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-
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