NHL Draft 2012: Every Team's Worst First Pick of the Post-Lockout Era

Every year as the month of June draws to a close, NHL executives, scouts, prospects and fans descend one team's home arena to take part in the league's entry draft.

With some teams looking to rebuild their organization with high draft picks in every round, and others trying to add pieces to sustain their franchise's success, the NHL entry draft is a crucial time of the year for every organization.

Unfortunately, not every player chosen in the draft will live up to the hype and expectations, and every year a few end up being big disappointments.

With the salary cap era upon us, restocking your farm system with talent through the draft has become even more important than it had been in the past.

Here is every team's worst draft selection since the lockout season of 2004-2005.

Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks have done a fairly good job when it comes to the draft since the lockout.

Taking defensive studs like Cam Fowler, Justin Schultz and Jake Gardiner, along with goalscoring machine Bobby Ryan have helped the Ducks build a successful team, even if a few of those picks are no longer with the team.

One of the only blemishes on their report card since 2005 would be their first-round selection in 2006, when they chose 6'3" 213 pound defenseman Mark Mitera with the 19th overall pick.

Mitera has yet to play in an NHL game, while in his last two seasons in the AHL, he has played 147 games, only managing 35 points and posting an abysmal player rating of minus-36.

Mitera has also had trouble sticking with one team, playing for Abbotsford, Syracuse, and, most recently, Hamilton in the last three seasons alone.

Boston Bruins

Zach Hamill is the easy choice for the Boston Bruins.

Chosen with the eighth overall pick five years ago, Hamill has only managed to suit up for the Bs in 20 NHL regular season games, scoring just four points.

He hasn't exactly been a stud in the AHL so far either, scoring 64 points in 109 games over his two seasons in Providence.

Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres' worst pick in the post-lockout era came in the 2005 draft, the year of the lockout itself.

With the 13th overall selection that year, Buffalo drafted Slovakian center Marek Zagrapan, who had just come off two consecutive seasons with Chicoutimi in which he tallied at least 1.43 points-per-game in both campaigns.

His success in junior hockey, however, would not translate to the professional game, as he was never able to reach the 50-point plateau in either of his three full seasons in the AHL.

Zagrapan is now back in Europe, playing in Finland, after also spending time in the KHL and the Czech league.

Calgary Flames

Over the past few years, the Calgary Flames have done a fairly good job when it comes to the NHL draft.

With the likes of Markus Granlund, Sven Baertschi, Mikael Backlund, Tim Erixon, Keith Aulie, and Leland Irving being Flames draft choices post-lockout, there haven't been too many mistakes that have been made.

Perhaps the only real disappointment has been defenseman Matt Pelech, who the Flames chose with their first-round pick in the 2005 entry draft.

Pelech has now spent five full years in the AHL, and has only appeared in five games for Calgary.

One saving grace for Calgary is he wasn't a top-10 or top-20 overall pick.

Carolina Hurricanes

There has only been one pick of the post-lockout era that can really be considered a bust for the Carolina Hurricanes, and that was their first pick of the 2009 draft, Philippe Paradis.

Paradis has been a huge disappointment thus far in his minor league career and has shown he probably wasn't worthy of a first-round pick.

The positive takeaway for Carolina?

They're laughing, since they dealt Paradis to Toronto in December of that year for Jiri Tlusty.

Props to the Hurricanes for that one.

Chicago Blackhawks

This one had to be a toss-up between two of the overall biggest busts since the lockout, Kyle Beach and Jack Skille.

Despite the fact that Kyle Beach has yet to play in the NHL, I elected to go with Jack Skille, simply because he was a seventh overall selection in 2005, and has only tallied 37 points in 138 games.

If there were to be a silver lining for the Blackhawks in this situation, it is that at least they were able to deal Skille and bring Michael Frolik to Chicago in return.

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado's worst first pick of the post-lockout era came in 2005.

That year, their first pick was at no. 34 overall in the second round, when they chose Ryan Stoa.

Stoa has only played in 37 career games, scoring seven points and has only been mediocre at best in his time in the AHL.

Luckily for Colorado, they were still able to snag Paul Stastny 10 picks later at no. 44. If Stastny had gone in between the 34th and 44th selections, picking Stoa would have looked that much worse on the Avs.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Where to begin with the Columbus Blue Jackets?

In the span of four years after the lockout, Columbus had the sixth overall pick three times. Each and every one of them was a disaster.

Between Nikita Filatov, Gilbert Brule and Derick Brassard, this slide has to be a three-way tie.

Brassard has barely put together second-line worthy numbers, Brule has had a hard time staying in one place, and Nikita Filatov hasn't even played 100 games in the NHL, instead bouncing between the NHL and KHL.

Hopefully, for Columbus' sake, the fact that they have the No. 2 pick this year means they'll draft someone that will finally pan out for them.

Dallas Stars

Despite the fact that it's Scott Glennie who makes my biggest busts list since the lockout, due to the fact that he's still a young player, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

It was Dallas' first-round pick in 2005, Ivan Vishnevskiy, who was their worst pick since the lockout season.

Seeing as he was selected 27th overall, expectations were there, but never for him to develop into some sort of superstar.

Unfortunately for Dallas, Vishnevskiy was never even able to live up to the relatively moderate expectations bestowed upon him, as he played three seasons in the AHL, before ultimately ending up back in Russia, playing in the KHL this past season.

Detroit Red Wings

Surprise.

The Detroit Red Wings aren't infallible when it comes to the NHL draft after all.

Even with all the success Detroit has had throughout the years, there have been some disappointing picks along the way.

It goes to show that even the best of the best stumble sometimes.

For Detroit, their biggest mistake of the post-lockout era has been Thomas McCollum, a goalie the Red Wings drafted at 30th overall in 2008.

McCollum has spent all three of his professional seasons in the AHL and ECHL, only playing 15 minutes of NHL hockey.

Worst of all? He allowed three goals during that 15-minute cameo.

Ouch.

Edmonton Oilers

Is it just me, or have there been a lot of disappointments from the 2005 draft?

Andrew Cogliano was the Oilers' first draft choice in 2005 at no. 25 overall, and though he's managed to play every single game for the last five seasons, Cogliano has only managed to score 89 points in his last three seasons (a total of 246 games).

After a tough 2010-2011 season, Cogliano was shipped to Anaheim, where he promptly put up the lowest point total of his career.

Florida Panthers

Yet another disastrous pick from the 2005 draft, Kenndal McArdle has easily been the biggest letdown of any Panthers prospect since the lockout.

The Toronto, Ontario native has only been able to collect three NHL points since being drafted and has played in just 42 games.

In July of 2011, McArdle was shipped to Winnipeg for the rights to another underachieving prospect in Angelo Esposito.

Maybe being on a new team will help the struggling youngsters. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Los Angeles Kings

This may be the easiest choice of them all.

Not only have the Kings done a great job with their first picks over the last seven years, but the one pick they did miss has probably been the biggest draft bust in almost a decade.

With the fourth overall choice in the 2007 entry draft, the Kings picked defenseman Thomas Hickey, expecting him to be a cornerstone of their defense for years to come.

Instead, Hickey has yet to see any NHL action and has been passed by another L.A. defenseman also chosen in 2007 a few rounds later; Alec Martinez.

Definitely Los Angeles' worst pick of the "new NHL" era.

Minnesota Wild

This is another tough one.

See, in Benoit Pouliot and James Sheppard, the Wild have two of the worst picks in recent memory.

While Pouliot has been able to somehow sustain a career and play in his share of games, he was also a fourth overall pick, meaning career mark of 0.4 points-per-game is simply embarrassing.

I think I've got to give the edge to James Sheppard on this one, though.

Even though he was chosen as a ninth overall pick and, thus, wasn't expected to produce as much as Pouliot, Sheppard somehow found a way to out-do him as being a complete train wreck of a draft pick.

To date, Sheppard has only recorded 0.22 points-per-game.

Yikes.

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens have actually done a fairly nice job with their first selections since the lockout season of 2004-2005.

The exception would be their first-round pick in 2006, when they took David Fischer at No. 20 overall.

Fischer hasn't yet played in the NHL and has only played two games in his AHL career.

When Montreal chose him in the first round, they probably didn't expect Fischer to need two full years in the ECHL once he came out of college.

Nashville Predators

Nashville is another team that has been fairly successful with their first selections in most drafts. I suppose when you're a smaller budget team, it's kind of necessary if you're to have any kind of success.

If there is one player that has been somewhat of a bust in his career, it would have to be Ryan Parent.

As a defenseman, the seven points in 106 career games isn't a huge concern (although even the most defensively-minded defensemen generally do better than that), the minus-18 player rating isn't pretty.

Factor in Parent's demotion to the AHL for the last two seasons, and you've got a career that's heading the wrong way for a player that's only 25 years old.

New Jersey Devils

Matt Corrente was the final pick of the first round in the 2006 NHL draft.

Since being chosen by the Devils, the 6'0" defenseman has appeared in 34 games, picking up six points and 68 penalty minutes.

Corrente is likely destined to be a career minor-leaguer and waste of a first-round pick.

New York Islanders

The New York Islanders' worst pick since the lockout also came down to two players.

Ryan O'Marra, who never really managed to crack the Islanders' lineup, despite being chosen 15th overall in 2005, and Josh Bailey, who has played many games for the Islanders, but has fallen well short of producing the numbers usually associated with a ninth overall pick.

In the end, I chose to go with Josh Bailey, simply because he's produced just 120 points in nearly 300 career games, barely making him a third-line-caliber forward.

A ninth overall pick is a steep price to pay for those kind of numbers.

New York Rangers

Among the successful names the Rangers have managed to draft in the first round (Chris Kreider, Michael Del Zotto, Marc Staal) since the NHL lockout, only one name stands out as a major bust.

Bob Sanguinetti was chosen 21st overall in 2006 by the Rangers, but was never able to master his defensive game, posting a player rating of minus-29 in his AHL career and only playing eight NHL games (three of those with his new club, the Carolina Hurricanes).

Ottawa Senators

By far and away the worst first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators since 2005 was Brian Lee, who was chosen ninth overall that year by the Senators.

After spending parts of five seasons with the Ottawa Senators, the team realized that the Lee experiment wasn't going anywhere and dealt him to Tampa Bay, where he would play in 20 games for the Lightning.

Needless to say, the Sens would surely like to have that ninth pick from 2005 back.

Philadelphia Flyers

While the Flyers haven't had any real letdowns from their top picks in recent years, if one had to be pegged as the biggest underachiever, it would probably be James van Riemsdyk.

Though van Riemsdyk has had injury problems, his performance still has yet to justify his selection as the second overall pick in the 2007 draft.

With a career high of 40 points, van Riemsdyk is looking more and more like a career second-line player as each year passes.

Phoenix Coyotes

The Phoenix Coyotes can make a case for being the most efficient team in the league when it comes to using their first pick in the draft post-lockout.

Each and every player they have drafted has shown his talents off at the NHL level.

The worst pick for the Phoenix Coyotes isn't because they chose a player who ended up as a bust, but because they selected a player who refused to play for their organization.

Had Phoenix known what kind of stunt Kyle Turris would pull, they would have been able to use the third overall pick in 2007 to select someone who was actually willing to assist their organization.

Pittsburgh Penguins

With the Pittsburgh Penguins having so many high draft picks around the time of the lockout (first overall in 2005 and second overall in 2006), it's been hard for them to mishandle their picks.

Their biggest mistake post-lockout, however, had to have been when they took a chance on Angelo Esposito at 20th overall in 2007.

Though Esposito had an unbelievable rookie season of junior hockey at just 16 years old, his stats had been on the decline after that year and he began having some trouble with concussions.

Pittsburgh may have thought that Esposito was worth the risk, but he turned out to be one of their worst picks since 2005.

San Jose Sharks

With the 16th overall selection in the 2006 draft, the San Jose Sharks chose Belleville, Ontario native Ty Wishart.

Unfortunately for Wishart, the biggest accomplishment of his young career has been the fact that he's been used as trade bait in acquiring big-name players (he was part of the deal that sent Dan Boyle from Tampa Bay to San Jose, and was then traded to the Islanders for Dwayne Roloson).

Now 24 years old, Wishart has still only found his way into an NHL lineup 20 times.

Considering the New York Islanders have such a lackluster defense, that's saying something.

St. Louis Blues

With names likes Erik Johnson, Alex Pietrangelo, Lars Eller, T.J. Oshie, David Rundblad, and Jaden Schwartz all being taken in the first round by St. Louis, it's hard to call any of them a real disappointment.

If I had to select the least successful draft pick of the bunch, it would have to be Erik Johnson, who was actually taken first overall in 2006, but has yet to post a positive player rating, or show the talent a first overall pick usually possesses.

For that reason, Erik Johnson earns the honors of the Blues' worst draft pick since the lockout.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Another one of our top 15 draft busts since the inception of the salary cap, Riku Helenius was selected 15th overall by the Lightning in 2006.

Helenius has not only never managed to play more than seven minutes in an NHL game, but he's spent the last three years playing in Europe, even posting a GAA over 3.00 last year in the Swedish Elite League.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Though the Toronto Maple Leafs haven't done an incredible job drafting in the past, they haven't been too poor when it comes to using their first pick in a draft (although, in fairness, it isn't too hard when you're consistently missing the playoffs and have top 10 picks year after year).

Names like Tuukka Rask, Nazem Kadri and Luke Schenn, have all shown some kind of promise in their young careers.

Toronto's worst pick of the post-lockout era had to have come in 2006, when they drafted Jiri Tlusty with the 13th overall selection.

Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver's worst pick of the last seven drafts has to be centerman Patrick White, who they chose with the 25th overall pick in 2007.

White still has yet to play a game of professional hockey in North America, as he spent this season in the Oberliga (Germany's third tier league).

White has signed on to play with the Hannover Indians in the upcoming season (part of Germany's second tier league).

At this rate, White should be able to crack an AHL lineup in two years at the age of 25.

What a disastrous pick for the Canucks.

Washington Capitals

Another one of the top NHL draft busts of the past decade, Sasha Pokulok was chosen with the 14th pick in 2005.

After spending time bouncing around the minor leagues (the AHL and ECHL), Pokulok left North America to play in Europe starting in 2010-2011, where he played in the German Elite League.

This season, Pokulok played for Zagreb Medvescak KHL of the Austrian League.

Even in Europe it seems as though Pokulok can't find a permanent home.

Winnipeg Jets

After being selected 16th overall in 2005 by the Atlanta Thrashers (now the Jets), it seems as though Alex Bourret has played in every league except the NHL.

Since being drafted, Bourret has played in two different leagues overseas, the AHL, the ECHL and the Central Hockey League.

When it comes to professional hockey leagues, it appears that someone never taught the 25-year-old the concept of quality over quantity.

Follow @LeafsWriterBR