The Chicago Blackhawks have taken part in NHL Drafts since they started in 1963, meaning there are many different outcomes that the organization has experienced from good to bad and everything in between.
This isn't a look at the best drafts or the worst draft, rather a dive into the most NHL-rich drafts in Blackhawks history. These are the drafts where the Blackhawks have come away with a lot of players who made it to the NHL, even if just for a game. Here are the nine drafts where Chicago has selected at least six players who became NHLers.
2011: 8 players
2011 was the last draft that gave the Blackhawks a lot of NHL talent. Three of the players have had solid NHL careers, two of them spent a decent chunk of time in the NHL, and three others played just two games each.
Phillip Danault, Brandan Saad, and Andrew Shaw carved out good NHL careers. The latter has retired, but not before winning two Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks and playing 10 seasons in the NHL. Danault and Saad are still hanging around and contributing on other teams.
The two players who didn't just appear in the NHL as a blip, but also didn't have long careers, are Adam Clendening and Klas Dahlbeck. Both of them last played in the NHL five-plus years ago at age 26.
The Blackhawks really missed on their 18th overall pick, Mark McNeill, as he only played two games (one for Chicago and the other for the Dallas Stars). The other pair who only played two games in the NHL as well were Michael Paliotta (3rd round) and Alex Broadhurst (7th round).
2004: 7 players
The final year of the nine-round draft was in 2004, which means any drafts from here and earlier had more chance to produce NHL talent, even if the drafts were more unpredictable back in the day. This draft produced seven NHL players from the group the Blackhawks selected.
The Blackhawks hit on four players in this draft, even if they weren't stars. Chicago selected three solid NHL players with their first three picks in Cam Barker, Dave Bolland, and Bryan Bickell, but also grabbed Troy Brouwer in the seventh round with the team's 13th pick in the draft.
Barker, selected third overall, was the only first round pick that year by the Blackhawks and played 310 games. Bolland played in 433 and Bickell in 395 before his career was ended prematurely by multiple scleroris in 2016. These two forwards have two and three Stanley Cups to their names.
Three other draftees appeared in the NHL. Fifth-round pick Jake Dowell played over 150 games, seventh-round pick Petri Kontiola appeared in 12 games, and third-rounder Adam Berti played just two games.
2003: 7 players
The draft that many think of as the best in history was in 2003. For the Blackhawks, this was an incredible draft as the team selected Brent Seabrook, Corey Crawford, and Dustin Byfuglien. All three were impact players in the NHL and all have Cups with Chicago. While Seabrook and Crawford were the team's first two picks in the draft, Byfuglien was an eight-round pick.
That's not all the Blackhawks selected though. The team drafted ninth-rounder Chris Porter with over 200 games, Lasse Kukkonen in the fifth round who played over 150 games, Michal Barinka with 34 games, and Mike Brodeur with just seven games in net. Even though four of the seven players didn't do much in the NHL, the three elite players selected by Chicago in this draft helped form a dynasty.
2000: 7 players
The 2000 draft by the Blackhawks was very unimpressive even though it produced seven NHL players. None of them reached 100 games in their career with the highest being 11th overall pick Pavel Vorobiev with 57 games. The unfortunate thing about this draft was that the Blackhawks drafted at 10th overall too and chose Mikhail Yakubov who played just 53 games.
Third-rounder Igor Radulov played 43 games, ninth rounder Reto Von Arx played 19 games, eighth rounder Adam Berkhoel played nine games, second rounder Jonas Nordqvist played three games, and fourth rounder Olli Malmivaara played two games. Though rich with NHL talent, it wasn't good NHL talent.
1984: 6 players
The 1984 draft was solid for the Blackhawks. Chicago hit on its third overall pick when it selected hometown product Eddie Olczyk, who went on to a 16-year NHL career with 794 points in 1,031 games. Two others drafted by the Blackhawks carved out solid NHL careers as well. They were defenseman Trent Yawney and Mike Stapleton. Neither were big point-getters, but they played around 600-700 NHL games.
Eleventh-round pick David Mackey played over 100 games, but there were also Chris Clifford with two games and Darin Sceviour with one game in the NHL.
1983: 8 players
The year prior was much better than 1984. Chicago drafted Hall of Fame goalie Dominik Hasek in the 10th round. Defenseman Marc Bergevin (1,191 games played) and forwards Wayne Presley (684 GP) and Brian Noonan (629 GP) were also taken in the draft.
Past that, there were four sub-100 game players. That included now NHL head coach Bruce Cassidy (36 GP), who was a promising first-round pick as an 18-year-old defenseman, but suffered a left ACL injury that derailed his career. Mark LaVarre (78 GP), Kent Paynter (37 GP), and Jari Torkki (4 GP) also were taken.
1980: 9 players
The 1980 draft rivals the 2003 draft for the Blackhawks in that the team drafted a Hall-of-Famer Denis Savard, a should-be Hall-of-Famer in Steve Larmer, Selke Trophy winner Troy Murray, and Carey Wilson. But those are just the biggest names who played over 500 games.
The Blackhawks also drafted Steve Ludzik (424 GP), Dan Frawley (273 GP), Jerome Dupont (214 GP), Ken Solheim (135 GP), and Don Dietrich (28 GP). Both Savard and Larmer played over 1,000 games in the NHL and recorded over 1,000 points while Murray came close to the century mark in games as well.
1978: 6 players
1978 wasn't a great draft for the Blackhawks by any means compared to others on this list, but it also wasn't the worst. It produced three NHLers who played over 400 games, two more that played over 100 games, and one who only appeared in eight games, but was an NHLer nonetheless.
First-round pick Tim Higgins was Chicago's best pick in the draft and played 706 games. The two others who reached 400 career games played were third-round pick Rick Paterson and 11th-round pick Darryl Sutter. The eventual NHL head coach had a 40-goal rookie season in 1980-81 and posted 279 points in 406 NHL games.
The three players who appeared but didn't make much of an impact were Doug Lecuyer (second round), Brian Young (fourth round), and Dave Feamster (sixth round).
1974: 6 players
The furthest back we are going is 1974 when the Blackhawks drafted six NHLers in their first seven picks and didn't draft another NHL player after that for the final six selections.
The Blackhawks hit on the first five draft picks including longtime defenseman Bob Murray (1,008 GP) in the third round. Chicago's first-round pick was Grant Mulvey (586 GP), second-round pick Alain Daigle (389 GP), fourth-round pick Terry Ruskowski (629 GP), and fifth-round pick Dave Logan (218 GP). The Blackhawks missed on their sixth-round pick, but then selected goalie Eddie Mio (192 GP) in the seventh round.
Most of these NHL-rich drafts had a positive impact on the Blackhawks throughout the years, whether there were a lot of chances to find NHL talent or not. The Blackhawks have drafted 11 players in each of the past two drafts and have eight in the 2024 draft as of now. In time we will see just how strong Chicago was at drafting at a pivotal time.
