LOS ANGELES — Whenever hockey fans talk about what a particular team should do in the annual National Hockey League Draft, at least one person will state that their team lacks depth, for example, at center, throughout its system, so they should select whomever the best center available is when that team’s draft pick comes up. Even some articles analyzing a team’s draft needs often suggest that teams select players in the draft by prioritizing team needs.
While that might appear to be a sound strategy, in reality, it is generally the wrong way to go. Rather, teams virtually always choose the best player available when their time on the draft clock comes around.
One apparent reason not to draft by prioritizing needs is that it gives every other team the advantage in dealing with your team in potential draft-day trades because other teams will know what your team’s needs and strategy are just as much as you do.
Two draft mistakes made during General Manager Dean Lombardi’s tenure with the Los Angeles Kings also illustrate why teams should draft by selecting the best player available.
In the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, the Kings selected defenseman Thomas Hickey in the first round with the 4th overall pick.
“Thomas Hickey was a failed pick for the LA Kings, but he wasn’t a failed pick [as far as him becoming a decent NHL player is concerned]. He played in 456 NHL games,” said Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti.
Indeed, Hickey scored 22 goals and added 95 assists for 117 points in those 456 regular season NHL games, to go along with one goal and five assists for six points in 24 playoff games, with the Kings and (mostly) with the New York Islanders.
“Thomas Hickey was a failed pick for the LA Kings for a couple of reasons,” Yannetti noted. “One, because there were better players still left on the board, and two, we got no assets in return for Thomas Hickey. We wasted him as NHL currency.”
Not only did the Kings invest development time with Hickey, but by the time he was ready to make the jump to the NHL, he couldn’t crack the Kings blue line corps. As such, they were forced to place him on waivers coming out of the 2013 lockout in order to assign him to their American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire, knowing that he was likely to be claimed, and sure enough, the Islanders picked him up off the waiver wire.
At the Kings draft party in Hollywood, there was a pretty loud, uniform gasp from the crowd when the Kings selected Hickey, who was not expected to be their first-round pick that year. So why did the Kings select him?
“We had the worst defensive depth in the league,” said Yannetti. “We ranked the prospect pools of all NHL teams. We came in dead last in defensive prospects, and Dean wanted to build the team from the net on out, and don’t forget that we had goaltender Jonathan Bernier,[who was believed to be the Kings future in goal, at the time, not Jonathan Quick]. That was smart, in terms of philosophy, but the execution wasn’t great because drafting for need, [at the time, just didn’t work for us].”
Another draft mistake by the Kings came in the following year’s draft, when they selected defenseman Colten Teubert in the first round with the 13th overall pick.
At 6-4, 201 pounds, Teubert was tough as nails, a big hitter, and would drop the gloves with anyone. But on the downside, he simply didn’t have the skill or hockey sense to make it to the NHL to stay, although he did play in 24 games with the Edmonton Oilers.
“Colten Teubert was the biggest draft mistake,” said Yannetti. “Dean Lombardi has done two interviews where he explained exactly what happened, and now that he’s willing to own it, I’m more than happy to talk about it. I wouldn’t talk about it unless Dean had done so.”
“Dean overruled the [scouting] staff,” added Yannetti. “We had meetings that were very contentious. It was one of those ‘drafting for need’ things. Our team was soft. We’d get pushed around by Anaheim, and so many other teams. We got pushed out of buildings on so many nights. I’m in Los Angeles 8-10 times a season, watching us play, so I didn’t have to deal with the day in and day out misery of, not only watching your team lose, but watching them get out-competed, playing scared, and getting pushed out of games.”
“Dean said, ‘no more,’ and Teubert was tough. He was big. He was mean. He had those attributes at a fairly high level. He just didn’t have the other ones. We had many. many draft meetings about that. It took us a year or two, but we learned that you don’t draft for need.”
Just a few years later, the Kings had become a big, heavy team that was hard to play against.
“By the time Teubert was ready to play [in the NHL], there wasn’t anybody in the league pushing us out of a game,” Yannetti noted. “We were heavy, hard to play against, and we were a possession-based team. We had Matt Green on defense. Drew Doughty played hard. Slava Voynov played hard. Willie Mitchell? We were good and heavy in all areas.”
Although one can understand the reasons why Lombardi went the way of drafting for need with the Teubert pick, it is more evidence why teams should generally go for the best player available.
“That was a learning experience for all of us, and we haven’t made that mistake since,” Yanetti stressed.
LEAD PHOTO: Thomas Hickey (left) defending against Phoenix Coyotes forware Ryan Hollweg, September 15. 2009, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Kings.
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