2015: Noah Hanifin (D) 5th Overall 678 GP 62 G 224 A 187 PIM
This draft is one that makes me genuinely sad considering the players that could have been. Not to say Hanifin isn’t a good player or good pick early on in his career with the Hurricanes; he was just traded away too soon. At the time there were concerns about signing him to a long-term deal which led to him being traded away. He has become a consistent and steady NHL defenseman during his career and, as we discussed earlier, the return in the trade with Calgary did not stick around in Carolina long. Several all-stars were picked after Hanifin including all-star defensemen Zack Werenski (8th Overall) and Thomas Chabot (18th Overall), all-stars and scoring forwards Timo Mier (9th Overall), Kyle Connor (17th Overall), Brock Boeser (23rd Overall) and Travis Konecny (24th Overall), and franchise changing players in Mikko Rantanen (10th Overall) and Matt Barzal (16th Overall). The silver lining in this is the Bruins had 3 consecutive first-round picks (13th, 14th, and 15th) and missed on all three. The next 3 picks after the Bruins’ selections all became all-stars.
Note: This was the Sebastian Aho draft. The thought of the Hurricanes missing out on a first line of Pastranak-Aho-Rantanen makes me violently ill.