NHL Draft: Evaluate Your Team's Top-10-Selections

How good is your team when the scouting staff gets a chance at a top-10 pick? This data viz allows exploration and comparison of all NHL team's drafting performance in the top-10. Drill down by year and click to view the players selected.

How to read the graph? The bottom axis represents the number of selections in the top-10, and the vertical axis represents the average number of games played by the players selected. The size of the circle represents the total number of games played.

Generally, the top-left quadrant shows teams with few selections but big impact. This is excellent. Bottom left, shows teams also with few selections, but with poor outcomes. As you go to the right with more selections, the higher the team (greater average games played per pick) the better performance. These teams got more "kicks at the can", and should have selected some good players.

Lastly, anybody who knows anything about sports, knows that "games played" is not a good indicator of performance. But anybody that knows anything about analysis, knows that it is an indicator; which allows for some measurement for further scrutiny. On the extremes of this chart, fans will be happy or angry. Without much debate; the Blues are "winners" with a mere 2 selections- both bonafide NHLers, whereas the Rangers, clear "losers" with 6 selections in the top-10, and little to show for it. Select multiple years to set your own research parameters.

Enjoy the viz! Please comment and/or debate on twitter.

(Graph Images)