Hugh Jessiman of the New York Rangers i(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images/NHLI)
Worst: Class of 2003
Notable
Hugh Jessiman (1st round, 12th overall, right wing)
Ivan Baranka (2nd round, 50th overall, defense)
Corey Potter (4th round, 122nd overall, defense)
Analysis
In taking Jessiman, the Rangers’ hearts may have been in the right place, but their heads were stuck in the mid-1990s.
As was widely reported in subsequent years, the Blueshirts took the native New Yorker and Dartmouth College standout after becoming enamored by his intelligence, reports of good character, and his 6-foot-6, 221-pound frame.
But what the Rangers didn’t consider at the time is what cost them dearly.
Twenty years prior to this draft, the NHL had a place for those with size and toughness, even if they weren’t the swiftest of skaters or adequately mobile. Back then, picking a player like Jessiman was a no-brainer.
However, by 2003 the NHL was much faster and well on track to becoming the 200-foot game it is today. Having a high IQ might help some players (like Jessiman) compensate for slight deficiencies in speed and mobility. Jessiman’s deficits were such that keeping up the new NHL long-term would prove impossible.
Sure enough, his NHL playing “career” lasted a grand total of 15 minutes in two games with Florida. And the Panthers were his fourth NHL organization. Jessiman was a solid minor-league player, though, posting 228 points and 849 penalty minutes in 498 games for the Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford.
Jessiman simply didn’t possess the speed or mobility of many players taken after him, such as Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, Patrice Bergeron, and Joe Pavelski.
You might point to Brian Boyle, the 6-foot-6, 248-pound center picked at 26th overall by Los Angeles. But Boyle, who would become a key member of the 2014 Rangers, had enough speed and mobility to go with his frame to last more than 800 games in the NHL as a bottom-six forward.