Carolina Hurricanes: Top Five First-Round Misfires

It’s no secret that drafting in professional sports can be a crapshoot, a lesson that the Carolina Hurricanes have learned over the years.

The draft is a fickle mistress, teasing you with untold potential and the chance of landing a franchise player.  Teams put in an enormous amount of work evaluating talent, separating the pretenders from the blue-chippers, though the system doesn’t always hold.

In this article, we’ll take a look at five first-round picks that failed to pan out for the Carolina Hurricanes.  Along with that, we’ll take a look at some players who the Hurricanes could have chosen.

As a disclaimer, I realize how easy it is to look back now and how the players who were chosen later were not guaranteed to develop the way that they did.  This is simply speculation, a fun diversion from the summer hockey wasteland.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a look back.

Nikos Tselios

The first-ever draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes (22nd overall at the 1997 Entry Draft), Nikos Tselios had the size (6’5″, 226) and bloodline (he is a cousin of NHL legend Chris Chelios) to be an intriguing pick.  Possessing fair mobility for a player his size, Tselios also displayed offensive vision, putting up 21 goals and 39 assists with the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers.

Despite transitioning to the pro game relatively well with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the IHL, Tselios never looked totally comfortable after making the jump to the AHL.  He saw action in two NHL games late in the 2001-02 season, going pointless while averaging 13:13 minutes in ice time.  That would prove to be his only NHL action.

Tselios signed with the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of 2003 but spent the rest of his playing career in the minor leagues, offset by a year split between Finland and Sweden.

What Might Have Been

When you look at the picks directly after Tselios, two names jump out.  The first is Scott Hannan, a defenseman who played 1055 games in the NHL with San José, Colorado, Washington, Calgary, and Nashville.  Hannan’s steady defensive play would have fit in well with the early 00’s Hurricanes and given them another layer of depth on the blueline.  He was taken directly after Carolina selected Tselios.

The more intriguing possibility to me is Brenden Morrow, taken by the Dallas Stars three picks after Tselios.  A talented two-way winger, Morrow amassed 575 points over 991 games while developing into a lead-by-example captain.

Excuse me while I imagine Morrow playing wing on a line with Rod Brind’Amour.

Igor Knyazev

With the 15th pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, the Carolina Hurricanes gambled on Russian defenseman Igor Knyazev.  A strong puck mover with decent size, Knyazev entered the draft as the second-ranked European defenceman.

His pro career started with the Lowell Lock Monsters in the AHL where Knyazev didn’t show much promise in terms of his offensive upside.  To compound things, his defensive play regressed, leading the Hurricanes to trade him to the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of 2003.

Unable to crack the NHL roster of either the Hurricanes or Coyotes, Knyazev returned to Russia in 2004, having spent two seasons in the AHL without ever seeing NHL action.

Note: Danny Markov, the player received from Phoenix in the trade, was later sent to the Philadelphia Flyers for Justin Williams.  The Markov trade also marked the end of David Tanabe‘s first stint with the Hurricanes.

A Familiar Face

Eight spots after Knyazev was selected, the Los Angeles Kings took Tim Gleason.  As we all know, Gleason went on to spend the majority of his career with the Carolina Hurricanes, where he became a fan-favorite.

Philippe Paradis

There were a lot of hits (John Tavares, Victor Hedman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson) and several misses (Scott Glennie, Zack Kassian, David Rundblad) in the first round of the 2009 NHL Draft.  The Carolina Hurricanes picking Philippe Paradis at the 27th spot was a big whiff.

The 6’2″ winger had the frame to develop into an NHL player, but the scoring touch he had shown while playing in the QMJHL never carried over to the professional game.  Playing in 249 AHL games, Paradis never posted more than 16 points in a season.

It’s worthy of note that none of those AHL games came in the Hurricanes organization, as Paradis was shipped to Toronto in exchange for Jiri Tlusty less than six months after he was drafted.  Ten years later and Paradis has never played in an NHL game.

Reimagining History

Okay, the three picks that closed out the first round haven’t exactly become stars though, unlike Paradis, all have played in the NHL.  I’m going to go off the board a bit (relative to standings at the time of the draft) and opt for Ryan O’Reilly, who the Colorado Avalanche took early in the second round (33rd overall).

Leading up to the 2009 Draft, the biggest knock on O’Reilly was limited offensive upside.  Ten years and 733 games into his NHL career and O’Reilly’s career points per game sits at 0.68.  That’s pretty good for a two-way center.

That’s not to mention the fact that O’Reilly, fresh off a Stanley Cup victory with the St. Louis Blues, owns a Lady Byng, a Selke, and a Conn Smythe from this past playoff run.

Jeff Heerema

A winger with size who posted a 72 point season in the OHL leading up to the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Jeff Heerema seemed like a pick with a decent shot at NHL success.  He averaged 73 points over his next two season, each spent with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, before making his professional debut with the IHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, putting up 33 points in 73 games.

The 2001-02 season marked Heerema’s AHL debut with the Lowell Lock Monsters, a season that saw him post 33 goals and 70 points in 76 games.  Starting the following season in the AHL, Heerema earned a 10-game call-up in mid-January of 2003, netting three goals before being returned to Lowell.  Those were the only games he would play with the Hurricanes.

Heerema would go on to play 22 games for the St. Louis Blues in the 2003-04 season, picking up one goal and two assists.  He spent the next three seasons in the American League before heading overseas to spend two seasons in Germany.  In 32 NHL games, Heerema notched four goals and two assists.

Can I Get a Re-do?

Unlike Philippe Paradis, there were some notable NHLers taken after Heerema in 1998.  Starting with the 12th pick which saw Alex Tanguay taken by the Colorado Avalanche.  The offensively-gifted winger picked up 863 points in 1088 career games (he also picked up 21 points in Colorado’s run to the 2001 Stanley Cup).

Then, with the 19th overall pick, Colorado (who had four 1st round picks in 98) took defenseman Robyn Regehr.  A big body on the blueline, Regehr appeared in 1089 games over 15 years with Calgary, Buffalo, and Los Angeles.  Having recently drafted Nikos Tselios, Carolina GM Jim Rutherford may have been wary of using another first-round pick on a defenseman.

So, moving the focus back to offense, let’s look at the 22nd overall pick, Simon Gagne.  A veteran of 14 NHL seasons, Gagne racked up 291 goals and 310 assists playing for Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, and Boston.  While injuries led to a decline in play, Gagne averaged 53 points per season over his first nine years in the NHL.  Not too shabby.

Had Rutherford wanted a playmaking center, we can look to the final selection of the first round, Scott Gomez.  Maligned later in his career for the massive contract that New York Ranger’s GM Glen Sather signed him to (before subsequently being traded to Montreal for Ryan McDonagh), Gomez was a productive player for a long time.  While last several seasons of his career saw a steep decline, Gomez averaged 47 points per year, including 575 assists.

Final Thoughts

No team is immune from draft busts.  Thankfully, the Hurricanes have had successes to offset the misses on this list and the future certainly looks bright.  Thank you for indulging me during the dog days of summer and looking back with me at some of the biggest busts that the Carolina Hurricanes have picked.

Which of these players left you scratching your head?  Who would you have picked, given the gift of hindsight?