Draft bust

A draft bust is a player drafted early in an NHL Entry Draft who fails to play in the National Hockey League, or turns out to be very low skilled despite expectations to be an excellent player.

The drafting of young players is a very unpredictable process. While it is easy for a scout to assess a young player's current skills, it is much harder to determine his exact potential, and, a fortiori, the external factors that may impact on his development; as a result, sometimes the scouts and management go wrong in estimating a young player's future, or simply, the player fails to reach the level he could have reached. It's those highly praised youngsters heralded as the next Wayne Gretzky and ending up having very average careers or, even worse, career minor leaguers that are considered draft busts, although the term in itself is very broad and could apply to any draftee who never lives up to expectations.

The opposite to a draft bust is a draft steal.

Players regarded as draft busts

 * 2000-Alexei Smirnov, Anaheim Ducks (12th overall)
 * 1999-Patrick Stefan, Atlanta Thrashers (1st overall)
 * 1999-Pavel Brendl, New York Rangers (4th overall)
 * 1999-Brian Finley. Nashville Predators (6th overall)
 * 1997-Daniel Tkaczuk, Calgary Flames (6th overall)
 * 1996-Alexandre Volchkov, Washington Capitals (4th overall)
 * 1994-Jason Bonsignore, Edmonton Oilers (4th overall)
 * 1993-Alexandre Daigle, Ottawa Senators (1st overall)
 * 1992-Ryan Sittler, Philadelphia Flyers (7th overall)
 * 1991-Pat Falloon, San Jose Sharks (2nd overall)
 * 1989-Dave Chyzowski, New York Islanders (2nd overall)
 * 1987-Bryan Fogarty, Quebec Nordiques (7th overall)
 * 1983-Brian Lawton, Minnesota North Stars (1st overall)
 * 1982-Gord Kluzak, Boston Bruins (1st overall)
 * 1980-Doug Wickenheiser, Montreal Canadiens (1st overall)
 * 1975-Barry Dean, Kansas City Scouts (2nd overall)
 * 1974-Greg Joly, Washington Capitals (1st overall)
 * 1970-Ray Martyniuk, Montreal Canadiens (5th overall)