Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #3 – Was the Class of 2003 the deepest in NHL history?

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #3 – Was the Class of 2003 the deepest in NHL history?
Credit: Shea Weber and Ryan Suter (© James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports)

Which are the greatest NHL draft classes of ever? Some years gave us multiple all-time superstars. Others yielded incredible depth and dozens of long, productive NHL careers. In naming my top five classes, I searched for the years that gave us the best combinations of star power and depth.

I lied. I’ve named six classes. I couldn’t bring myself to cut any of my top six and make it a top five. Each of the classes is simply that good. With that, let’s continue the series with No. 3: the 2003 Draft.

No. 3: The 2003 Draft

Why it’s No. 3: Incredible depth of talent, including some Hall-of-Fame-level players outside the first round

Top scorer: Eric Staal, 1,063 points

Hall of Famers: Projected – Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brent Bruns, Shea Weber, Joe Pavelski

Other notables: Corey Perry, Corey Crawford, Ryan Suter, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Zach Parise, Dion Phaneuf, Dustin Byfuglien, Thomas Vanek, Dustin Brown, Ryan Kesler, David Backes, Loui Eriksson, Nathan Horton

How deep was the 2003 NHL Draft Class? One NHL team harvested four defensemen from it – and eventually ended up having all four in the lineup at the same time, meaning they got 66.7 percent of their starting D-corps from a single draft.

As then-Nashville Predators GM and now senior advisor David Poile reminisces to Daily Faceoff, his team was fixated on solidifying its D-corps in 2003. The Preds chose Ryan Suter over Braydon Coburn and Dion Phaneuf at No. 7 overall. Then, with pick 37 of the second round, they nabbed Kevin Klein. But the real profit came with a young man named Shea Weber at 49th overall. The Preds had stumbled into more information on Weber than pretty much any other team in the draft had. They knew he was a steal. It all happened because they were regularly watching Kelowna Rockets games to check in on Tomas Slovak, whom they’d drafted two years before.

“Sometimes scouts leaves games early,” Poile said with a laugh, “but we were always there to the end of games, because usually our guy there was going to go see Slovak and say hello. Weber, who didn’t play a great deal depending on how Kelowna was doing, got more time at the end of games sometimes. So my gut tells me we had a little bit more information than other clubs had on Shea Weber. And so, yes, we were very excited to get him. We thought that was a real value pick. Shea had a huge growth spurt after we drafted him, so a lot of things went into (the pick’s success).”

The preds got Alexander Sulzer in that third round, too, and between him, Suter, Klein and Weber, all four had reached the NHL by 2008-09.

“Four defenseman playing together at the same time out of one draft year, I think that’s pretty unique,” Poile said.

And that’s just one story, from one team, targeting one position, in perhaps the deepest NHL Draft class ever. The Pittsburgh Penguins won three Stanley Cups with first-overall pick Marc-Andre Fleury, who was instrumental in the first of them in 2009. The Anaheim Ducks got franchise greats and Cup champs Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry and the Philadelphia Flyers landed Jeff Carter and Mike Richards; all four were picked outside the top 10. The Carolina Hurricanes snagged a 1,000-point scorer and future Stanley Cup champion in Eric Staal.

The Class of 2003 yielded 40-goal scorers (Carter, Perry, Zach Parise, Thomas Vanek, Joe Pavelski), a Vezina Trophy winner in Fleury, a league MVP in Perry and a Norris Trophy winner in Brent Burns. Its crown jewel was picked in the second round: Patrice Bergeron became the greatest defensive forward in NHL history, winning a record five Selke Trophies, with a sixth likely coming in a couple weeks.

The Class of 2003 loses some points for lacking any true superstars; it has yielded four 1,000-point scorers but no 500 goal scorers or league scoring champions. But it produced many of the best players of the 2000s and 2010s, who piled up Olympic gold medals and Stanley Cup rings. It may one day even lay claim to delivering a Hall of Famer outside the top 200 picks, depending on how strong Pavelski’s case is by the time he retires.

2003 top five picks

1. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes
3. Nathan Horton, Florida Panthers
4. Nikolay Zherdev, Columbus Blue Jackets
5. Thomas Vanek, Buffalo Sabres

2015 top five, redrafted (actual spot in brackets)

1. Patrice Bergeron (45th)
2. Marc-Andre Fleury (1st)
3. Shea Weber (49th)
4. Brent Burns (20th)
5. Ryan Getzlaf (19th)

Previous entries in the Greatest Draft Classes series

Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #4 – Led by McDavid, Class of 2015 looks more legendary by the ye
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #5 – Class of 1990 scores two legends in Jagr, Brodeur
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #6 – Modano, Mogilny, Selanne arrive in Class of 1988

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