The first overall picks from the 1970’s NHL Amateur Drafts were a pretty impressive bunch. It was the first full decade where the draft actually meant something.
All ten players went on to play anywhere from decent to great careers in the National Hockey League. Three made an immediate impact, winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year. Five played over 1,000 regular season games during their careers. Three are enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
But, were they that much more of a prize than those that were drafted immediately after them? For fun, we take the top four picks from each of the ten drafts in the 1970’s, separate the players into groups by draft position and compare. It’s certainly not scientific. It certainly doesn’t have any affect on today’s highly sophisticated draft process. But, the results are quite interesting.
But first, a video look at those 1st overall picks…
1970’s NHL Amateur Draft: 1st Overall Picks
This is the sixth addition to our newly created YouTube Channel. We’ve been a bit slow out of the gate but the plan is to create three or four of these short hockey history videos each week.
If you like what you see, please give it a ‘Thumb’s Up’ in YouTube. Have a favourite player among those ten top picks? Let us know in the comments. And… we would really appreciate if you’d consider subscribing to the channel!
Comparing 1st Through 4th Picks
Grouping the players into ‘teams’ based on their draft position, we’ve added together their career NHL regular season stats for some interesting numbers.
| Group | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM |
| 1st overall | 9115 | 2619 | 4809 | 7428 | 8375 |
| 2nd overall | 7204 | 2324 | 3451 | 5775 | 7312 |
| 3rd overall | 6767 | 1833 | 2395 | 4228 | 5584 |
| 4th overall | 7058 | 2666 | 2854 | 5520 | 5522 |
Looking at the first through third spots, things go as expected. The first round picks play more games, score more goals and assist on many more goals for a very large margin in total points. Interestingly, they are also the most penalized.
But, things don’t go as expected when it comes to the group of fourth overall picks. They have more games played, more goals, more assists and more points than the players picked third overall. In fact, they have more goals than the second overall picks.
The biggie comes when comparing the total goals of the fourth overall picks against the first overall selections. It’s a slim margin but team 4th takes the prize as the highest scoring group.
Why? Two players. Mike Gartner and Lanny McDonald account for over 1,200 of the goals. Add into the mix Steve Shutt, Rick MacLeish and Clark Gillies and you have some of the top goal scorers of the era.
Of course, Team 1st was by far the best play makers with nearly 2,000 more assists. If you look below at the breakdown of the ‘teams’, the 2nd overall picks are really a lackluster group, if not for the numbers of Marcel Dionne.
Draft Position ‘Team’ Numbers
Here’s a look at just who made up these groups. Players are listed in order from 1970 to 1979…
1st Overall Picks
| PLAYER | TEAM | GM | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Gilbert Perreault | Buffalo | 1191 | 512 | 814 | 1326 | 500 |
| Guy Lafleur | Montreal | 1127 | 560 | 793 | 1353 | 399 |
| Billy Harris | NY Islanders | 897 | 231 | 327 | 558 | 394 |
| Denis Potvin | NY Islanders | 1060 | 310 | 742 | 1052 | 1356 |
| Greg Joly | Washington | 365 | 21 | 76 | 97 | 250 |
| Mel Bridgman | Philadelphia | 977 | 252 | 449 | 701 | 1625 |
| Rick Green | Washington | 845 | 43 | 220 | 263 | 588 |
| Dale McCourt | Detroit | 532 | 194 | 284 | 478 | 124 |
| Bobby Smith | Minnesota | 1077 | 357 | 679 | 1036 | 915 |
| Rob Ramage | Colorado | 1044 | 139 | 425 | 564 | 2224 |
2nd Overall Picks
| PLAYER | TEAM | GM | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Dale Tallon | Vancouver | 642 | 98 | 238 | 336 | 568 |
| Marcel Dionne | Detroit | 1348 | 731 | 1040 | 1771 | 600 |
| Jacques Richard | Atlanta | 556 | 160 | 187 | 347 | 307 |
| Tom Lysiak | Atlanta | 919 | 292 | 551 | 843 | 569 |
| Wilf Paiement | Kansas City | 946 | 356 | 458 | 814 | 1757 |
| Barry Dean | Kansas City | 165 | 25 | 56 | 81 | 146 |
| Blair Chapman | Pittsburgh | 402 | 106 | 125 | 231 | 158 |
| Barry Beck | Colorado | 615 | 104 | 251 | 355 | 1016 |
| Ryan Walter | Washington | 1003 | 264 | 382 | 646 | 946 |
| Perry Turnbull | St. Louis | 608 | 188 | 163 | 351 | 1245 |
3rd Overall Picks
| PLAYER | TEAM | GM | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Reggie Leach | Boston | 934 | 381 | 285 | 666 | 387 |
| Jocelyn Guevremont | Vancouver | 571 | 84 | 223 | 307 | 319 |
| Don Lever | Vancouver | 1020 | 313 | 367 | 680 | 593 |
| Dennis Ververgaert | Vancouver | 583 | 176 | 216 | 392 | 247 |
| Rick Hampton | California | 337 | 59 | 113 | 172 | 147 |
| Ralph Klassen | California | 497 | 52 | 93 | 145 | 120 |
| Glen Sharpley | Minnesota | 389 | 117 | 161 | 278 | 199 |
| Robert Picard | Washington | 899 | 104 | 319 | 423 | 1025 |
| Wayne Babych | St. Louis | 519 | 192 | 246 | 438 | 498 |
| Mike Foligno | Detroit | 1018 | 355 | 372 | 727 | 2049 |
4th Overall Picks
| PLAYER | TEAM | GM | G | A | PTS | PIM |
| Rick MacLeish | Boston | 846 | 349 | 410 | 759 | 434 |
| Gene Carr | St. Louis | 465 | 79 | 136 | 215 | 365 |
| Steve Shutt | Montreal | 930 | 424 | 393 | 817 | 410 |
| Lanny McDonald | Toronto | 1111 | 500 | 506 | 1006 | 899 |
| Clark Gillies | NY Islanders | 958 | 319 | 378 | 697 | 1023 |
| Bryan Maxwell | Minnesota | 331 | 18 | 77 | 95 | 745 |
| Fred Williams | Detroit | 44 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 10 |
| Jere Gillis | Vancouver | 386 | 78 | 95 | 173 | 230 |
| Bill Derlago | Vancouver | 555 | 189 | 227 | 416 | 247 |
| Mike Gartner | Washington | 1432 | 708 | 627 | 1335 | 1159 |