The 2013 NHL Entry Draft was weird. Honestly, if you look back at the scouting reports from that summer in Newark, New Jersey, nobody really knew what they were looking at. Everyone knew Nathan MacKinnon was good. They knew Seth Jones was the "safe" pick. But the sheer depth? The way the middle rounds would eventually produce superstars while the top five got scrambled? Nobody saw that coming.
It’s been over a decade. Usually, by now, a draft class has faded into the background. Not this one. The 2013 NHL Entry Draft is basically the skeleton that holds up the current competitive landscape of the league. You have Conn Smythe winners, perennial All-Stars, and some of the most frustrating "what ifs" in modern hockey history all packed into those seven rounds at the Prudential Center.
MacKinnon and the Top Pick Chaos
Nathan MacKinnon went first overall to the Colorado Avalanche. That sounds like a no-brainer now, right? He’s a terrifying force of nature who skates like he’s trying to break the ice. But leading up to that day, it wasn't a lock. Seth Jones was the consensus top-ranked North American skater for a huge chunk of the season. Then there was Jonathan Drouin, MacKinnon’s teammate in Halifax, who some scouts swore had a higher offensive ceiling.
Florida picked second. They took Aleksander Barkov. At the time, it felt like a bit of a reach to some North American fans who hadn't seen much of the big Finn. Look at him now. He’s arguably the best two-way center on the planet and the captain of a Stanley Cup champion. Florida won that pick. They didn't just win it; they built an entire franchise identity around it.
👉 See also: Big Ten Championship Odds: What Most People Get Wrong About the 2026 Race
Tampa Bay took Drouin at third. This is where the draft starts to show its teeth. Drouin was electric, but things just never clicked in Tampa. He eventually got moved for Mikhail Sergachev—another massive piece of a championship puzzle—but Drouin himself became the poster child for how hard it is to project teenage dominance into NHL consistency. Then you have Seth Jones falling to fourth. Nashville grabbed him, eventually flipped him for Ryan Johansen, and the ripples of that trade are still felt in the Central Division.
The Mid-First Round Gold Mine
If you weren't picking in the top three, you weren't necessarily losing out. This is the part people get wrong about the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. They think it was top-heavy. It wasn't. It was deep in a way that feels unfair to the teams picking in 2012 or 2014.
Take Bo Horvat at ninth overall. Or Max Domi at twelfth. Even Josh Morrissey going 13th to Winnipeg—that’s a franchise defenseman found outside the top ten. But the real "holy crap" moment comes at number 16. The Buffalo Sabres took Nikita Zadorov. Okay, fine. But three picks later? The Columbus Blue Jackets took Kerby Rychel.
Wait. I skipped someone.
Shea Theodore went 26th. Ryan Pulock went 15th. These are guys who play 22 minutes a night today. But the absolute theft of the first round happened at pick 14. The Dallas Stars took Jason Dickinson, which was fine, but the real story is who was left on the board. Look at Anthony Mantha (20th) or even André Burakovsky (23rd). The 2013 class was littered with "middle-six" guys who turned into elite secondary scorers.
The Darnell Nurse Factor
Edmonton took Darnell Nurse at seventh. People love to argue about Nurse's contract today, but in the context of that draft, he was exactly what teams wanted: a mean, mobile, high-minute defender. He’s played over 600 games. When you look at the names around him—Elias Lindholm at fifth and Sean Monahan at sixth—you see a trend. The 2013 NHL Entry Draft produced players with incredible longevity. These guys don't just play; they eat minutes.
Where the Real Stars Were Hiding
If the first round was about building a foundation, the later rounds were about finding the crown jewels. You kinda expect the first round to work out. You don't expect the third round to change your life.
The 2013 NHL Entry Draft produced Jake Guentzel in the third round (77th overall). Think about that. A guy who has been a consistent 30-40 goal scorer and a playoff legend was passed over twice by every single team. The Pittsburgh Penguins found a partner for Sidney Crosby in the middle of a Sunday afternoon in Jersey.
It gets crazier.
- Brett Pesce: 3rd round, 66th overall.
- Juuse Saros: 4th round, 99th overall.
- Tyler Bertuzzi: 2nd round, 58th overall.
Nashville getting Juuse Saros in the fourth round is basically cheating. He's a Vezina-caliber goalie who was overlooked because he's short by NHL standards. At 5'11", teams were scared. Nashville wasn't. Now he's their bedrock. This draft taught the league that the "ideal" frame for a goalie might be less important than lateral quickness and pure competitive drive.
The "What Happened?" Files
Not every story from the 2013 NHL Entry Draft is a success story. You have to talk about Valeri Nichushkin. He was the "boom or bust" prospect of the year. Taken 10th by Dallas, he famously went through a goal drought so long it became a national meme. He literally didn't score for an entire season.
Then he went to Colorado.
He reinvented himself as a puck-protection monster and became essential to their 2022 Cup run. His career is a lesson in patience—and a lesson in how the environment a player is drafted into matters just as much as their talent.
Then there’s Hunter Shinkaruk. Taken 24th by Vancouver. He was a scoring machine in junior. He had the "it" factor. But his game just never translated to the pro level. He’s one of the few first-rounders from this year who didn't become a regular NHLer. It’s a reminder that even in a "loaded" draft, the margin for error is razor-thin.
Why Central Scouting Got It (Mostly) Right
The 2013 NHL Entry Draft was the year the analytics movement really started to poke its head above the surface. Teams were starting to look more at puck possession metrics in junior hockey rather than just raw point totals. This shifted the board. Guys like Lindholm and Barkov, who were playing against men in Europe, were valued higher than the "high-flying" kids in the CHL.
The Long-Term Impact on Today's Salaries
Because so many players from the 2013 NHL Entry Draft became stars at the same time, they all hit their big "bridge" and "long-term" contracts in a cluster. This draft class is responsible for a huge chunk of the NHL's current salary cap distribution.
MacKinnon’s second contract was a bargain, which allowed Colorado to build a powerhouse. Barkov’s eight-year deal basically set the market for elite centers. When you talk about the "middle class" of the NHL being squeezed out, it’s partly because the 2013 class is so good that they’ve taken up all the oxygen (and the cap space).
The Legacy of the 2013 Class
When you look at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft now, you don't just see a list of names. You see the backbone of the league. You see the shift toward speed and skill over size, even though big guys like Nurse and Zadorov still found their place.
It was the year the "small, skilled winger" started to gain real respect. It was the year that European scouting proved it was just as reliable as the Canadian pipeline. Most importantly, it was the year that gave us Nathan MacKinnon, a player who redefined what it means to be a "generational" talent without the same hype that followed McDavid or Crosby.
Real Actions for Fans and Collectors
If you're looking at this draft from a hobbyist or a deep-stats perspective, there are a few things you should actually do.
First, stop looking at the first-round order as a definitive ranking of who is "better." In the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, the value was in the pivots. Look at how many of these players changed teams and immediately made those teams better. If you're into sports cards or memorabilia, the 2013 "Young Guns" class is one of the most stable investments because these players aren't "prospects" anymore—they are the establishment.
Second, use this draft as a case study for why you shouldn't give up on "busts" too early. Nichushkin is the prime example. Sometimes a player just needs a change of scenery or a different role to unlock what the scouts saw back in 2013.
Lastly, pay attention to the remaining active players. We are entering the "veteran" phase for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft class. These guys are no longer the young guns; they are the leaders. Watching how MacKinnon, Barkov, and Lindholm adapt their games as they hit their 30s will tell us a lot about the next decade of hockey.
The 2013 NHL Entry Draft isn't just history. It's the current state of the game. Every time Barkov lifts a stick or MacKinnon hits the neutral zone at light speed, you're seeing the results of those few hours in Newark more than ten years ago.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Compare Career Stats: Use a tool like HockeyDB to compare the "Points Per Game" of the top 10 versus the bottom 10 of the first round in 2013; you’ll find the gap is smaller than almost any other year.
- Trade Tree Deep Dive: Look up the Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen trade tree. It’s one of the most complex and impactful sequences of transactions sparked by this draft.
- Scouting Evolution: Research the 2013 scouting reports on Aleksander Barkov to see how his defensive game was undervalued compared to his offensive output at the time.