from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

In much the same way that the upcoming 2013 draft class has been characterized as the year of Seth Jones/Nathan McKinnon/Jonathan Drouin, it was that way 10 years ago too – except the names at the top were Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal and Nathan Horton.

But it turned out to be so much more than just the Big Three.

The hometown Predators essentially built their defence for close to a decade around three players they landed that year – Ryan Suter, Shea Weber and Kevin Klein. The Anaheim Ducks drafted two cornerstones, Ryan Getzlaf at 19 and Corey Perry at 28, while the Philadelphia Flyers plucked Jeff Carter at 11 and Mike Richards at 24 and essentially helped put the finishing touches on the Los Angeles Kings’ 2012 Stanley Cup winner.

NHL draft gurus like to talk about draft years the way oenologists talk about wine vintages. Most of the hockey variety will say the 1979 draft, which was a double cohort because of the NHL-WHA merger was the deepest and most profoundly influential draft class in NHL history.

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