The 10 players selected before Kopitar were:

  1. S. Crosby
  2. B. Ryan
  3. J. Johnson
  4. B. Pouliot
  5. C. Price
  6. G. Brule
  7. J. Skille
  8. D. Setoguchi
  9. B. Lee
  10. L. Bourdon

I’m sure Kopitar’s slide to 11 has already gone down as one of the great misses in draft history, and I’m just catching on. But wow, Minnesota, Columbus, and Ottawa must have been sorely regretful.

Meanwhile, our lives have been blessed. Praise racoon Jesus!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_NHL_entry_draft?wprov=sfti1

10 comments

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  5. yea Kopitar with 11th overall pick is such a steal it’s crazy. he was ranked 1st of europeans in scouting reports too so not like he was just flying under the radar.

    *”Unlike most top-ranked prospects, Kopitar was not at the draft, but in Sweden playing in preseason games.”*

    my pet theory is that at least one of the earlier picks passed on him because someone didn’t wanna miss out on the annual here’s our new first round pick in the team jersey photo op

  6. I heard somewhere that Columbus’s GM at the time made fun of Montreal for selecting Carey Price and refused to pick Kopitar because of his unusual offseason training. Luckily they got Gilbert Brule instead lmao

  8. Knowing what we do now, Crosby is really the only one you could justify picking before Kopitar. We are truly blessed.

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