There was never a doubt the kind of player that Dylan Larkin could become. Everything down to the letter on his jersey was predicted before he'd even been drafted.
To quote a passage from the 2014 THN Draft Preview: “'I love Dylan Larkin,' said another scout. 'Guaranteed player, heart-and-soul kid. He’ll wear a letter on his jersey some day. Plays with pace and he’s a powerful skater. You might only get a third-liner, but his work ethic is great. NHL coaches are going to love him.'"
Coaches do love Larkin, who has lived up to all those grand projections of his career and then some. He's been the captain since 2021, his skating broke an NHL speed record at his rookie year All-Star game. About that third-line projection — he blew that out of the water by becoming the Red Wings' top center.
Detroit wasn't the only player to get a gem out of the 2014 NHL Draft. Some teams, in fact, got multiple. Take a look at the stars of this year's Stanley Cup Final. On either side of the Florida-Edmonton series, stars of 2014 shine bright. In fact, the top four picks in that draft are in the series.
With the first overall pick, Florida had its choice from a variety of top players. Sam Bennett was a versatile two-way center who scouts adored. Aaron Ekblad was a gifted two-way defenseman with a heavy shot. Sam Reinhart showed elite hockey IQ that helped him takeover games. Leon Draisaitl was a big and beefy center whose paired a mean streak with a mean scoring touch.
In the end, Florida built from the blue line with Ekblad. And the decision didn't even matter anyway. The Panthers traded for Bennett then Reinhart in the 2021 offseason, assembling a deep forward corps around 2013 pick Aleksander Barkov.
Edmonton, meanwhile, might've gotten the best player out of that Big Four in Draisaitl. As the second punch to Connor McDavid, Draisaitl brings heavy metal to McDavid's playmaking symphony.
Right now, the Panthers' 3-0 win over the Oilers on Saturday has them up 1-0 in the Stanley Cup Final. Reinhart, Ekblad and Draisaitl each played more than 22 minutes of ice time in the bout, while Bennett played around 16. Their fingerprints were all over the game.
That 2014 NHL Draft has had a tremendous impact on the current NHL as its players matured, from Detroit getting Larkin to the Stanley Cup finalists getting core pieces.
Here's more on 2014's Big Four from THN's Brian Costello
"It’s Big Four ... For Now" by Brian Costello.
June 1, 2014. Vol. 67, Issue 24-25
WE DIDN’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT THE (FILL-IN-THE-BLANK) draft derby this year. Sure, there was a bit of “Be bad for Ekblad” or “Lose hard for Reinhart,” but nothing like the Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos or John Tavares loser sweepstakes of past years.
That’s how close the competition is for head-of-the-class honors this season. We wouldn’t be terribly surprised if any one of Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart or Leon Draisaitl was drafted first overall June 27 in Philadelphia. That’s why we chose to put all four on the cover of Draft Preview 2014. But that doesn’t mean this year’s proceedings will unfold this way. Just three years ago, we were convinced it was a four-horse field for top billing between Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Larsson, Gabriel Landeskog and Sean Couturier. By the time draft day rolled around in 2011 and team preferences were made, Jonathan Huberdeau jumped into the top four and Couturier slipped to eighth overall.
Back in 1990, everyone was talking about the Big Four all season. Owen Nolan, Mike Ricci, Petr Nedved and Keith Primeau were head and shoulders beyond the pack. There was even a bit of heartache in western Pennsylvania on the final night of the regular season when Pittsburgh finished just one point ahead of Philadelphia in the standings and was relegated to the fifth-overall pick. Nolan, Nedved, Primeau and Ricci went in order, but wouldn’t you know it, the Big Four became a Big Five because Jaromir Jagr, selected fifth by the Penguins, burst out to a career that towered over the others. And who could have known Martin Brodeur, taken 20th by New Jersey, would go on to become the game’s winningest goalie?
So just because it’s the Big Four now doesn’t mean it will unfold that way June 27 or even 20 years from now. This year’s No. 5 prospect, Michael Dal Colle, made a late-season surge to be considered best of the rest. And William Nylander had a terrific world under-18 tourney to move up to the No. 6 spot. Maybe they evolve to become the best of 2014. Speaking of the world under-18s, we pushed back our DP deadline to include evaluation from this all-important prospect tournament in April. Our Hot 100 rankings were fine-tuned even further. The rankings you see on these pages are a compilation of thoughts from a variety of scouting sources.
Two of our most interesting features in DP14 look in opposite directions. Can you believe it’s been 25 years since the baby face of Mats Sundin stepped up to the podium in 1989 as the first European selected No. 1 overall? See pg. 42. And Ken Campbell examines the 2020 vision of the Buffalo Sabres, which represents the year they’ll be dominant, on pg. 14.
