Nashville Predators Draft History: Grading the Early Draft Classes

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Drafting isn’t a perfect science in any sport, and it’s always easier to look back on the “smart” picks and “stupid” picks. How have the Nashville Predators faired in history?

If you’ve followed the Nashville Predators since the inaugural 1998-99 season, then kudos to you. You’re a true fan that deserved all of the joy they brought you when the team reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2017.

You also know it was a long journey of being massive underdogs to climb to the top of the Western Conference. A lot of strong draft picks to build the foundation, but also a lot of choices that will make you want to bang your head against the wall.

The Predators just drafted the top goaltender prospect in the draft, perhaps a generational goaltender, in Iaroslav Askarov in the most recent draft.

It will be many years before we know the ramifications of that pick.

We’re starting a four-part series of the history of Predators draft picks and how they faired, First up, the 1998 inaugural draft to 2002.

1998 Entry Draft and Expansion Draft: Where it all started

Let’s start with the 1998 Expansion Draft, which had much different parameters than what it is today with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken in 2021.

The Predators made some impactful selections in this process, including their workhorse starting goaltender in Mike Dunham. He was taken from the New Jersey Devils, and ended up winning 81 games for Nashville with eight shutouts.

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Other expansion selections included Tomas Vokoun ( another smart pick), Greg Johnson, Scott Walker and the Predators also ended up with Kimmo Timonen through a trade.

All of those previously mentioned players ended up having productive careers with the Predators and were big parts of the team.

Now for the draft itself, it doesn’t have a lot of highlights after David Legwand.

Obviously Legwand went on to have an outstanding and long career for the Predators, and there’s really no reason to cringe when looking back.

Other than Alex Tanguay, taken 12th-overall by the Colorado Avalanche, I don’t really see a player that jumped off the page that the Predators would’ve taken. They could’ve made a much more disastrous pick here, so they get an “A” for taking Legwand as the franchise’s first pick.

Not many solid picks after Legwand in their inaugural draft. They took Denis Arkhipov with their third-round pick, who very few remember. He did play a couple moderately productive seasons with Nashville (2001-2003) but never really lived up to it.

Other notable players on the board when the Predators picked in the third round were Brad Richards and Pavel Datsyuk ( ouch).

The next five picks of the 1998 draft for the Predators never registered an NHL point, with their final pick, Karlis Skrastins, cracking into the NHL rather quickly for his draft position and putting up 54 points for his Predators career.

1998 Draft Grade: C+

1999 and 2000 Drafts: Lots of swings and misses

After that 1998 season, fans were just happy to have a hockey team in Nashville. Quite frankly, the team was fun to watch despite not much talent and a fanbase that didn’t know what icing was yet.

However, the next couple drafts were largely unsuccessful.

Let’s start with the positive. In 1999, the Predators had a boatload of picks to try to get the team more competitive. They whiffed on almost all of them, but did get Martin Erat all the way in the seventh round!

Ask the casual fan what round Erat was taken and be very impressed if they know how far back he was chosen. He went on to be a mainstay on the Predators roster and finished with 481 points in his 11-year career with the team.

Erat remains second on the franchise’s all-time list in points, with Roman Josi closing in fast.

The following draft in 2000, the Predators also missed on a lot of selections, but somewhat atoned for it with their sixth-overall pick of Scott Hartnell. A fan-favorite who is still missed and considered one of the more popular players in team history.

I’m not going to name every bad selection in these two drafts, with many of them never even making it to the NHL, but let’s start with 1999 and the Predators blowing their sixth-overall pick on Brian Finley and the second-round pick on Jonas Andersson.

Those players combined for 13 career NHL games.

Predators get another slightly passing, but mediocre grade because they landed Erat and Hartnell.

1999/2000 Draft grades: C-

2001 Draft: Strengthening the Defense

The early years of the Predators had a hard time scoring goals. To win, they usually needed near-perfect performances by their goaltender and some lucky bounces to go their way.

But a shift started to happen where the Predators were stronger defensively and grinded out wins. The 2001 Entry Draft came as the Predators finished with 80 points in the season before, which was actually a big accomplishment for them.

This draft was important to keep the momentum trending in a positive direction, and they connected on their 12th-overall pick with Dan Hamhuis. This guy ended up being a huge part of the defensive foundation.

Hamhuis impressively played in 78 games or more in all six seasons of his first stint in Nashville. He was the quiet, but strong leader that Roman Josi is, only without the offensive flare.

After the Hamhuis pick, the Predators had more duds. They did take Jordin Tootoo in the fourth round, which turned into being a massive fan-favorite and a huge part of the organization.

I’m not going to fault the Predators too much for this draft, because overall this was not a strong draft class for the entire league. A lot of busts.

2001 Draft Grade: C+

2001 Draft: Bury it and never mention it again

Maybe the worst draft class in Predators history? If not, then it’s pretty close, but we’ll find out as we continue the series all the way to the present.

Scottie Upshall was taken sixth-overall after the Predators took a dip the previous season finishing with just 69 points. The team was struggling to get over the hump and be a playoff contender.

Upshall actually ended up having a decent NHL career, but not worthy of the sixth-overall pick as he only played 77 games for Nashville and registered a pedestrian 28 points ( 11 goals).

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Predators didn’t make any other impactful selections afterwards.

Again, to their defense, it was another horrendous draft class with the exceptions of Duncan Keith, Cam Ward and Alexander Semin who were on the board when the Predators picked.

Bad draft class and the Predators did the best they could, I suppose. Still ugly to look back on.

2002 Draft Grade: D-

light. Related Story. Predators Draft Top Goaltender Prospect Iaroslav Askarov

Next up in the series I’ll cover 2003-2008 when the franchise was finally starting to take the next step into the playoffs.

All draft info was courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com

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