
2001 NHL Entry Draft: 12th overall – Dan Hamhuis, 42nd overall - Thomas Slovak, 75th overall – Denis Platonov
2002 NHL Entry Draft: 12th overall – Steve Eminger, 42nd overall – Marius Holtet, 77th overall - Patrick Wellar
2003 NHL Entry Draft: 12th overall – Hugh Jessiman, 43rd overall – Josh Hennessy, 75th overall – Kenny Roche
2004 NHL Entry Draft: 12th overall – A.J. Thelen, 42nd overall – Roman Voloshenko, 78th overall – Peter Olvecky
Let’s try it again, using the methodology that Copper Blue Dreams does, docking points for Penner’s 4 game winning goals (averaging it out to the 8th overall pick). Here’s what we get:
2001 NHL Entry Draft: 8th overall – Pascal Leclaire, 38th – Tim Jackman, 72nd – Brandon Nolan
2002 NHL Entry Draft: 8th overall – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, 38th – Josh Harding, 72nd – Mike Erickson
2003 NHL Entry Draft: 8th overall – Braydon Coburn, 38th – Kamil Kreps, 77th – Tyler Redenbach
2004 NHL Entry Draft: 8th overall – Alexandre Picard, 38th – Justin Peters, 73rd – Zdenek Bahensky
Okay, I think I’m sold now. Obviously, there are better, more indepth ways to do this breakdown, but from this data I’m fairly satisfied that signing Penner was a good decision hockey-wise.