Colorado Avalanche 2009 Draft Review

The Entry Draft is an event in every major sport that fans are naturally attracted to because you get to see the future of the sport right in front of you. Hockey, unlike football or basketball and much more like baseball, is a sport whose draft is an event that celebrates the long-term projectability of teenagers prodigious talents rather than provide significant immediate help for a team. The classic train of thought in a sport like football is that you can begin to make a reasonable evaluation of how a team performed on draft day within about 3 years. For hockey, you’re looking at more like 5 years as the starting point.

With that in mind, over the rest of this week, I’ll be examining the Colorado Avalanche draft classes from years 2009-2013, which is the primary era in which former Head Scout Rick Pracey was credited with running the draft room, and seeing how the draft has played a role in shaping the current version of the Avalanche. While some of these classes will still be too early to draw definitive conclusions, enough time has passed from each class that an idea of what each has to offer has already begun to emerge. 2014 is excluded because it’s still a little too early to say much of anything as none of those players are close to the NHL, although early signs are bright for last year’s group.

Today we begin with the class of 2009, by far the most successful draft the Avalanche have had in recent years and potentially the most fruitful draft since the team moved to Denver.

1st Round –

Matt Duchene, 3rd overall

Duchene, a lifelong Avalanche fan, had the unusual draft day desire to not be picked as high as possible as he notably expressed a great deal of excitement when the Tampa Bay Lightning, picking directly in front of the Avalanche at 2nd overall, chose Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman instead of him. Duchene’s draft day experience lives on thanks to Youtube where it’s clear all he wanted to do was play for the Avalanche.

The feeling was mutual and the young prodigy accomplished the rare feat of making the NHL team as a teenager, scoring 24 goals and 31 assists for a promising 55-point campaign that saw him finish 3rd in voting for the Calder Trophy, given annually to the NHL’s top rookie, behind fellow 19-year old Tyler Myers and 25-year old Jimmy Howard. Duchene’s arrival would spark the unlikeliest of seasons as he and goaltender Craig Anderson spearheaded an improbable playoff appearance, capped by the brilliance of Duchene as he beat Roberto Luongo in a shootout to clinch the team’s playoff appearance.

Duchene’s rookie season would be a sign of things to come as his game only grew, providing a lengthy highlight reel of breakaway goals in his career as he’s been Colorado’s most prolific scorer since being drafted, scoring 126 goals and 192 assists for 318 points in 419 career games. It’s easy to say the Avalanche’s young gun era began with this selection.

2nd Round –

Ryan O’Reilly, 33rd overall

The drafting of Ryan O’Reilly came with significantly less fan fare as second round picks and beyond are very rarely contributors to their clubs immediately but the crafty O’Reilly would win over the Avalanche coaching staff in training camp and become the first non-first round draft pick to appear immediately in the NHL after being drafted since 2003-04 when Patrice Bergeron, a player whom O’Reilly would soon being drawing comparisons to, did it for the Boston Bruins.

O’Reilly wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard as he recorded an assist in his first career game and his first career goal just 2 weeks later. O’Reilly’s role on the magic carpet ride to the playoffs in 2009-10 would be vastly different from Duchene’s as O’Reilly was the 3rd line center, hard working grinder that ate up difficult minutes and focused on defensive zone responsibilities. Yet it was O’Reilly and not Duchene who would create the postseason memory as he would be credited with scoring one of the most memorable postseason goals of the last 10 years when Dan Boyle’s attempted pass would barely hit the tip of O’Reilly’s stick and go past an unsuspecting Evgeni Nabokov, giving Colorado the 2-1 series lead (they would go on to lose the series 4-2 to the #1 seeded Sharks).

Beginning in his 3rd season, O’Reilly’s scoring would take off as he more than doubled his career point totals in his 3rd season, scoring 55 points (he had 52 in his first two seasons combined) and bringing an offensive dimension to his defensively-oriented game that few saw coming. Since then, O’Reilly has continued producing both high level offense and defense (hence the Bergeron comparisons) as he peaked in 2013-14, scoring 28 goals and 64 points while winning the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, given annually to the “player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability”, and finished 6th in the Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, given annually to the NHL’s top defensive forward. O’Reilly .71 points-per-game pace since his 3rd season barely trails Duchene’s .75 PPG as the two have combined to provide significant highlights to the team. Amazingly, the Avalanche weren’t quite done mining diamonds in this draft.

Stefan Elliott, 49th overall

Stefan Elliott was considered a borderline first round prospect by many publications as his offensive upside projected Elliott to be a potentially lethal power play producer and upper-echelon point scorer from the blue line. While his defensive game was always considered suspect despite his good size and NHL frame, it was his offensive game that got him drafted and promoted quickly through the Avalanche system.

Just two seasons after being drafted, Elliott would see ice time in 39 games for the Avalanche, scoring 4 goals and 13 points. Each of his goals was scored on his lethal wrist shot. Unfortunately, defensive lapses were unacceptable for then-Head Coach Joe Sacco, who saw fit to send the youngster Elliott back to American Hockey League affiliate Lake Erie for more development. Elliott would see 18 more games the next season with the Avalanche but never again be given a legitimate shot to stick with the Avalanche and currently sits with 6 goals and 18 points and a ridiculous 2.06 shots per game in 63 games played over the course of the last 4 seasons.

Elliott, an AHL All-Star this year and with nothing left to prove in the minor leagues, is a Restricted Free Agent this summer and with his future in Colorado considered murky at best may be a case of a young player simply needing a change of scenery in order to be given a realistic shot at making an NHL team. Still, if the Avs and Elliott manage to find some kind of common ground, his production could further elevate this draft class into the stratosphere.

3rd Round

Tyson Barrie, 64th overall

Tyson Barrie is your typical prospect that slip in the NHL Draft not because of ability because he doesn’t possess prototypical NHL size, standing at just 5’10” and 190 pounds. If you’re going to be that small on the blue line, you had better possess special abilities to overcome it. Luckily for the Avalanche, Barrie certainly does.

Barrie had a much slower start to his professional career than the meteoric rise of Elliott but his more consistent path seems to have paid off as once Barrie made his move to the NHL, he made it stick. Appearing in 10 games with the Avalanche in 2011-12, he would provide a stark contrast to Elliott, who potted a handful of points the same season, as he played 10 scoreless games for the Avalanche, providing very little offense and looking mostly out of place. His time spent back with Lake Erie would see Barrie regain his confidence, earning another call up the next season, this time one that saw him score 13 points in 32 games, an impressive pace but still not enough to solidify his spot in the lineup.

Barrie’s 3rd pro campaign would see him make the NHL yet again and this time make it for good, as he broke out to the tune of 13 goals and 38 points in 64 games, providing several clutch goals for a team that lived the charmed life in 2013-14. This past season Barrie vaulted himself into the elite offensive-defenseman conversation as he scored 53 points, 37 at even strength, and proving to the world that he is a legitimate force to be reckoned with moving forward and adding even more firepower to the absurd 2009 Avalanche draft class.

4th Round

None

5th Round

Kieran Millan, 124th overall

A college goaltender coming off an exceptional freshman season, Millan was seen at the time of the draft as a potential steal until his sophomore season bottomed out as disciplinary issues caught up with him and his numbers plummeted. He would rebound in his junior and senior seasons before turning pro, becoming part of the tandem that anchored the inaugural Denver Cutthroats team, the new defunct CHL affiliate for the Avalanche.

His numbers would were solid, especially for a rookie in a low-level pro league and he saw action in 4 games for the Lake Erie Monsters, putting up a paltry .846 save percentage and marking the high water mark of his career.

2013-14 would mark the final year of Millan’s career as he played sparingly in the ECHL and CHL before announcing on Twitter that due to a lack of serious interest he was hanging up his skates and moving on. From an Avalanche perspective, they took a chance on a decent goalie prospect and while he didn’t turn out to be much, you don’t fault a team for missing on the 124th overall pick.

6th Round

Brandon Maxwell, 154th overall

Another late round goaltender, Maxwell never signed with the Avalanche or made an appearance of any kind within the organization. He’s had a circuitous journey through professional hockey, making appearances in Sweden’s 1st Division (where he played with future Av Dennis Everberg), the ECHL, and where he currently plays, Vitkovice HC of the Czech League. Needless to say, Maxwell did not add to the greatness of this draft but would provide an example of what Roy criticized Pracey for in drafting similar prospects in the same draft. Two failed goaltender picks in a row could have been better used elsewhere.

7th Round

Gus Young, 184th overall

Like Maxwell, Gus Young’s rights were allowed to lapse and he became a free agent. Unlike Maxwell, Young was able to follow up on a very good career at Yale by having a good rookie season in North America, playing regularly for the Worcester Sharks of the AHL. While he is still unlikely to appear in the NHL, Young could represent the big miss by the Avalanche if he continues to prove doubters wrong and climb the professional rungs.

RECAP:

All in all, the Avalanche managed to find two borderline All-Star level forwards, a blossoming elite offensive defenseman, and potentially another NHL player or two in Stefan Elliott and Gus Young. You can’t give this draft anything but an A+++ as this is the kind of draft teams dream of having, a truly franchise-changing draft. As we’ll see in upcoming days, this draft would be the anomaly for the Avalanche as their rebuild featured a lot more misses than hits in coming years but the team’s current successes are still very much driven by the work done in the 2009 draft.