2023-06-23 16:18:57
The 61st NHL Draft will take place on June 28th and 29th, 2023. This time the host will be the city of Nashville. Longtime fans of the league might take that as a good omen, remembering the fact that the 2003 NHL Draft, exactly 20 years ago, was also held there. This is still considered to be one of the best drafted of its kind. NHL.com/de is therefore reminiscent of a draft vintage that shaped the league for many years and that in some cases still leaves its mark to this day.
In retrospect, the 2003 vintage was distinguished not only by an immense number of top-class talents, but also by an unusually high number of successful picks outside of the first round. These facts allowed the franchises to add an unusually large number of players who later went on to become true league superstars. Patrice Bergeron (No. 45, Boston), Shea Weber (No. 49, Nashville) or Dustin Byfuglien (No. 245, Chicago) should be remembered in this context.
Believe it or not, 29 of 30 first-round picks later made it into the NHL. Thirteen of them surpassed 300 league games, with nine becoming All-Stars later in their careers. Considered individually, the future top stars such as Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brent Bruns, Weber and Joe Pavelski, who started out as promising talents, are considered by many to be future members of the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
But many other players quickly developed into player personalities that ice hockey fans should still be familiar with today. Great names like Corey Perry, Corey Crawford, Ryan Suter, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Zach Parise, Dion Phaneuf, Byfuglien, the Austrian Thomas Vanek, Dustin Brown, Ryan Kesler, David Backes, Loui Eriksson and Nathan Horton should be mentioned here.
The player with the most points from this draft year is Eric Staal, who after 1,365 games in the regular season for the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabers, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers brought it to 1,063 points in the NHL and most recently with made it to the Stanley Cup Finals again with the Panthers, losing 4-1 in a best-of-7 series to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Video: FLA@VGK, Sp1: Staal with SHG via wraparound in the 1st
The fact that the Nashville Predators signed four players at the time, who would later all be part of the club’s star formation, also shows how special the 2003 vintage was. As then-General Manager of the Predators David Poile recently freshly recalled in connection with the 2023 NHL Draft, in 2003 his team was primarily fixated on strengthening the defensive structure of the roster.
That’s why draft host Nashville chose Ryan Suter as number 7. Kevin Klein was then brought in with number 37 of the second round. Added to this was a young man named Shea Weber in position 49. The Predators also took down German Alexander Sulzer, also in the third round (position 92). With him, Suter, Klein and Weber, all four selected defensive specialists had reached the NHL as active players by the 2008/09 season. “Four defensemen that were drafted in one draft year and play for the team in the NHL at the same time, that’s pretty unique,” said Poile proudly in retrospect.
Two-thirds of a defensive lineup on an NHL team that comes from a single draft year is highly unusual in the league and illustrates the great quality that distinguished this draft class. And that’s just one of many notable stories written by the 2003 NHL Draft.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have won three Stanley Cups over the years (2009, 2016 and 2017) with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, their 2003 No. 1 pick. The Anaheim Ducks brought in future franchise greats and 2007 Stanley Cup winners Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and the Philadelphia Flyers brought in the services of now-legends Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. Incidentally, these four were all selected outside of the top 10. The Carolina Hurricanes snagged their #2 pick, Staal, a 1,000-point scorer and future Stanley Cup champion (2006).
The 2003 vintage also brought several top scorers to the league, including Carter (#11 pick), Perry (#28), Zach Parise (#17), Vanek (#5) and Pavelski (#205). . It also gave birth to a future Vezina Trophy winner like Fleury, included an acclaimed playoff MVP in Perry, and a eventual Norris Trophy winner in Brent Burns (No. 20).
The stroke of luck of the year, however, came from the Boston Bruins, who landed Bergeron in the second round (number 45), a player who would in the future mature into one of the best defensive forwards in NHL history and (so far) five Selke Trophies (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022) should reap the rewards. A sixth award could follow shortly.
From the point of view of the players from the DACH region, Vanek’s career will of course be remembered first and foremost. The goalscorer played 1,029 regular-season games, scoring 373 goals and 789 points. So far, he is the most successful German-speaking NHL player of all time, but Leon Draisaitl is likely to replace him in this regard soon. There were also 69 appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in which he was able to record a further 21 hits. Vanek was twice the fifth top scorer in the league (2006/07 and 2008/09) and was voted Austria’s sportsman of the year in 2007.
Video: All 52 goals by Leon Draisaitl this season
In retrospect, the vintage of the NHL Draft 2003 did not have one superstar to offer, since there was no ultimate scorer or scorer of the absolute top class. But it was this enormous breadth of talent that made him one, if not the best draft year in league history. After all, nine players from this year have reached the mark of 1,200 appearances in the league.
Many of those involved will be hoping that this year’s event at the Bridgestone Arena, which will include the near future of top talent Connor Bedard and other promising talents, will be decided in retrospect as a successful story like the NHL Draft 20 years ago.
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