New report confirms how the Avalanche escaped a first-round disaster
Photo credit: Colorado Hockey Now
A new report details how the Colorado Avalanche succesfully avoided what could have been a costly first-round draft blunder by trading forward Casey Mittelstadt, a move that may have saved the team from investing heavily in a player who struggled to live up to expectations.
The Buffalo Sabres wish they could rewind to 2017 and draft these three stars instead.
How the Avalanche escaped a first-round disaster.
Brandon Croce from Sabre Noise writes that the 2017 NHL Draft featured several standout talents, including Nico Hischier, Miro Heiskanen, and Cale Makar, all selected within the first five picks.
Unfortunately for the Sabres, holding the seventh overall pick, those stars were already off the board by the time it was their turn, leading them to select Mittelstadt instead.
"Mittlestadt would play seven seasons with the Sabres and had a career-high of 59 points in his final full season with the team. However, even with that one season he never really lived up to expectations and has been traded during the season in consecutive years after Buffalo traded him to the Colorado Avalanche and Colorado would trade him to Boston the following year." -Croce
Although the Sabres missed out on the top-tier prospects mentioned earlier, there were still several players taken after their seventh overall pick that they likely wish they could go back and select.
Martin Necas was taken just five picks after Mittelstadt, going 12th overall to the Carolina Hurricanes. While the two played a similar number of NHL games, Necas has been for more productive, tallying 124 goals (43 more than Mittelstadt) and 202 assists (47 more than Mittelstadt).
"Necas switched teams last season after the Hurricanes traded him as a key part of the package to the Colorado Avalanche for Mikko Rantanen. It will be interesting to see if Necas can continue to have the same success he did with the Hurricanes in a full season with the Avalanche. If he does, it will only make the Sabres' pick look even worse." -Croce
Slected 13th overall by the Vegas Golden Knigths, Nick Suzuki was immediately traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Max Pacioretty. He quickly became a full-time NHL player and has steadily improved each season, posting a career-high 89 points last year.
"A few picks later in the first round, the St. Louis Blues selected Robert Thomas 20th overall, and unlike the other players so far on this list, Thomas has not been traded. The Blues have benefited the most from their first-round pick, as Thomas has been a key contributor almost immediately and has the most NHL games of any of the other players with 466." -Croce
Thomas has 107 career goals and 289 assists, the second-highest in his draft class behind Cale Makar. A playmaker like him would have been a far better fit for the Sabres than Mittelstadt.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 10 | 25 ANSWERS New report confirms how the Avalanche escaped a first-round disaster Is Casey Mittelstadt's NHL career over? | ||
| yes | 6 | 24 % |
| no | 19 | 76 % |
| List of polls | ||
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