A Brief History of the 12th Overall Pick in the NHL Entry Draft

The NHL Entry Draft is a crapshoot.

Sure, there are things teams can do to raise their odds. But at the end of the day, no matter where you draft and which prospect you select, there are so many variables in play that the only guarantee you receive is that there isn’t one. This fact combined with New York Rangers' drafting history contribute to a volatile NHL Draft almost every year.

In this upcoming draft, the Rangers hold the 12th overall pick. Whether they make that pick or decide to send it to the Pittsburgh Penguins and keep next year's first round pick, the Rangers have a history with drafting 12th overall, and the results have ranged from decent to pretty terrible. Before we delve into their history, let’s examine some recent successes and failures associated with the 12th overall pick.

Zeev Buium

2024 12th Overall Pick

This is a bit too recent to call a win, but I wanted to highlight the level of talent that can be available at 12th overall, and Buium is the perfect example of that. He’s a dynamic, smooth-skating defenseman who is likely bound for a long-term successful NHL career with the Minnesota Wild. It was Buium and the rest of his Denver University team that shut down Gabe Perreault and his high-flying Boston College teammates not once, but twice, in the NCAA Frozen Four tournament.

Matt Boldy

2019 12th Overall Pick

Boldy just finished his third full season in the NHL and scored 73 points. His finesse, skill level, and bruising physical frame make him a rare breed. Minnesota snagging him at 12th overall is grand larceny, and it hurts Rangers fans even more when you remember we drafted Kaapo Kakko ten spots earlier.  

Martin Necas

2017 12th Overall Pick

Despite switching teams in the middle of the season, Necas accumulated an impressive 83 points this past season. The speedy, versatile forward was emerging as a prominent piece in Carolina before joining Nathan MacKinnon’s line in Colorado. And, for what it’s worth, he’s one of the very few skaters who can match the pace at which MacKinnon plays.

Denis Gurianov

2015 12th Overall Pick

Gurianov was viewed as one of the prospects with the highest ceiling in his draft year. He was a multi-tool player capable of going through you or around you to score a goal. However, despite all the skill in the world, Gurianov’s best season in the NHL was a 31-point campaign in 2021-22. He has been traded multiple times and now plays in the KHL less than a decade after being drafted.

Calvin de Haan

2009 12th Overall Pick

Rangers fans might remember this guy. The Islanders used their 12th overall pick on him in 2009, most likely due to the level of offense he exhibited in the OHL. Long story short, while de Haan wasn’t exactly a bust, his most productive season in the NHL to date was the 25 points he recorded in 2016-17, so he has fallen short of offensive expectations. However, de Haan is a defenseman, so judging him purely by his offensive production is disingenuous. His possession metrics throughout his career have fluctuated, often dictated by the team he played for. Playing almost 700 games in the NHL is a successful career for any player. Still, there’s a reason he became a journeyman and played for six different franchises, primarily due to the lack of any dynamic or elite trait.

Rangers 12th Overall Draft History

Now that we've highlighted some recent and semi-recent examples of drafting at 12th overall, let’s review the Rangers’ history selecting a player in that spot. Not including this season, the Rangers have made the 12th overall pick in the draft five times.

Pierre Jarry

1969 12th Overall Pick

Jarry joined the Rangers in 1970-71 and was traded to Toronto in the middle of the season. He bounced around different leagues in North America before retiring in 1978 after playing his final year with the Edmonton Oilers.

Wayne Dillon

1975 12th Overall Pick

Dillon was a WHA standout, scoring 95 points with the Toronto Toros the year the Rangers drafted him into the NHL. He played three seasons for the Rangers, achieving a career-high 46 points in his second season with the team. He retired a few years later due to suffering multiple injuries.

Dave Gagner

1983 12th Overall Pick

Gagner only lasted three seasons with the Rangers before he was traded to the Minnesota North Stars in 1987. The players received in return did not have anywhere near the success Gagner eventually found. He solidified his career with Minnesota, scoring 78 points in his first full season with his new team. He moved to Dallas with the organization in 1993 and lasted another couple of years there. He was then traded multiple times while still putting up respectable numbers along the way. Fun fact: He was part of the package sent to Vancouver that brought Pavel Bure to the Florida Panthers.

Hugh Jessiman

2003 12th Overall Pick

Otherwise known as “Huge Specimen,” this pick was a catastrophic failure. It stands out as one of my first memorable moments of severe disappointment with this organization. It especially hurts due to all the talent in the 2003 Draft the Rangers overlooked, especially Zach Parise going to their Hudson River rivals just five picks later. (Other first round players taken after Jessiman that year? Just Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Ryan Kessler, and Corey Perry.)

An off-the-board selection, Jessiman wasn’t all smoke during his draft year, scoring 47 points in his freshman season for Dartmouth College, but that’s about as far as the magic went. Jessiman was the first player born in New York City to be drafted by the Rangers, so part of the reasoning was likely to create a feel-good story to try and appease frustrated fans who had just endured the majority of the dark ages. Jessiman struggled with the Hartford Wolf Pack and was demoted to the ECHL. He eventually stuck in the AHL, but that was about as far as he would get with the Rangers before being traded to Nashville for future considerations. He did make his NHL debut with the Florida Panthers, playing two games for the team in 2010-11. He registered two shots on goal, five penalty minutes, and averaged seven minutes of ice time across those two games.

Marc Staal

2005 12th Overall Pick

At the time the Rangers were beginning to rise from the basement of the NHL, they needed a draft success. That's when Marc Staal, along with his family pedigree, came into the picture. He was everything the team needed, and it seemed the sky was the limit for the young defenseman. Then tragedy struck, not once but several times, altering Staal’s career.

Initially, he suffered a concussion during his fourth season at the hands of his older brother, Eric. Staal’s offensive production had steadily increased, and his confidence in joining the rush became increasingly noticeable. After this concussion, he was never the same player, even after missing the first half of the subsequent season due to post-concussion symptoms. In the shortened season of 2012-13, Staal faced another setback when a deflected slap shot from Kimmo Timonen struck him in the eye, causing him to miss the remainder of the season. He returned the following year wearing a visor.

Staal played just under 900 games for the Blueshirts and was a crucial part of several deep postseason runs. He was a warrior on the ice and leaned into his defensive play, punishing top players for every inch of ice, especially in critical playoff games.

Ryan McDonagh

2007 12th Overall Pick

OK, this wasn’t technically a Rangers' draft pick, but they acquired his rights before he played a single minute in the NHL, so I'm counting it. If this pick had been in the Rangers' hands, instead of McDonagh they likely would have drafted Calgary Hitmen legend Alex Plante. Who is that, you may ask? To which I answer, exactly.

In arguably the greatest Rangers trade in history, McDonagh arrived and found success with the Blueshirts almost immediately. The smooth-skating, two-way defenseman quickly climbed the ranks and logged heavy minutes for the team while playing his way into a leadership role, eventually being named captain. The rest is history, as he was unceremoniously shipped out to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade that may be considered as awful as the one that brought him to New York City is celebrated as great. McDonagh’s career continued to thrive in Florida, where he helped Lightning capture the Stanley Cup twice.