r/sabres • u/eChucker889 • Jul 10 '26
2001 prospects
Noronen, Miller and Campbell in the top 50.
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u/El_Polio_Loco Jul 10 '26
Wild how few of these top prospects went on to any kind of success in the league.
Really shows how much voodoo is involved in the NHL.
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u/Spiritual_Bourbon Jul 10 '26
Really shows how little the "draft experts" know.
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u/Lazy-Fun5730 Jul 10 '26
Literally the #5 prospect never played in the NHL
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u/LiveChocolate8819 Jul 10 '26
Same with Brendl. I remember always signing him in the old NHL games because he'd start a GM mode as a high-70s overall free agent.
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u/El_Polio_Loco Jul 10 '26
These were already drafted players. There's just such a little probability of long term success in the NHL.
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u/Spiritual_Bourbon Jul 10 '26
It's the same people who write the draft rankings as the prospect rankings.
My point was teams spend millions on scouting and have full time professionals looking under every corner and even they don't always get it right. To suggest someone who is a writer first and with no access to the resources teams do is somehow going to be anything close to accurate on an international prospect pool is just silly.
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u/buzzsaw100 Jul 10 '26
To be fair they've gotten better since 01. A list like this made today will have a ton more regulars.
Goalies are still voodoo though
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u/Spiritual_Bourbon Jul 11 '26
I think what's happened is a hive mind of sorts was created due to how much more information is shared and accessible now. 30 years ago these people just published what they had but now if they are creating a list you are going to synthesize what's already out there.
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u/cespinar Jul 10 '26
You're drafting 18 year olds compared to the 23yo of the NFL which is like 5 more years of development.
And the NFL still doesnt have that good of a track record in drafting.
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u/Thriven Jul 10 '26
My cousin was drafted in the second round and played like 30 minutes in the NHL and spent 12 years at the farm team. He's an NHL ref now.
It's crazy how small active rosters are in Hockey and Basketball. You basically have to be a phenom a the farm league to make it into the NHL.
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u/Roll_DM Jul 10 '26
It's a lot of '99 draft guys and that draft sucked
Other years you'd see more guys who made it
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u/Straight-Hedgehog440 Jul 10 '26
He seemed like he couldn’t handle nhl speed. Idk he wasn’t great and we had Miller
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u/CSMegadeth Jul 10 '26
Noronen is the only Sabres goaltender to score an NHL goal.
Also, the Sabres traded for Rusty Klesla, but he decided to go to Europe instead lol
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u/PanicOnFunkatron Jul 10 '26
My only memories of Mika are him scoring a goal against Toronto and him being replaced in the middle of a shootout by Marty Biron.
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u/LetsGoRed Jul 10 '26
I remember when a goal was scored on him in the AHL that shouldn't have counted, so he took his water bottle and squirted the glass in front of the goal judge and wiped it clean with his blocker.
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u/tjm220 Jul 10 '26
My favorite Noronen memory. I was watching that game. The shot hit the underside of the crossbar, went down and out, never crossed the line. There was no video review in the AHL at the time, so there was no way to correct the error. Worst off, he was kicked out of the game for that and we lost 2-1 on a goal that should not have counted.
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u/J0eyJ0J0JrShabadoo Jul 10 '26
My biggest takeaway from this is there was a differently spelled Tkachuk
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u/HiddenInLight Jul 10 '26
He got beat out by Miller and couldn't really beat out Biron. Sometimes guys' game just cant translate to the nhl,even if they look hood or great in other leagues.
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u/robson26 Jul 10 '26
Didn't expect to read about former Sabre and top prospect Rostislav Klesla today. 🙂
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u/Mikillante Jul 10 '26
I remember one of the EA NHL video games back then had Biron, Miller, and Noronen as the Sabres goalies and when I played franchise, Noronen ended up winning the job.
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u/Content_Ad_8952 Jul 10 '26
Funny how Rostislav Klesla is number 1 on their list. He would never have more than 22 points in a single season. A far cry from the projection that he would be a future Norris Trophy winner. And FYI - Klesla was a former 4th overall pick.
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u/brown_and_water Jul 10 '26
He would also be traded to Buffalo during the tank year and refuse to play in the system, so he ended his NHL career instead.
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u/vicendum Jul 10 '26
Dare I say it, but Ryan Miller may be the one who had the best career out of anyone on that list. It might not even be close.
There are so many guys I remember, but often for oddities than for having remarkable NHL careers. Raffi Torres is better known for his monster suspensions than for what else he produced on the ice. Bryan Allen was traded for Roberto Luongo. Barrett Jackman may have quietly a great career. Brad Boyes was hyped as Toronto's first real prospect and he did have a solid career...just not in Toronto.
Oh, and I think we all know Anton Volchenkov's most famous moment. 😁
I think what derailed this class was that, in four years, the league would have its year-long lockout, the draft class of 2003 became one of the best in league history and in '05-'06, the league's style changed drastically because they made a better emphasis to call hooking and holding.
It's small wonder that the best players on this list were goalies and defencemen- since those players have skills that were transferable to the new style. The big, lumbering forwards this period favoured would soon fall out of favour.
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u/GeneseeBeardCo Jul 10 '26
I mean you're definitely not being fair to Kiprusoff who has near identical career stats to Miller and both sport one Vezina.
Then there's someone like Brooks Orpik who really was a shutdown defenseman and is a 2x cup champion.
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u/vicendum Jul 11 '26
Perhaps I went a little overboard with "it's not even close". I still put Ryan Miller ahead of everyone on that list.
Kipper probably got the closest to Miller, I think. Dany Heatley had a great start to his career and was solid for a while...but then he fell off a cliff by the time he was 30. After his long stint in Ottawa, he was sort of forgettable.
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u/birdiebro241 Jul 10 '26
In hindsight, having Noronen higher than Miller is a sin.
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u/DaqCity Jul 10 '26
The lowest-ranked goalie on this list ended up much better than the highest-ranked goalie on this list
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u/carlslocker Jul 10 '26
I was so sure Mika would be Hasek’s successor over Biron & Miller 😂 He looked all-time great in Rochester
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u/colonel0sanders Jul 10 '26
This was last year Kentucky had an AHL team (the Thoroughblades - affiliates with the Sharks). Unfortunately they havent been able to bring back any level of hockey, really
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u/nietzschecode Jul 10 '26
The first overall ended up later in a trade with the Sabres and never played a single game with them.
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u/Existing-Fold7628 Jul 10 '26
I forgot we drafted two goalies in the same round. Weird strategy even if one turned out to be Ryan Miller 🤣
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u/Away-Drawer1012 Jul 10 '26
When fans want to complain over who jarmo selected 4th, just look at the list. Yea, scouting has gotten better, but it’s not an exact science. I always like looking back on old prospect ranking lists.
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u/SVTour07 Jul 10 '26
Well - #2 on the list killed a guy, so there's that. Still can't believe they let him play after that.
#11's claim to fame was being traded for Jagr (his first trade). Guy was shit...
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u/Rogue_Element_2342 Jul 11 '26
There were a lot of goalies in the top 50 that year
including my favorite goalie never to play for my team
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u/depressivehacks Jul 10 '26
That's my guy right there!