NHL HHOF Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 (edited) Re-Drafting Patrice Bergeron and the Top 10 from the Historic 2003 NHL Draft JOE YERDON JULY 28, 2023 https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10084254-re-drafting-patrice-bergeron-and-the-top-10-from-the-historic-2003-nhl-draft 1. Patrice Bergeron - Original Pick: 45th Overall 2. Joe Pavelski - Original Pick: 205th Overall 3. Marc-André Fleury - Original Pick: 1st Overall 4. Brent Burns - Original Pick: 20th Overall 5. Shea Weber - Original Pick: 49th Overall 6. Ryan Getzlaf - Original Pick: 19th Overall 7. Corey Perry - Original Pick: 28th Overall 8. Eric Staal - Original Pick: 2nd Overall 9. Dustin Byfuglien - Original Pick: 243rd Overall 10. Thomas Vanek - Original Pick: 5th Overall Time is really cruel. When the 2023 NHL Draft went down in Nashville late in June, it marked 20 years since the draft was in Tennessee for the first time. It also marked the 20th anniversary of one of the best draft classes of all time. While Connor Bedard will provide the first lasting memory from the 2023 event, the sheer number of top players who came out of the 2003 draft is incredible. Sixteen players from that draft have played 1,000 or more NHL games. Six players have scored 400 or more goals and four players have 1,000 or more points. Every player taken in the first round played in the NHL and 130 players from that draft played at least one NHL game. Hindsight is a beautiful thing that allows us to go back and look at how those players and their careers turned out so we can judge now, 20 years later, how that draft should've gone. We'll be re-ranking the top-10 picks from the 2003 draft. Marc-André Fleury went first overall back then, but where will he sit with the benefit of history to look back upon? There will be snubs from the top 10 which is why we'll toss in honorable mentions as well. Individual success goes a very long way here and while team success is certainly good, it's how players performed individually that means the most. We're not doing a solid to Patrice Bergeron for announcing his retirement this week and handing him the top spot. His career success made that possible. Bergeron was a second-round pick in 2003, 45th overall by the Boston Bruins and went on to have an elite career in which he was a dominant defensive forward as well as an outstanding scorer. He has the fifth-most goals among his 2003 draft classmates with 427 and he's second in points behind Eric Staal with 1,040 (Staal has 1,063 in 71 more games and counting). Bergeron went on to win the Selke Award six times and the Stanley Cup once in 2011 with two other final appearances in 2013 and 2019. Not only did he give opponents fits by smothering their top forwards defensively, but he also gave them countless headaches by scoring and creating goals for Boston. Bergeron was the epitome of class as a player both on and off the ice and the Bruins' success throughout his career is not a coincidence. Yes, he's had elite teammates like Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask, David Pastrňák and Brad Marchand, but each and every one of those players would tell you it was Bergeron who helped make it happen the most. Bergeron lost games early on in his career dealing with concussions, but he eventually was able to overcome all of that to become a fixture at the top of the Bruins' lineup. Of all the talented players that came out of the 2003 draft, Bergeron is at the top of the heap and it's hard to argue otherwise. It's hard to find a player who's been more apparent in big games over the past few years than Joe Pavelski. The wild thing is, he's been consistent like that throughout his career. Pavelski is fourth among 2003 draft picks in scoring with 1,001 points (and counting) in 1,250 games (and also counting). When you factor in his playoff stats, his 139 points in 182 games are outstanding and include 73 goals with the Sharks and Stars, 18 of which are game-winners. What's fun about Pavelski's career is while he was with San Jose, he was often overshadowed by Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau who were the long-time leaders and elder statesmen of the team. Now that he's 39 years old and proving to be a vital member of the Stars, he's sharing the spotlight with younger players like Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz. Even more impressive was how it was Pavelski who put the team on his back through the playoffs to help show them how it has to be done. While most of his draft contemporaries have headed off to retirement, Pavelski is showing no real signs of slowing down. The Stars made the Western Conference Final last season because of him and they're going to try and build upon that this season with him still being a key player. Long term value and consistent play over nearly 20 years helps make Pavelski one of the best from an all-time draft class. There aren't many players in this draft class who could fall and have it not be a huge blow. But considering Marc-André Fleury was the No. 1 pick in 2003 by the Pittsburgh Penguins and he slots out third in our ranking, that's still pretty darn good. Goalies going No. 1 in the draft is rarer than rare (it's happened three times ever) and even with the sky-high expectations of being the top pick, Fleury has lived up to them and then some. He's a three-time Stanley Cup winner and won the Vezina and Jennings awards in 2021. Along with Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin, he helped lead the Penguins to the playoffs in 11 of his 13 seasons with the team. Since leaving Pittsburgh, Fleury's had an adventurous tour around the NHL going from Vegas to Chicago to Minnesota and while he was able to overcome a claymore in the back in Vegas, he's settled into a happy place with the Wild as both the elder statesman of the team and mentor to Filip Gustavsson. While it feels like Fleury's time to head off into the sunset is coming sooner than later, his supreme competitive nature and desire to win the Cup again drive him. He was the No. 1 pick for a reason and he's the best goaltender from the 2003 draft. It's hard for No. 1 picks to clear the bar set for them, but he's done it and become a favorite of everyone around the league. The defense class from 2003 is beyond exceptional and Brent Burns has shown through time that he was a trendsetter whose game won out over time. Burns was picked by Minnesota and always played with a high offensive game. He was part of a massive draft-day trade eight years later in 2011 when he was sent to the San Jose Sharks and it was there where his abilities shone through brighter than ever. Scoring points was always easier for Burns than for other defensemen in his class, but he's only gotten better at it as he's gotten older. It was in his late-20s when he went from being a guy capable of 30-40 points in a season to 60-70 points. Since he turned 30, he's put up 490 of his 838 career points with 131 of his 245 goals. The NHL skews younger among forwards, but Burns has shown that defensemen that hit their stride later on, not only can be productive, but be one of the best in the NHL. Burns won the Norris Trophy when he was 31 with San Jose when he had 76 points and a career-high 29 goals. As you know, gaudy offensive numbers usually help win the Norris, but on top of Burns' wicked offense, he's as physical as any defenseman out there and can dish it as well as he takes it, if he even has to take it in the first place. Burns is the highest-scoring defenseman in the 2003 class and considering some of his contemporaries, that's well beyond impressive. It both feels like forever ago and just yesterday that Shea Weber was the most fearsome and game-changing defenseman rolled into one in the league. Weber was a ferocious competitor who along with Pekka Rinne and Ryan Suter helped establish the Nashville Predators as a team that wouldn't just shut you down, but would also beat you up in doing so. In Weber's time with the Predators and Montréal Canadiens, he proved himself to be the kind of leader myths are built around. Weber wouldn't just crush opponents along the boards and in open ice, he'd also make opposing defenders scurry for cover or risk injury when he took a slap shot from anywhere on the ice. His heavy, hard shot was the thing of legend and it also resulted in goals often. Three times he scored 20 or more goals and he finished with 224 in his career. That Weber was a second-round pick in 2003, 49th overall--four spots after Patrice Bergeron no less, speaks to how good the draft was, but also to how well he developed in the Nashville system under Barry Trotz. The bittersweet turn of Weber's career came to an end because of injuries to his knee, ankle, foot and wrist all while he helped lead the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. He finished his career with 589 points in 1,038 games, an average of 0.57 points per game, third best among defensemen in the class behind Burns and Dustin Byfuglien. A brilliant career cut short, but would you pass on taking him looking back on things? Non. The 2003 draft was a massive one for the Anaheim Ducks because it brought them two franchise cornerstones, the biggest of them being Ryan Getzlaf. Getzlaf's career flies a touch under the radar because he played the entirety of it in Orange County, but he and Corey Perry were key young players for Anaheim when they won the Stanley Cup in 2007. His 2006-2007 season was his true breakout year as he put up 25 goals in the regular season and had 17 points in the playoffs, the best on the Ducks and fifth-best overall in the postseason. But Getzlaf wasn't a goal scorer in his career, but he was a top-tier setup man. In 1,157 games he had 737 assists and finished his career with 1,019 points, third most in the 2003 draft class behind Eric Staal and Patrice Bergeron. It's weird to think that Getzlaf's career was a quiet one, but that's got more to do with where he played as opposed to how he played. The Ducks were consistently in the postseason during his career (11 years out of 17) and any of the team's shortcomings during that time weren't because he wasn't getting the job done. Getzlaf averaged 0.88 points per game throughout his career, the best among any player drafted in 2003 (of players who played more than one game at least). That kind of consistency is something any GM would sign up for when drafting a player and they had two players capable of producing like that from that class. Corey Perry seems to be universally reviled online, but if you asked fans of teams he helped win, they'll probably fight you for saying that. Perry's nasty kind of game has been effective ever since he was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2003. Take every adjective used for players of his ilk and they all apply. Sandpaper, grit, snarl...they all apply to Perry along with a few choice four-letter words as well to spice them up. Where Ryan Getzlaf helped set up guys to score, it was Perry on the finishing end of a lot of those assists. He's scored 417 goals so far in his career and he's scored 30 or more in a season six times including a career-high 50 in his Hart Trophy season in 2010-2011. Remember when he won the MVP award? Bet you tried to forget that didn't you? He edged out Daniel Sedin for the award and considering the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup Final that season, it highlights how impressive Perry's campaign was. Perry's game has evolved as he's gotten older. He went from being a top-line scorer to being a depth-line mucker who can score and generally cause headaches around the net for defensemen and goalies alike. He's never been shy about dishing it out and he's happy to be the heel if it gives his team an advantage. It's why Chicago was happy to add him to their roster this season as a means to make sure Connor Bedard doesn't have to deal with a lot of nonsense. He's averaged 0.70 points per game in his career, seventh best in the 2003 class and those numbers have come down in recent years because of his evolution into a shift disturber. Raw points go a long way, but being a solid, effective player with longevity helps a career go even longer. Some players in the 2003 draft class had to play for years before finding team success and winning a Stanley Cup. In Eric Staal's case, he was an immediate impact player for the Carolina Hurricanes and established himself as one of the top scorers in the league all while he helped lead them to the Cup in 2006. Staal had a career-high 45 goals and 100 points for the eventual champions. He was 21 years old and was fourth in MVP voting. He was the highest-scoring player in the 2006 playoffs with 28 points, including nine goals (seven on the power play), and was beat out for Conn Smythe by teammate Cam Ward. From that season on, Staal became the ever-steady scorer for Carolina putting up 70-or-more points in the following six seasons. The only thing that kept him from doing it for a seventh straight season in 2012-13 was the lockout that shortened the schedule to 48 games. In 18 seasons, he's piled up a 2003-class-best 455 goals and 1,063 points in 1,365 games (and counting). His 0.78 points per game for his career is fourth best in his class. He was Carolina's first young superstar and led them to a Cup along with other playoff appearances. That he's had a resurgence with the Florida Panthers as a depth center who can still create shows how well he's been able to adapt as he's gotten older. Dustin Byfuglien ranking out this high may come as a surprise to a lot of people, but looking back on his career shows how much he was dwarfed out of the spotlight in Chicago and how unnoticed a lot of what he did with Atlanta and Winnipeg went. Byfuglien's career was short compared to other top defensemen in this class. He played 869 games with Chicago and Atlanta/Winnipeg, but it was in 2010 with the Blackhawks that he broke out in a big way with 17 goals and 34 points playing both defense and forward. He had another 16 points in the playoffs on the way to Chicago's first Stanley Cup since 1961. It was his first and last crowning glory as he was shipped to Atlanta as part of Chicago's post-championship salary-cap crunch, but his career only got better with the Thrashers and Jets. Byfuglien settled in full-time as a defenseman and he thrived. Five times in the final nine seasons of his career he had 50 or more points and he never averaged less than 0.65 points per game. For his career, he averaged 0.60 points per game, second-best among defensemen behind Brent Burns. His 0.20 goals per game was second-best behind Shea Weber. Landing a 6'5" 260-pound defenseman who could pound the puck from the point, play physically and create mismatches because of his offensive ability, there's no doubt he'd go very high in this kind of a re-draft. Byfuglien was a very good power-play quarterback, and his stature and strength allowed him to do things most other defensemen couldn't. Short career or not, Byfuglien's body of work speaks for itself. The name of the game in the NHL is scoring and if there was one thing Thomas Vanek excelled at, it was producing points. Vanek gets forgotten among his 2003 draft classmates because of the many seasons in Buffalo that were followed by years in which he hopped around from the Islanders to Montréal, Minnesota, Detroit (twice), Florida, Vancouver and Columbus. He spent 8+ seasons with the Sabres and the next 6+ with rest, but boy he could score. Vanek had 497 points in 598 games with Buffalo with 254 goals. In his career, he had 789 points in 1,029 games, an average of 0.77 points per game, fifth best in the 2003 class. He scored 40-or-more goals twice and 20-or-more goals in his first nine NHL seasons. He tied with Joe Pavelski for most goals per game with 0.36. As good of a goal scorer as Vanek was, he was also an excellent playmaker and passer because he assisted on nearly as many goals as he scored. If there's a sad part to his career it's that he made it to the postseason seven times in his 14 seasons in the NHL. He had 36 points in 69 career playoff games which doesn't exactly pop off the sheet, but he wasn't always on the best teams in the playoffs, particularly later on. But you win hockey games by outscoring your opponent and Vanek excelled at helping his teams to that end. His career may have ended quietly with the Red Wings in 2019, but the retroactive appreciation for what he could do is earned. Honorable Mentions Even though the top 10 is set, we'd be remiss if we didn't recognize the other outstanding players from the 2003 class. If we could do a full re-do of the first round it'd be a fascinating breakdown, but for now, these players merely missed the cut for our top of the charts. Chances are your favorite team would've happily taken them back in the day and been better off for it. Zach Parise - Originally Drafted 17th Overall When Parise was picked by New Jersey it produced one of those draft moments in which Pierre McGuire (rightfully) went off about how teams were foolish to let the high-scoring American from the University of North Dakota fall down the board. Six times in his career he scored 30 or more goals in a season and he's scored the fourth-most goals of anyone in the 2003 draft class. He's adapted his game later in his career and latched on with the Islanders to be a strong depth goal scorer for them. Lou Lamoriello knew best back then to draft him and knew well enough to bring him on as a veteran. Jeff Carter - Originally Drafted 11th Overall Very few players from the 2003 class have had as much drama surrounding them as Carter. His time with the Flyers was tumultuous despite success alongside 2003 classmate Mike Richards. His trade to Columbus could not have gone worse, but it turned into a blessing because it got him to L.A. where he helped the Kings win a pair of Stanley Cups. He's been a very good goal scorer throughout his career and his 431 career tallies are third most in the 2003 class. He's wrapping his career up (seemingly) in Pittsburgh, but he'll forever be known for his playoff brilliance with the Kings in 2012 and 2014. Ryan Suter - Drafted 7th Overall When Suter and Weber teamed up with Nashville it was harder to find a better defense pairing in the NHL. Both players were elite defenders and provided a thunder-and-lightning approach. While Weber blasted bone-breaking slap shots, Suter was slick with the puck and could thread passes as well as defend his end of the ice tightly. From Nashville to Minnesota and now on to Dallas, Suter's reputation and abilities have carried him far. Although the more recent memories of his play in the postseason might sour current fans, there were so few defensemen that could do it all the way Suter did for the better part of 15 seasons. As he heads into his 19th season, his longevity shows how valuable he has been and still can be. He's averaged 20 minutes or more per game in ice time in the past 17 straight seasons, a true workhorse on the blue line. Dustin Brown - Drafted 13th Overall Brown was really close to busting into the top 10 here, but his overall stats didn't jump out among his draft-class peers. That said, he's probably OK with that because he's won the Stanley Cup twice. From 2007 to 2012 (five seasons), Brown had 50 points or more in each year. When the points dropped off in 2013, the thought was the hard miles he put in by playing a brutish power forward had taken their toll. Then in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the goals and points returned, a true resurgence for one of the best Kings players of all time. His 712 points in 1,296 career games don't totally grab your attention, but he was the leading scorer in the playoffs in 2012 with 20 and had 14 points in their Cup run in 2014. Scoring when it's most important doesn't make the goals count for anything more, but the ability to help create mythology counts for much more. Ryan Kesler - Drafted 23rd Overall For all the likable players that came out of the 2003 class, it had its fair share of guys that drove fans nuts and Ryan Kesler more than qualifies there. Kesler was an incredible defensive forward and played center with the kind of edge that made fans lose their voices screaming at him or at the referees about him. He was a Selke Trophy winner in 2011 with Vancouver and nine times in the 15 years of his career he scored 20 or more goals, including a career-high 41 in 2011. He had 573 points in 1,001 games but he also had 920 penalty minutes to go with it. David Backes - Drafted 32nd Overall Similar to Kesler, Backes was a hard-nosed forward who thrived on playing the physical game with the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins, but Backes' offensive touch with the puck was a bit more on-target. He had 248 goals in 965 games and had 561 points. But like Kesler, he feared nothing and no one and piled up 1,148 penalty minutes. He was the most emblematic player the Blues could've drawn up for his time with the franchise. He went all out for his team and went all out to make life miserable for opponents. Brent Seabrook - Drafted 14th Overall The end of Seabrook's career was tough to watch as injuries piled up and his game slowed down because of it, but Chicago doesn't win three Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015 without him. Seabrook teamed up with Duncan Keith to give them a dynamic blue-line setup that allowed them to control the ice for more than 40 minutes of each game. From his rookie season in 2005-06, Seabrook was a consistent point scorer putting up 20 or more points in every season except his final one in 2018-19 in which injury limited him to 32 games. He averaged 0.42 points per game for his career, seventh best among defensemen in the 2003 class. Dion Phaneuf - Drafted 9th Overall The transformation Dion Phaneuf went through as a player and a person from the beginning of his career in 2005 with Calgary through the years to Toronto and later on to Ottawa and Los Angeles was remarkable. While he maintained being one of the most physical defensemen of the era, he went from being an immature player on and off the ice to being captain of the Maple Leafs and one of the more thoughtful guys around the league. He was the kind of player meant to be in a different era, one where hammering opponents all game long was expected, but he was able to do that and generate scoring opportunities as well through most of his career. Being a hybrid throwback like that allowed him to have a long and solid career. Edited August 16, 2023 by NHL HHOF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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