2003 Original Selection #12 Hugh Jessiman
This is a painful place to start, but it feels the most appropriate. Several players that came out of the 2003 draft are still dominating the league today. Several of whom were selected after Dartmouth’s Hugh Jessiman. To give you some context, Jessiman was drafted right after Jeff Carter and right before Dustin Brown.
What hurts even more is that Jessiman never even suited up for the Blueshirts. After five years bouncing around in the minors, Hugh Jessiman was traded to the Nashville Predators in 2008 for the always gut-punching “future considerations.”
With 2003 going down as one of the best drafts in recent years, it’s agonizing and heartbreaking to have such a high draft pick only end up playing a total of 2 games in his entire NHL career. It’s even worse considering the Rangers selected Ivan Baranka with their second-round selection (#50). Baranka played a total of one game in the NHL.
This may go down as Glen Sather’s worst draft of all time.
New Selection: Brent Burns
Originally selected 20th overall, Brent Burns is still a top five NHL defenseman to this day. I was torn between Brent Burns, #19 Ryan Getzlaf, #17 Zach Parise or #45 Patrice Bergeron, but Burns is still one of the most feared players in the game. Patrice Bergeron would be a great second choice, but considering where he was originally drafted, Brent Burns is a more fair selection here.
Yes, Burns and the San Jose Sharks did have an bad season this year, but so did every other California franchise. At age 35, Brent Burns is only one year removed from his 83 points in 82 games and three years removed from his Norris Trophy-winning season, in which he tallied 29 goals and 76 points in 82 outings.
Other notable players available:
#14 Brent Seabrook, #23 Ryan Kesler, #24 Mike Richards, #26 Brian Boyle, #28 Corey Perry, #33 Loui Eriksson, #49 Shea Weber, #62 David Backes