Kaspar On Waivers/1st Round Review

In case you haven't heard, the Sharks put former 1st rounder Lukas Kaspar on waivers. There's not much to say about it other than Kaspar hasn't really been given much of an opportunity to do much of anything, so it seems rather strange that the team would have him start in the big leagues, only to get sent down to the AHL via waivers six games in.

While Kaspar hasn't exactly set the world on fire, he hasn't been a total disaster like, say, when Jeff Jillson tried to justify his first-round selection. He's made rookie mistakes and he's had one pretty sweet goal against the LA RudyKellys.

Well, since we're all pondering Kaspar's demise, let's take a quick look at who else the Sharks have drafted in the first round. San Jose has this reputation of being excellent drafters but when you look at the list, you see a bunch of good, not great players:

2005: Devin Setoguchi
2004: Lukas Kaspar
2003: Milan Michalek
2002: Mike Morris
2001: Marcel Goc
2000: Tero Maatta
1999: Jeff Jillson
1998: Brad Stuart
1997: Patrick Marleau
1996: Andrei Zyuzin

I think Michalek will peak at being a 70-point guy and Setoguchi's certainly got the hands and speed to be a 35-goal guy. Goc? Well, I suppose there's always a need for a reasonably reliable defensive fourth-line center. Brad Stuart's a solid defenseman but he didn't turn into the stud everyone anticipated while Andrei Zyuzin's waiver-wire fodder.

The exception here, of course, is Marleau, who can be somewhere between good and great depending on when you take a snapshot of his career. I don't think Marleau ever had the goods to be an Art Ross kind of guy but he's definitely turning into a more well-rounded and gritty player than I ever thought he'd be.