Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
2003 NHL entry draft
41st annual meeting of National Hockey League franchises to select newly eligible players From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
The 2003 NHL entry draft was the 41st entry draft for the National Hockey League. It was held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 21 and 22, 2003.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was selected first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was only the third time a goaltender was selected first overall in the draft, after Michel Plasse in 1968 and Rick DiPietro in 2000. Eric Staal was selected second by the Carolina Hurricanes, and Nathan Horton was the third selection by the Florida Panthers.
Many analysts rate this draft as having one of the most talented groups of players, some say even better than the 1979 NHL draft.[1][2][3][4][5] Every first-round pick went on to play in a regular season NHL game. Among those, two played only a handful of games: Hugh Jessiman (2 games) and Shawn Belle (20). All other first round picks had much more substantial NHL careers: the third-fewest games was Marc-Antoine Pouliot with 192. Fleury, Staal, Horton, Nikolay Zherdev, and Patrice Bergeron all became NHL regulars immediately after they were drafted. Milan Michalek was expected to do the same, and was selected for the San Jose Sharks' NHL roster after training camp, but suffered a serious knee injury that ruled him out for the season. All of the top ten selections played at least nine games in the NHL in the 2005–06 season. Calgary Flames' first round selection Dion Phaneuf scored 20 goals in his rookie campaign, becoming the third defenceman to do so, after Brian Leetch and Barry Beck. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter (Flyers), Zach Parise (Devils), Ryan Getzlaf (Ducks), and Eric Staal (Hurricanes) all led their teams in scoring in the 2007–08 regular season, and Dustin Brown (Kings) went on to break the record for most Stanley Cups won by an American team captain (two, in 2012 and 2014).
Later rounds of the draft also featured more players than usual that went on to have substantial NHL careers. These included Shea Weber (49th overall pick), Corey Crawford (52nd), David Backes (62nd), Jimmy Howard (64th), Clarke MacArthur (74th), Jan Hejda (106th), Paul Bissonnette (121st), Kyle Quincey (132nd), Lee Stempniak (148th), Nigel Dawes (149th), Marc Methot (168th), Nate Thompson (183rd), Drew Miller (186th), Joe Pavelski (205th), Kyle Brodziak (214th), Tobias Enstrom (239th), Dustin Byfuglien (245th), Shane O'Brien (250th), Matt Moulson (263rd), Jaroslav Halak (271st), David Jones (288th), and Brian Elliott (291st).
The Florida Panthers attempted to draft Alexander Ovechkin (the first overall pick in the 2004 NHL entry draft), who was born September 17, 1985 - two days later than the cutoff for the 2003 draft - four times during the draft (including a formal submission in writing in the ninth round), arguing that if not due to leap years, he would have been born four days earlier, but were denied.[6][7]
As of 2025, the remaining active players in the NHL from this draft are Brent Burns, Corey Perry, and Ryan Suter.
Remove ads
Draft day trades
The following trades were made on the day of the draft:
- The Pittsburgh Penguins traded the third overall pick (Nathan Horton), the 55th pick (Stefan Meyer), and Mikael Samuelsson to the Florida Panthers for the first overall pick (Marc-André Fleury) and the 73rd pick (Daniel Carcillo)[8][9]
- The St. Louis Blues traded Cory Stillman to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 62nd pick (David Backes).
- The New Jersey Devils traded Mike Danton and the 101st pick (Konstantin Zakharov) to the St. Louis Blues for the 93rd pick (Ivan Khomutov).
- The Chicago Blackhawks traded Andrei Nikolishin to the Colorado Avalanche for the 120th pick (Mitch Maunu)
- The St. Louis Blues traded Tyson Nash to the Phoenix Coyotes for the 148th pick (Lee Stempniak)
Remove ads
Final central scouting rankings
Skaters
Goaltenders
Remove ads
Selections by round
| = NHL All-Star team · | = NHL All-Star[a] · | = NHL All-Star[a] and NHL All-Star team · | = Hall of Famers |
Round one
Round two
Round three
Round four
Round five
Round six
Round seven
Round eight
Round nine
Remove ads
Draftees based on nationality
Remove ads
See also
Notes
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads