Nail Yakupov Is Heading To The KHL Which Could Potentially Make Him The Only 1st Overall Pick Since 2000 Not In The NHL
Over the past 20 or so years, 1st overall picks in the National Hockey League have typically panned out. You don’t see a ton of busts end up going 1st overall. You had Alexandre Daigle in ’93. Patrik Stefan in ’99. But for the most part, you’re almost always getting a franchise player with a 1st overall. I mean just take a look at what some of the most recent 1st overall picks have recently done.
- Auston Matthews (’16) has led the Toronto Maple Leafs back to relevancy and was the rookie of the year in 2016-17.
- Connor McDavid (’15) has won back-to-back Art Ross Trophies and is a top 3 player in the world.
- Aaron Ekblad (’14) is a future Norris Trophy winner down in Florida
- Taylor Hall (’10) just won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league MVP
- John Tavares (’09) was just one of the biggest free agents to ever hit the market and got an $11 million pay day to join Auston Matthews in Toronto
- Steven Stamkos (’08) has the Lightning as perennial contenders and had the chance to be in Tavares’ situation last year.
- Patrick Kane (’07) has won 3 Stanley Cups and will most likely go down as the best American to play the game.
Crosby in ’05. Ovechkin in ’04. Marc-Andre Fleury in ’03 who just led an expansion team to the Stanley Cup Final. Hell, you can even go back to 2001. Ilya Kovalchuk was the 1st overall pick for the Atlanta Thrashers. After spending the last 5 seasons in the KHL, he is set to make his return to the NHL this year with the LA Kings. And as long as Rick Nash decides to not retire this year, that would mean that the only former 1st overall pick not currently in the NHL is Rick DiPietro in 2000. That is, of course, until Nail Yakupov.
Yikes. That is, how the kids these days say, not great. 6 years ago Nail Yakupov was selected 1st overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. In those 6 years since he’s been drafted, he has played in 350 NHL games. He has played for 3 different teams. He has scored 62 goals and had 136 points.
Obviously that is 350 more games than the majority of the world has ever played in the NHL. Obviously that is 62 more goals and 136 more points than the majority of us have ever scored in the NHL. But the majority of us also weren’t 1st overall picks sooooooo… yeah, see ya next time.
I kinda feel a little bad for Nail Yakupov right now. I mean it’s not like he asked to get drafted 1st overall. And at the time, he was the #1 consensus pick. He had over 100 points as a 17-year-old in the OHL. It’s just that shit didn’t work out for him in the NHL. I’m sure that having to start off his career with trash ass Edmonton certainly didn’t help. He was the third 1st overall pick in a row for the Edmonton Oilers. Could you imagine having to start your career in the National Hockey League on a glorified OHL all star team? It’s a joke.
But honestly this is probably the best move for him. He gets to go back home to Russia where he’s comfortable. It would be one thing to be a major bust in the NHL. It’s a completely new level if you’re not on a bust but you’re in a foreign country, you’re not great at speaking the native language, you’re away from your family and you’re getting bounced around from team to team needing to make new relationships. Those had to be a brutal few years for Nail but now he just gets to go back to mother Russia and sauce around in the K. I feel like if he was an American or Canadian born player this would be so much worse. But yeah. Not a great look when guys who were drafted 11 years before are coming back to the league the same summer you’re leaving.