Worst metro area draft picks
3rd worst Islanders draft pick
When an intelligent but not very handsome man marries a beautiful though not very bright woman, they probably hope their children have the best of their respective qualities. Similar wishful thinking applies when teams sign relatives of great players. But for every Brett Hull, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Peyton and/or Eli Manning, there is a longer list of players who were mere shadows of their more famous relatives. Like Brent Gretzky, Pete Rose, Jr., Tommie Aaron…and Brett Lindros.
Taken with the ninth overall pick in the 1994 draft, the six-foot-four right winger had size like older brother Eric Lindros. But not much else, other than a big head that just invited concussions.
Before being forced into retirement at the tender age of 20, the younger Lindros played in 51 games, with two goals and five assists for a total of seven points. Seven points versus the eight concussions he is believed to have suffered over his pro and junior hockey career.
2nd worst Islanders pick
Just how bad a decision was it for the Islanders to select Scott Scissons sixth overall in the first round of the 1990 draft?
There are virtually no photos to be found of him playing hockey. Even his page on NHL.com has a blank where his face should be. If you are desperate to catch a glimpse of Scissons, do an image search on Google, which will turn up a handful of his hockey cards.
His career stats: two games played (one each in two different seasons), zero goals, zero assists, zero points. One shot on goal.
The Isles could have chosen Martin Brodeur 14 spots later, and that’s absolutely something you should bring up the next time you’re chatting with an Islanders fan.
Though Scissons played for the Canadian national team in 1991-92, injuries eventually led to his retirement at the ripe old age of 22.
The worst Islanders pick
It’s an unwritten rule of hockey that you just don’t use a first-round pick on a goalie, much less a first overall. The Islanders ignored that maxim when they chose Rick DiPietro with the top pick of the 2000 draft. It made little sense even if you didn’t know they already had a young netminder, Roberto Luongo, who would finish his career third on the all-time wins list.
To make things worse, their trade of Luongo and Ollie Jokinen to the Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha ranks among the worst of all time.
They also could have chosen Dany Heatley or Marian Gaborik, who went in the next two picks, as DiPietro would more than likely have still been available in the second round. Let Rangers fans think about enduring a decade of an Islanders team that had Luongo in goal and a league-leading scoring threat like Gaborik on the ice.
Some would argue against DiPietro being listed this high as he did play over a decade for the Isles, including four consecutive solid seasons from 2003-04 to 2007-08. But that 2003-04 campaign convinced the Islanders to hand him a 15-year contract at a cost of $67 million despite a history of injuries. Whether he was on the ice or not, the team never won more than 42 games in a season during his career.
What came along with that contract was a prime membership in the Bobby Bonilla set-for-life club. A 2013 compliance buyout continues to pay DiPietro $1.5 million every year until 2029, though none of that counts against their salary cap
BTW, 2000 was the year a goalie was chosen by the Rangers with the 205th overall pick. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Henrik Lundqvist.
Just sayin’.
Honorable mention
Dave Chyzowski, picked second overall in 1989 after scoring 104 points in 68 games for the Kamloops Blazers, but only managed 31 points (15 goals – 16 assists) in 126 NHL games. And to get him, the Islanders passed on Bill Guerin, Adam Foote, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, and Pavel Bure.