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As part of our draft coverage, like I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’d be looking at a lot more than just some of the prospects available this year.

Wanted to take a quick peek back at past draft years and rehash some of the winners, losers, surprises and busts.

First draft we’ll loot at… Pat Merrill and the ‘02 draft class.

In 2002, the first overall pick was always kinda up in the air. Unlike some years when you knew someone like John Grant (1999), Gavin Prout (2001) or Brodie Merrill (2005) was gonna be the automatic first guy steppin’ up to the podium, ‘02 had probably about five or six names thrown around as a possible first overall selections.

It was about 24 hours before the draft kicked off that the Rock let it leak a bit that Merrill was gonna be their man, while the other guy amassing a lotta hype leading up to that day was Jon Harasym, who’d just won the Mann Cup with Brampton days earlier. Funny that now Merrill is no longer in a Rock sweater and Harasym is, but…

Anyways, just to break it down for you… in every draft we look at, we’ll look at what team benefited the most from that draft year, what team wasted their day the most, what early round pick was the biggest bust and who the best gem in the later rounds was. On top of that, we’ll also breakdown what current players actually still play in the league (full-time) and what players have remained with their club since the day they were drafted. That last info can be found in a table below, right after all the text.

So, with that said, here we go…

Biggest Winner
This one is kinda weird, cuz the team that benefited the most from the ‘02 draft class didn’t even exist at the time, but spent the last few years sifting through and trading for names from the ‘02 class, picking up ball players that play a pretty huge role on their current roster. The team? The Minnesota Swarm. The Swarm would not officially enter the Entry Draft until 2004 when they picked up Ryder Bateman. Anyways, Minny currently owns five players from that draft year; Chad Culp, Nick Patterson, Sean Pollock, Riley Kemp and Noah Talbot. Outside of Kemp, who was sidelined this past year due to an injury but is still very much part of the Swarm’s future, all those guys are full-time ballers for Minnesota. Hell, they’re easily considered to be part of the club’s nucleus, let alone pracky roster guys. Not bad for a team that wasn’t even on the map yet.

Biggest Loser (and Bust)
This one is probably a toss up between Columbus and Toronto. Both had a slew of early picks, and although ‘02 was considered a fairly weak draft year, neither really capitalized all that well considering they had a combined seven picks in the first round alone.

Toronto picked up Merrill, Brian Croswell, Johnny McLellan, Bobby McBride (yes, that same Bobby McBride), Garret Kikot, Scott Stapleford, Craig Seibel, Mark Craig, Tom Montour, Matt Marchildon and Brian LaMastro. Obviously, none of those guys are currently with the club. The only one that really was an impact player for the Rock was Merrill, who the team left off the leash during last year’s Boston Expansion Draft. Some decent pickups in there, but none ever really ever panned out to more than a handful of games played in a Rock sweater.

And although Columbus appeared to have made some pretty educated picks on the day, not many panned out all that well either, including Rory Glaves, who shortly after being drafted revealed that he’d be accepting a scholarship from Hartford U and turning down a gig with Columbus. Hard to call him a bust since I don’t think he ever stepped foot on an NLL rug, but the biggest waste of a pick was when the Landsharks called Steve Dusseau’s name as the 12th overall pick in the draft. Dusseau never appeared to even be interested in a career in pro box, let alone one with his hometown Landsharks. Although teams over the years often gamble on an unknown American stud that might be interested in trying pro box, very rarely, if ever, has such a high pick been wasted on a player that fits that bill.

Biggest Surprise
Although someone like Pollock jumps out at you as the most high profile late round pick (40th overall), the guy that I’ve always been pretty impressed with is Tom Ethington, the 81st name called out and one of only four players from that draft year that are still with the same club that drafted them (checkout the table below). Ethington was a Denver U product whose size and athleticism impressed Mammoth GM Steve Govett at the time. He’s one (of the first no less) of a growing class of lesser known NCAA Yanks that have committed to the box game and are now serious ballers in the NLL. Ethington has since logged in 63 total games for the Mammoth and even grabbed a bronze medal for the US at last summer’s World Indoor finals. He’s a guy that I can promise you no one outside of Govett even had scribbled down as a maybe and although other GM’s have picked up players similar to Ethington’s situation, few if any have worked out as well as Tom has over the years. That’s not only decent fishing, but damn good development behind the scenes too.

In hindsight, who would you have taken first overall? Hit the boards to rehash the 2002 NLL Entry Draft and stay dialed in over the summer as we breakdown every draft from 2002 on.

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