Welcome back to re-draft Friday. Today we're looking at 2012.
If you're looking for some optimism this Friday, it might be best to look in the other direction.
The Blackhawks were coming off a tough loss in the first round to Mike Smith and the Phoenix Coyotes. I still have nightmares of this:
I was at that game 4 in Chicago and couldn't believe the Hawks had fallen down 3-1 to this ‘Yotes team. The crazy thing was that was Mikkel Boedker's 2nd OT goal in as many games.
It was a remarkable series where 5 of the 6 games went to OT.
(Courtesy: OvertimeWinners)
The Hawks were heading home early again, leaving Stan with some soul searching to do.
Stan made some trades leading up to that 2012 playoff, most notably the acquisition of a Swedish horse named Johnny Oduya.
Here are a few other moves with one minor trade with San Jose that affected the 2012 draft:
As you know, in this series I have been reviewing the Blackhawks drafts as we lead up to the 2019 excitement where the Hawks will select 3rd overall. Here is the schedule:
Stan Bowman and Mark Kelley had 8 total picks to work with in 2012 with the following selections:
I told you it wasn't pretty.
No doubt that Teuvo Teravainen is a solid player and, to be honest, could still be on this team today. He was, of course, included in the Bryan Bickell salary dump to Carolina.
Vinnie Hinostroza was a real nice 6th round selection but has been shipped out to sunnier weather as well.
So, I'll give the Hawks those picks for now. However, let's add some perspective on who else was taking… SPOILER ALERT… it's all pretty ugly.
Is it fair to label this the "bust draft"?
Let's go through some busts and disappointments in the 1st and 2nd rounds:
… oh boy, 4 disappointments in the first 10 picks. Let's keep going:
* Grigorenko
* J. Schmaltz
* H. Samuelsson (hey, we know him)
* Stefan Matteau
… followed by 15 of 30 players in the 2nd round who have never played an NHL game. This includes Blackhawks pick of Dillon Fournier.
Compare this 2nd round to 2011 where only 3 players failed to reach the NHL.
Here are some more stats for your eyeballs: 49.3% of players in the 2012 draft made it to the NHL. Of those players, they averaged an NHL career of 171 games scoring an average of 21 goals.
Compare that to the year before in 2011 where 59.2% of players made the NHL. Of those, they averaged an NHL career of 174 games and 28 goals on average.
Now on to the awards:
Best Value Pick – it's a tie with back-to-back 3rd rounders - Colton Parayko, 86th (STL) & Fredrik Anderson, 87th overall (ANA) Worst Pick – Griffin Reinhart, 4th overall (NYI) "Oh Hey, I Forgot About Him" Pick – Mikhail Grigorenko, 12th (BUF)
Grigorenko is a player who is, by KHL standards, lighting it up; he registered 52 points in 55 games in the regular season which was good for 10th in the league. He kept that going in playoffs with 21 points in 20 games for lead the entire league and lead CSKA Moscow to win the Championship.
He's spent 2 years in the KHL and is only 25 years old. A random dude who could find his way back to the NHL one day.
--
Anyway, what do I think of the Hawks picks?
Not great, but when looking at the entire draft class, it's hard to fault them too much.
Teravainen makes sense based on who was selected around him.
There were a couple of Kelowna Rockets (Keith's former team) that I would have taken in hindsight over Fournier in the 2nd round; Colton Sissons was taken 2 picks after him, while Damon Severson was selected 12 picks after the Hawks announced Fournier.
After that, it's a crapshoot and the Hawks didn't win on any selections with the exception of Hinostroza.
Also, Matt Tompkins is still with the organization as he had a solid season in the ECHL for the Indy Fuel in 2018-19, however, he's nothing more than a depth goalie.
Overall, the Hawks loaded up on Canadians with a breakout of:
* 5 x CHL
* 1 x AJHL (same league as Ian Mitchell)
* 1 x SM-liiga (Finland)
* 1 x USHL
* 1 x US High School
I don't think this draft will score very high on my series ending rankings.
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»