In this week’s contribution to Puck Prospectus, I examined where the top scoring defensemen over the past ten National Hockey League seasons have been drafted.
We can certainly tell that defensemen drafted in the first round have dominated the top defense scorers for some time. For the past ten seasons (this chart extends eleven years because of the lockout) there have never been less than eight first round draft picks among the top 30 points scoring defensemen in the NHL. At its high point, fourteen of the 30 top defensemen were first round selections back in the 1999/00 season. However, it is interesting to note that of this past season’s top 30 point-producing defensemen only eight were first round selections—or, the smallest first round pick percentage (26%) of the past ten seasons.
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