in the semi-professional LNAH of Quebec. Just think Atlanta could have come out of the 2005 draft with Pavelec, Mason Raymond (taken two picks after Denny) and Adam McQuaid (taken two picks after Kozek) instead of Pavelec and nothing.

04. JIM RUTHERFORD, Carolina (5 Drafts, 15%, 27 Picks, 4 Gems): It's interesting to see Rutherford turn up on the Worst GMs list as he was just hired to run the Pittsburgh Penguins. To be fair to Rutherford, the 2005-2009 period was a rather lean one for pick placement for Carolina (Aside from 2005). Still, though that change the fact that Rutherford turned up just 4 gems in 27 picks (For the record, Jacques Martin, who ran two drafts for the Florida Panthers during this time period, also turned up 4 Gems but he did it in just 12 picks). WORST DRAFT: The 2005 is pretty unquestionably Rutherford's worst. In that draft, despite picking high in each round (Carolina's pick was 3rd overall), Rutherford was only able to pick up 9 NHL games from sixth rounder Nicolas Blanchard. Second rounder Nate Hagemo saw his career derailed by shoulder injuries, substance abuse problems and arrests; Third rounder Joe Barnes struggled to establish himself at the AHL level; Fourth rounder Jakub Vojta never came to North America and made a comeback in the third German division of hockey after a year away from hockey this past year; fellow fourth rounder Ondrej Otcenas came over for one season of OHL hockey before returning to his native Slovakia; Fifth rounders Tim Kunes and Risto Korhonen never signed NHL contracts and are currently playing in Europe while Seventh rounder Kyle Lawson played a few years in the Hurricanes minor system but was inactive this year. WORST PICK: I don't want to pile on Hagemo because he obviously had some personal problems, and, as such, I will also stay away from Bobby Hughes (The Canes 2006 4th rounder was arrested on sexual assault charges, so I'll just largely bypass this area but just quickly point out what a disappointing first round pick Philippe Paradis was in 2009.

05. DAVE NONIS, Vancouver (3 Drafts, 7%, 14 Picks, 1 Gem):: What's fascinating about Nonis' Vancouver tenure is he actually started off quite well choosing Mason Raymond 51st overall and getting 456 NHL games out of the pick. But his drafts got progressively worse (465 GP in 2005, 8 GP in 2006, 0 GP in 2007). Though the problem isn't all Nonis, successor Mike Gillis chose just 1 gem (Kevin Connauton) in his two years at the helm during the period of this analysis, which would seem to reflect poorly on the scouting staff. WORST DRAFT: The aforementioned 0GP draft in 2007. It wasn't just a failure, it was a spectacular one. Taylor Ellington was a terrible pick at #33 (More below). But it doesn't end with Ellington, Charles-Antoine Messier never signed a contract, played some Canadian college hockey and retired; Ilya Kablukov had no interest in coming to North America, Taylor Matson is playing in the ECHL. Dan Gendur actually signed an NHL deal but was traded away with Shane O'Brien for Jonas Andersson and Ryan Parent (neither of whom stuck around). He played Canadian college hockey this past season. WORST PICK: It has to be Ellington at #33. The pick could easily have been Eric Tangradi (136 GP), T.J. Galiardi (283), Nick Spaling (297), Wayne Simmonds (449) and, oh yeah, PK Subban again (284 GP), all of whom were 2nd rounders chosen after Ellington. Ellington signed an NHL deal but was dealt to Columbus to clear a contract slot for deadline rental Sammy Pahlsson. Once his NHL contract expired, he played a year on an ECHL deal and then played this past season for Esbjer in Denmark.

06. DON MALONEY, Phoenix (3 Drafts, 13%, 16 Picks, 2 Gems): Maloney took over for the fired Mike Barnett in 2007 and didn't perform, really, any better than Barnett did at the draft table (Barnett was 20% but it was over only 10 picks). At least Barnett had the excuse of having one pick in the mid-range, Maloney's picks were high (3rd, 6th and 8th) and he still only managed to come up with two gems. WORST DRAFT: The 2008 draft, despite being the draft where Maloney made his best Gem selection (Michael Stone at 69th overall), it was also his worst draft with the least excuses (His 2007 2nd rounder Brett MacLean had to retire due to hear issues after just 18 NHL games, his 2009 2nd rounder Chris Brown still has a bright NHL future just hasn't gotten his chance yet). Taking Jared Staal at #49 smacks of someone ignoring commone sense and going "But his brothers are good...and he's big!" The fact that less than two years later, the Coyotes would dump Staal's rights for that of prospect Ethan Werek tell you all you need to know about the pick. And he was the best pick made outside of Stone. None of Mathieu Brodeur, Colin Long, Brett Hextall or Tim Billingsley have seen NHL action, though Hextall is still very much in the mix, and possibly Brodeur. WORST PICK: If it's not Staal, taken two spots before 197-point-scorer Derek Stepan, then it's probably Joel Gistedt. The Coyotes brought him to North American in 2008 where he toiled for Arizona of the CHL (A league that is below the ECHL on the minor pro food chain) and he couldn't keep his GAA under 4.13 or his Save PCT about .873. Gistedt would spend one more year in minor pro, this time in Las Vegas of the ECHL with similarly stinky numbers before returning to his native Sweden where he played in the Swedish second division before finally playing some games in the SHL last year. Gistedt, barring a miracle turnaround, will likely never play in the NHL despite being a very high pick (36th) overall in a 2nd round that yielded NHLers like Eric Tangradi, PK Subban, and TJ Galiardi, all of whom were chosen after him.

07. SCOTT HOWSON, Columbus (3 Drafts, 16%, 19 Picks, 3 Gems): After turning up in the Top 10 for best GMs at drafting First Rounders, I was surprised at how disappointing Howson's late round finds were as Columbus GM for this time period in spite of the fact his 2008 draft was pretty good: Matt Calvert and cam Atkinson are full-time Blue Jackets while Sean Collins is still a prospect WORST DRAFT: The 2009 Draft at first glance would be the worst as only David Savard has played any NHL games, but Thomas Larkin is still in the system, that said it's looking like Kevin Lynch, Anton Blomqvist adn Kyle Neuber are wash-outs. But you would have to point at Howson's 2007 as his worst draft. Per Gare Joyce's book 'Future Greats and Heartbreaks', Howson boasted of a "dangerous" knowlege of the Oilers draft board when he took over the Jackets, but it sure didn't serve him well. Two second-rounders, Stefan Legein and Will Weber, have yet to play any NHL games (Though Weber is still in the system), and neither has third rounder Jake Hansen (Also still in the system). Fourth Rounder Maksim Mayorov played 22 games before heading back to play in Russia and sixth rounder Allen York got into 11 games when Columbus ran into injury troubles. Seventh rounder Trent Vogelhuber hasn't played any NHL games, but has turned into a mainstay on Columbus' AHL affilated in Springfield. Considering one could swap out Legein, Weber and Hansen for PK Subban, TJ Galiardi and Wayne Simmonds, it's fair to say it hasn't turned out well for the Jackets. WORST PICK: Through no fault of his own, it has to be Maksim Mayorov. Mayorov was a solid player who grew tired of playing in the AHL and sought to play in the KHL for more money, and that's no big deal. Truthfully, it's impressive that a fourth rounder got into any games at all when it all comes down to it and Columbus still controls Mayorov's rights in case they decide to give him another shot. What makes it a big deal, is what Scott Howson gave up to get him. At the table, to move up and snag Mayorov, Howson gave Dallas 3 fifth round picks. With two of the picks, Dallas chose Austin Smith and Michael Neal. Roman suffered injury issues and never panned out while Neal failed to live up to lofty expectations set up by his brother James. But with the other fifth round pick, Dallas selected Canadian Olympian and 79-point player Jamie Benn. That is enough to cement it as Howson's worst pick.


08. DARRYL SUTTER, Calgary (5 Drafts, 17%, 29 Picks, 5 Gems): Unfortunately for Sutter, who has turned up to be a much better coach than GM, Sutter turns up on a 'Worst of' list yet again. Again, for Sutter, there are some caveats as it has to be stated that Sutter's picks were mostly in the back third of these drafts, he had one solid-looking 5th round prospect pass away (Mickey Renaud) and that only once in the time period did he have a second rounder. There are still a ton of bad picks, though, but his 2008 draft was solid as he turned up Lance Bouma (121 GP) and Top 4 d-man T.J. Brodie (185 GP). WORST DRAFT: The 2009 draft still has an outside chance of being Sutter's best over the time period, but at the moment it's probably the worst. In the third round, he chose Ryan Howse (11 picks later Cody Eakin was chosen) who's game was a little slow to develop but was still in Calgary's plans when he no-showed training camp this year and decided to quit hockey. In the fourth and fifth rounds, he chose Henrik Bjorklund and Spencer Bennett, respectively, neither of whom was offered a contract, and his 7th rounder Gaelan Patterson signed his ELC but never rose above the ECHL level before being let go. But there is hope, sixth rounder Joni Ortio came to North America shortly after being signed, played 10 games in the AHL and returned to Finland for two years, but he came back this past season and excelled in the AHL and even got into 9 games with the Flames. Should he choose to remain in North America, he has a chance to singled-handedly turn this draft around for the Flames, and for Sutter's record. WORST PICK: Sutter's only second rounder over this timer period, was Mitch Wahl, chosen 48th overall in 2008 but he struggled mightily. After failing to establish himself as a prospect, his rights were traded to Philadelphia who chose not to retain him at season's end. Within five picks of his selection, New York obtained Top 2 centerman Derek Stepan while the Islanders chose Top 4 d-man Travis Hamonic.


09. LARRY PLEAU, St. Louis (5 Drafts, 18%, 34 Picks, 6 Gems): Pleau, the undisputed king of choosing First Rounders over this time frame, actually comes in on the worst list! It's actually quite shocking how many failures Pleau had outside of the 2005 draft where he nabbed Ben Bishop in the 3rd and Ryan Reaves in the 5th. 2006 saw him turn up 41 NHL games; 2007 was 131; 2008 was 36 and 2009 turned up none. When you look at the picks, though, a lot of them weren't bad, they just didn't want to stay/come to North America: Jonas Junland, Simon Hjalmarsson and Jori Lehtera would all have likely been gems had hey been willing to come to/hang around North America longer (Hjalmarsson actually just signed a contract with Columbus) WORST DRAFT: It has to be 2008 as Pleau had 9 picks outside of the first round, including two 2nds, two 3rds and one in each of the remaining rounds. Jake Allen, though short of qualifying as a Gem, was given Gem status as he will be one of the Blues top 2 goalies next year, but other than that, it's not so good. Second rounder Phil McRae played 15 games before leaving for Finland. The third round went worse as Lehtera is uninterested in playing AHL hockey, and James Livingston was never signed (He was later signed by San Jose who moved his rights to LA this past season) while Ian Schultz signed a deal, the hard-hitting forward was moved to Montreal in the Jaroslav Halak deal and never made the NHL. Fourth rounder David Warsofsky is in Boston's AHL system and has played 6 NHL games while the Blues Fifth (Kristoffer Berglund), Sixth (Anthony Nigro), and Seventh pick (Paul Karpowich) never played an NHL game and are all UFAs. WORST PICK: Scott Jackson, the Blues 2nd rounder in 2005 was a high second rounder (37th overall) whom the Blues chose not to sign. Jackson was signed by Tampa Bay, played 1 NHL game and has been out of hockey since 2012. The big defender ran into injury troubles, if memory serves, but even if he hadn't, it's unlikely he would have had the impact Justin Abdelkader (327 GP), Mason Raymond (456 GP) and Paul Stastny (538 GP) had, all of whom were selected within 15 picks after Jackson.

10. GEORGE MCPHEE, Washington (5 Drafts, 18%, 34 Picks, 6 Gems): McPhee was tied for the 2nd most picks of any GM on this list (With Larry Pleau who also had 34) but he also tied with Pleau for the most Gems of anyone on the list with 6. McPhee's 2009 draft spared him from being much higher on this list as he was able to nab Dmitry Orlov and Cody Eakin in the 2nd and 3rd round respectively. WORST DRAFT: McPhee's 2007 draft was dreadful as no one outside of First Rounder Karl Alzner ever played an NHL game depsite McPhee making 9 picks (!) outside the first round. WORST PICK: In the 2006 draft McPhee found himself with 2 back-to-back 2nd rounders at #34 and 35. With the first pick, he chose well selecting goalie Michal Neuvirth. Unfortunately, with his second pick at #35 he chose Francois Bouchard just one spot ahead of 347-GP winger Jamie McGinn. At least McPhee was able to parlay Bouchard into defenceman Tomas Kundratek who might still have an NHL future. Just think, though, instead, in hindsight, McPhee could have landed his team Milan Lucic who went 15 picks later to the Bruins and would like quite good on that Capitals team.