Morning Skate: Do over

Well folks, Happy Thursday. Here’s to hoping that it is quite literally the greatest Thursday you have ever had.

You know what’s one of the best things in the world, enjoyed by everyone? Re-analyzing past NHL Drafts!

Before you immediately close your browser, this isn’t about the 2015 Draft. Don’t leave!

Instead, this was inspired by a headline I saw from NBC Sports Boston, which wondered aloud if Patrice Bergeron would be the first overall pick in his draft class in one of these fantasy-land do-overs.

Who knows how such a do-over would work, but let’s suspend disbelief because it’s summer.

Bergeron was drafted in 2003, 45th overall. Has Bergeron had a better career than all 44 players selected before him?

Among those 44 players, there are 18 All Stars, along with a number of additional “consistently good, but not great” guys.

I’d say the ones you could make an argument for choosing ahead of Bergeron in this re-do would be:

• Marc-Andre Fleury (1st overall)
• Eric Staal (2nd overall)
• Ryan Getzlaf (19th overall)

Please note that I said “make an argument,” as I’m not really sure any of these guys is truly better than Bergeron; Fleury may be the best argument.

Guys I’d put below Bergeron who you could probably argue about include Ryan Suter (7th), Jeff Carter (11th), Zach Parise (17th), and Corey Perry (28th).

In my re-draft, if Bergeron goes after Fleury, Staal, and Getzlaf, he would have been selected by...the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Yikes! Past Bergeron is likely thrilled that Columbus went with Nikolay Zherdev instead.

Today’s discussion topic

Argue about the content above! Where does Bergeron land in your re-draft?