NHL Draft Steals & Busts
Draft value measured by career NHL production. Steals are players taken after the first round (33rd overall or later) who went on to star; busts are top-10 picks who never delivered. Skaters only, ranked by career points.
Biggest Steals (picked 33rd+)
| # | Player | Pick | Year | GP | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Messier | EDM · 48 | 1979 | 1756 | 1887 |
| 2 | Mark Recchi | PIT · 67 | 1988 | 1652 | 1533 |
| 3 | Doug Gilmour | STL · 134 | 1982 | 1474 | 1414 |
| 4 | Jari Kurri | EDM · 69 | 1980 | 1251 | 1398 |
| 5 | Luc Robitaille | LAK · 171 | 1984 | 1431 | 1394 |
| 6 | Brett Hull | CGY · 117 | 1984 | 1269 | 1391 |
| 7 | Bernie Nicholls | LAK · 73 | 1980 | 1127 | 1209 |
| 8 | Sergei Fedorov | DET · 74 | 1989 | 1248 | 1179 |
| 9 | Daniel Alfredsson | OTT · 133 | 1994 | 1246 | 1157 |
| 10 | Nicklas Lidstrom | DET · 53 | 1989 | 1564 | 1142 |
| 11 | Nikita Kucherov | TBL · 58 | 2011 | 879 | 1124 |
| 12 | Glenn Anderson | EDM · 69 | 1979 | 1129 | 1099 |
| 13 | Theo Fleury | CGY · 166 | 1987 | 1084 | 1088 |
| 14 | Dave Taylor | LAK · 210 | 1975 | 1111 | 1069 |
| 15 | Joe Pavelski | SJS · 205 | 2003 | 1332 | 1068 |
| 16 | Pat Verbeek | NJD · 43 | 1982 | 1424 | 1062 |
| 17 | Patrice Bergeron | BOS · 45 | 2003 | 1294 | 1040 |
| 18 | Brad Marchand | BOS · 71 | 2006 | 1152 | 1034 |
| 19 | Doug Weight | NYR · 34 | 1990 | 1238 | 1033 |
| 20 | Alexander Mogilny | BUF · 89 | 1988 | 990 | 1032 |
| 21 | Patrik Elias | NJD · 51 | 1994 | 1240 | 1025 |
| 22 | Dale Hunter | QUE · 41 | 1979 | 1407 | 1020 |
| 23 | Steve Larmer | CHI · 120 | 1980 | 1006 | 1012 |
| 24 | Jamie Benn | DAL · 129 | 2007 | 1252 | 992 |
| 25 | Henrik Zetterberg | DET · 210 | 1999 | 1082 | 960 |
Biggest Busts (top-10 picks, 2018 or earlier)
Limited to classes drafted 2018 or earlier, so careers have had time to develop.
| # | Player | Pick | Year | GP | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terry Caffery | CHI · 3 | 1966 | 14 | 0 |
| 2 | Alexander Volchkov | WSH · 4 | 1996 | 3 | 0 |
| 3 | Bjorn Johansson | CGS · 5 | 1976 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Scott Scissons | NYI · 6 | 1990 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Brian Watts | DET · 7 | 1964 | 4 | 0 |
| 6 | Gregory Vaydik | CHI · 7 | 1975 | 5 | 0 |
| 7 | Ryan Sittler | PHI · 7 | 1992 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Scott Glennie | DAL · 8 | 2009 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Terry Ryan | MTL · 8 | 1995 | 8 | 0 |
| 10 | Robin Sadler | MTL · 9 | 1975 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Petr Taticek | FLA · 9 | 2002 | 3 | 0 |
| 12 | Tom Martin | TOR · 5 | 1964 | 3 | 1 |
| 13 | Jason Herter | VAN · 8 | 1989 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Johnathan Aitken | BOS · 8 | 1996 | 44 | 1 |
| 15 | Dan Gratton | LAK · 10 | 1985 | 7 | 1 |
| 16 | Garry Swain | PIT · 4 | 1968 | 9 | 2 |
| 17 | Griffin Reinhart | NYI · 4 | 2012 | 37 | 2 |
| 18 | Lars Jonsson | BOS · 7 | 2000 | 8 | 2 |
| 19 | Dan Woodley | VAN · 7 | 1986 | 5 | 2 |
| 20 | Alexandre Picard | CBJ · 8 | 2004 | 67 | 2 |
| 21 | Luc Bourdon | VAN · 10 | 2005 | 36 | 2 |
| 22 | Olli Juolevi | VAN · 5 | 2016 | 41 | 3 |
| 23 | Zach Hamill | BOS · 8 | 2007 | 20 | 4 |
| 24 | Daniel Dore | QUE · 5 | 1988 | 17 | 5 |
| 25 | Ron Jones | BOS · 6 | 1971 | 54 | 5 |