NY Islanders: The 5 best players selected with the 49th pick since 2000

5. Ryan Lindgren

The 49th overall pick in 2016, Ryan Lindgren is a defensive defenseman who has played over 250 NHL games at the age of 25. He was drafted by Boston and traded to the Rangers in 2018 as part of a package for Rick Nash. He doesn't score much - only 7 career goals (!!!) and 63 points - but he's a tough, hard-to-play-against guy who kills penalties and isn't afraid to be physical, with183 career penalty minutes.

257 NHL games is nothing to sneeze at, and I certainly wouldn't mind if the Islanders get a serviceable defensive defenseman out of this pick. But the list gets more impressive from here, with players who have long, impressive NHL careers.

4. Carl Soderberg

It took Carl Soderberg, the 49th overall pick in 2004, a long time to make it to the NHL. He spent many years in Sweden, playing for his hometown club Malmö, and dealt with a significant injury that left him legally blind in his left eye. But when he eventually came to North America, he settled in quickly, with 48 points in 73 games for Boston. He would put up similar numbers for the rest of his career, finishing with 110 goals and 187 assists, for 297 points, in 597 games, which is equivalent to 15 goals and 41 points per 82 games.

After the 2021 season, he returned to Sweden to captain his old team, and still plays there to this day. It's difficult to rank him over the other three players on this list, because he really didn't play enough games, but Soderberg was a good player pretty much the whole time he was in North America. The Islanders would be happy to get a consistent 40-point-per-season center with this pick.

3. Mike Cammallieri

Just barely beating out our (totally arbitrary) cutoff of 2000, Mike Cammallieri, the 49th overall pick in 2001, was a very good player. He played over 900 NHL games, scoring 294 goals and 348 assists for 642 points. He was consistently good from the ages of 23 to 35, averaging at least 0.7 points per game eight times.

Of his entire draft class, he scored the third-most goals, behind only Ilya Kovalchuk and Jason Spezza. He had the fifth-most points, behind Spezza, Kovalchuk, Jason Pominville, and Mikko Koivu. And he did it in 906 games, tied for 9th among the 2001 draft class. He's not a Hall of Famer, but he had a long and successful career.

2. Roope Hintz

He's only 26, but Roope Hintz, the 49th overall pick in 2015, already looks like one of the biggest steals of a draft which had plenty of steals. He made his NHL debut at 22, and wasn't an immediate star (no pun intended), scoring 22 points in 58 games in 2018-19 and then 33 points in 60 games. Those are, of course, pretty good seasons, especially for a 23-year-old, but not enough to have him this high on this list.

And then... he found another level. In the last three seasons, he has 89 goals and 101 assists, for 190 points in 194 games. He scored 37 goals this year, more than Sebastian Aho (the Carolina one), John Tavares, Brock Nelson, and Steven Stamkos. In the past three years combined, he's 21st in the NHL in goals per game. He's become one of the best goalscorers in the league. And he's only 26.

1. Shea Weber

This is pretty much the best case scenario. Shea Weber, the 49th overall pick in 2003, has had a hugely impressive career. He's played over 1000 NHL games, and scored 224 goals and 365 assists for 589 points, as a defenseman. He never won a Norris, but finished top four in Norris voting five times. He was named a first-team all star twice, and made the second team twice more. There's a decent chance he ends up in the Hall of Fame someday.

When Lou Lamoriello announces the Islanders' selection on Thursday (the first round is Wednesday, but the rest of the draft will be Thursday), it's smart to be cautious. The player he picks will probably turn out to be a fringe NHLer who nobody but die-hard Islanders fans will remember.

But maybe, just maybe, he'll be the next Shea Weber.