Best Pick: Henrik Lundqvist, 205th overall, New York Rangers
The Rangers got by far the best player in this draft, and managed to do so in the seventh round. He quite possibly could be the only Hall of Famer from this entire draft. He played every game of his career with the Rangers, took them to the Stanley Cup Final, and won a Vezina trophy, along with playing in five all star games. He also ranks sixth all time in wins.
Worst Pick: Brent Krahn, 9th overall, Calgary Flames
It's safe to say the Flames missed on on Brent Krahn, who ultimately played all of twenty minutes in the NHL. Brent, like Lundqvist was also a goalie. Krahn played three years in the WHL after being drafted, putting up significantly worse numbers than the year before his draft. In 2004, he began what would end up being an eight year American Hockey League Career. His one NHL appearance was in relief of Marty Turco on February 14, 2009 with the Dallas Stars. Krahn gave up three goals on just nine shots. It is surprising Krahn only appeared in the one game; in the AHL his numbers were not great, but they were not atrocious either.
Best team's draft: New York Rangers
To nobody's surprise, the Rangers had the best draft in 2000, thanks in large part to selecting Lundqvist. They also drafted Dominic Moore with the second to last pick in the third round. That pick ended up grading out as the 13th best selection of the entire draft. For the Rangers, drafting Lundqvist kept them competitive for well over a decade. Overall, it was a phenomenal draft for the Rangers, who didn't have their first pick until the 64th pick of the draft.
Worst team's draft: Boston Bruins
The Bruins simply had a lot of bad selections in the 2000 draft. Their best pick overall was their selection of Jarno Kultanen 174th overall. They also selected Andy Hilbert, who played over 300 games in the NHL 38th overall. Besides that they struggled, specifically with their two first round picks. Lars Johnson, who they selected 7th overall played just eight games in the NHL. Martin Samuelsson, drafted 27th overall played fourteen games.
1st overall pick: Rick DiPietro
The New York Islanders had the first and fifth overall picks, and not another until pick number 101. With those first two picks they selected Rick DiPietro and Raffi Torres. Both were pretty underwhelming. The selection of DiPietro was pretty questionable from the start. His 2.45 goals against average and .913 save percentage in his one year at Boston University were good, but not first overall pick material. To be frank, he wasn't ever all that good in the NHL. His career highs, a 2.36 GAA in 2003-04 and a .919 SV% 2006-07 were more outliers than a reflection of his overall career, in which he averaged a 2.87 GAA and a .902 SV%.
*The player and team rankings in this article were developed using the amount of picks a player increased or decreased, grades for each player, and weighted tiers.
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