The Best NHL Draft Steals of All Time

A great NHL player can come from anywhere in the draft. In the case of guys like Martin St. Louis, some stars are not drafted at all.

The NHL is well known for producing Hall of Fame-level talent from the bottom of the draft. The game is such, more like baseball, where development often takes a player into his early 20s, well after he’s selected in the draft.

This is our look at some of the greatest who were initially overlooked, the proverbial steals. We have selected 10 players who we think best fit such a designation.

Honorable mention goes out to Patric Hornqvist and Jonathan Ericsson. Both players were taken with the final pick in their respective drafts in 2005 and 2002 and played 15 seasons and 13 seasons, respectively.

10. Pavol Demitra

• Draft slot: 9th round, 227th overall in 1993
• NHL seasons: 16

Demitra came from the greatest generation of Slovak hockey players in history, playing alongside Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Marcel Hossa and Marian Gaborik for their home country. At the NHL level, Demitra was maybe the best second-line center of his generation.

He had 768 points in 847 games from 1993-94 to 2009-10. He left the NHL after that final season to play professionally in Russia. Demitra died with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl teammates in a plane crash in 2011 as the team was flying to Belarus for its season opener.

9. Joe Pavelski

• Draft slot: 7th round, 205th overall in 2003
• NHL seasons: 18

The youngest player on this list, Pavelski retired after the 2023-24 season. Over 18 years in the NHL — 13 in San Jose and five in Dallas — the former Wisconsin Badgers center scored 1,068 points in 1,332 games.

Pavelski’s teams made 16 playoff appearances over those 18 seasons, and he had 143 points in 201 postseason games. An intimidating net-front presence despite his 5-foot-11, 200-pound frame, few in history have been as deft on deflections as "Pavs."

8. Dave Taylor

• Draft slot: 15th round, 210th overall in 1975
• NHL seasons: 17

We almost kept Taylor from the list, but not because he doesn’t deserve it. He was drafted in 1975, when access to scouting and videotape wasn’t what it would become, so it was harder to know what you were getting.

The Los Angeles Kings got a great one who helped the team to 13 playoff appearances in his 17 years. Not bad for a player taken 210th overall. Taylor ultimately had 1,069 points in 1,111 games, all in L.A., while earning four All-Star nods.

7. Daniel Alfredsson

• Draft slot: 6th round, 133rd overall in 1994
• NHL seasons: 18

The Ottawa Senators finished last in their division during their first three years of existence. They won 18 games in Alfredsson’s first season of 1995-96. After that, they were off to the races.

The Senators made the playoffs in each of their next 11 seasons and 14 of 16 overall before Alfredsson's departure. The Hall of Fame came calling in 2022 as a reward for 18 seasons (17 in Ottawa) and 1,157 points in 1,246 games.

6. Pavel Datsyuk

• Draft slot: 6th round, 171st overall in 1998
• NHL seasons: 14

Datsyuk went undrafted for two straight seasons despite being eligible while playing professional hockey in his home country of Russia. Detroit finally took a chance in 1998.

Good call. Datsyuk won the Selke Trophy three straight times as the NHL’s best defensive forward and the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy four straight seasons as the game’s most gentlemanly player. All the while, he maintained almost a point-per-game pace, logging 918 points over 953 games.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024.

5. Henrik Lundqvist

• Draft slot: 7th round, 205th overall in 2000
• NHL seasons: 15

Lundqvist basically holds the status of best goalie of the Barack Obama presidency, though he’d already finished third in Vezina Trophy voting three times before the inauguration.

A New York Rangers lifer, Lundqvist played all 15 seasons in Manhattan, earning five All-Star nods, the 2012 Vezina, and 10 top-six finishes in Vezina voting. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2023.

4. Doug Gilmour

• Draft slot: 7th round, 134th overall in 1982
• NHL seasons: 20

The only player on this list to rank in the top 25 of scoring in NHL history, Gilmour remains one of the most underrated players of all time.

The St. Louis Blues took him in the 1982 draft, and he established himself as a quality two-way forward quickly, earning Selke Trophy votes in three of his first four seasons. He would ultimately do so 11 times, winning the trophy in 1992-93 in his first All-Star season. Gilmour retired after the 2002-03 season after 20 years, recording 1,414 points in 1,474 games.

3. Luc Robitaille

• Draft slot: 9th round, 171st overall in 1984
• NHL seasons: 19

Robitaille quickly proved he was worth more than a ninth-round pick as he was named Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year in 1986-87 after scoring 45 goals and registering 84 points.

It was the start of a special run that lasted 19 years, including 14 over three stints with the Los Angeles Kings. Robitaille scored 30 or more goals in 12 seasons, including 40 or more in his first eight. Robitaille received the call from the Hall in 2009 after finishing his career with 668 goals and 726 assists.

2. Brett Hull

• Draft slot: 6th round, 117th overall in 1984
• NHL seasons: 19

A two-time Stanley Cup winner and the 1991 Hart Trophy winner, Hull, like Robitaille, will never be considered one of greatest skaters. In fact, he was rather poor, even in the NHL. Maybe that’s why he slipped so far in the draft.

Still, the son of a Hall of Famer, the younger Hull ultimately found himself enshrined, too. He played 19 years in the NHL, scoring 741 goals — leading the league for three straight years from 1989-90 to 1991-92 — and totaling 650 assists over 1,269 games.

1. Dominik Hasek

• Draft slot: 10th round, 199th overall in 1983
• NHL seasons: 16

Only one player in NHL history (Jacques Plante) holds more Vezinas than Hasek, who won all six of his in an eight-year span, cementing his status as the best goaltender of the 1990s and perhaps the best of all time.

Hasek led the NHL in save percentage for six straight seasons from 1993-94 to 1998-99 while leading the Sabres to the Stanley Cup Final at the end of that season. For his career, the Dominator holds a .922 save percentage with a 2.20 GAA and a 389-223-95 record.

He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2014.