NHL Draft Day Special: Late Round Steals Year by Year

In this article, I will go through the drafts of every single season since the first NHL entry draft in 1979 and pick the best steal of each draft. You may be surprised that some of your NHL heroes were such late round picks.

(Note, * Denotes players still active. Also please note that lists stops at 2005 because players need at least two seasons before they can be judged.)

1979: Tomas Steen; Round 5, Pick 103 (950 GP, 264 G, 553 A, 817 P)

1980: Steve Larmer; Round 6, Pick 120 (1006 GP, 441 G, 571 A, 1012 P)

1981: Gaetan Duchesne; Round 8, Pick 152 (1028 GP, 179 G, 254 A, 433 P)

1982: Doug Gilmour; Round 7, Pick 134 (1474 GP, 450 G, 964 A, 1414 P)

1983: Rick Tocchet; Round 6, Pick 121 (1144 GP, 440 G, 512 A, 952 P)

1984: Luc Robitaille; Round 9, Pick 171 (1431 GP, 668 G, 726 A, 1395 P)

1985: Igor Larionov; Round 11, Pick 214 (921 GP, 169 G, 475 A, 644 P)

1986: Darren Turcotte; Round 6, Pick 114 (635 GP, 195 G, 216 A, 411 P)

1987: Theoren Fleury; Round 8, Pick 166 (1084 GP, 455 G, 633 A, 1088 P)

1988: Dmitri Khristich; Round 6, Pick 120 (811 GP, 259 G, 338 A, 597 P)

1989: Arturs Irbe; Round 10, Pick 196 (568 GP, 218 W, 236 L, 33 SO)

1990: Peter Bondra; Round 8, Pick 156 (1081 GP, 503 G, 389 A, 892 P)

1991: Brian Savage; Round 8, Pick 171 (674 GP, 192 G, 167 A, 359 P)

1992: Anson Carter; Round 10, Pick 220 (674 GP, 202 G, 212 A, 414 P)

*1993: Pavol Demitra; Round 9, Pick 227 (750 GP, 281 G, 418 A, 699 P)

*1994: Tomas Holmstrom; Round 10, Pick 257 (758 GP, 175 G, 212 A, 387 P)

*1995:  PJ Axelsson; Round 7, Pick 177 (722 GP, 97 G, 160 A, 257 P)

*1996: Tomas Kaberle; Round 8, Pick 204 (681 GP, 69 G, 333 A, 402 P)

*1997: David Aebischer; Round 6, Pick 161 (214 GP, 106 W, 74 L, 13 SO)

*1998: Pavel Datsyuk; Round 6, Pick 171 (445 GP, 139 G, 286 A, 425 P)

*1999: Henrik Zetterberg; Round 7, Pick 210 (355 GP, 152 G, 180 A, 332 P)

*2000: Henrik Lundqvist; Round 8, Pick 205 (195 GP, 104 W, 58 L, 17 SO)

*2001: Marek Zidlicky; Round 6, Pick 176 (307 GP, 35 G, 140 A, 175 P)

*2002: Petr Prucha; Round 8, Pick 240 (209 GP, 59 G, 45 A, 104 P)

*2003: Dustin Byfuglien; Round 8, Pick 245 (101 GP, 21 G, 23 A, 44 P)

*2004: Mark Streit; Round 9, Pick 262 (205 GP, 24 G, 84 A, 109 P)

*2005: Sergei Kostitsyn; Round 7, Pick 200 (52 GP, 9 G, 18 A, 27 P)

So, are you surprised at all? With the draft coming up tonight, don’t be upset if the first round doesn’t go as well as you like, because you just never know…

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