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

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.