Since I am unemployed and I need a brain break and a break of the monotony of filling out applications, I decided to look into what was the best draft year in Avalanche history.  The 2009 draft class looks very promising  and we can only guess how good that class is going to be.  However, is it the best?  After the jump I will show the drafts per year, or the draftee's that made any sort of difference in the NHL.

2011- 2nd- Gabriel Landeskog, 11th- Duncan Siemens, 93rd- Joachim Nermark, 123rd- Garrett Meurs, 153rd- Gabriel Beaupre, 183rd- Dillon Donnelly-  Landy is an immediate impact, Siemens is very promising and a sure fire NHL'er, Nermark and Meurs has talent, but have to improve

2010- 17th Joey Hishon, 49th- Calvin Pickard, 71st- Michael Bournival, 95th- Steven Silas, 107th- Sami Aittokallio, 137th-Troy Rutkowski, 139th- Luke Walker, 197th- Luke Moffat- Hishon has the talent but has all of the question marks, personally I think will be a great NHL'er, Pickard and Aittokallio both look very promising goalies, Bournival was traded.  Silas and Rutkowski have talent but are not developing as anticipated. 

2009-3rd Matt Duchene, 33rd- Ryan O'Reilly, 49th- Stefan Elliot, 64th-Tyson Barrie, 124th- Kieran Millan, 154- Brandon Maxwell, 184- Gus Young-  Duchene is a developing star, Radar is one of the games best defensive players, and Elliot and Barrie are going to be great NHL'ers.  Millan and Maxwell are both very solid NCAA goalies and could suprise and compete for a AHL team next year.  So this class will have 4 really good NHL'ers.  Well done Pracey, well done.

I am going to start going with NHL experience or still top prospects.

2008- 50th- Cameron Gaunce, 140th- Mark Olver, 167th- Joel Chouinard, 170th- Jonos Holos. - Good Defense draft year.  Gaunce and Olver seem to be the most promising of the four.

2007- 14th- Kevin Shattenkirk. 45th- Colby Cohen, 49th Trevor Cann, 55th T.J Galiardi, 105th - Brad Malone, 113th- Kent Patterson, 135th- Paul Carey.-  Shatts is the lone NHL star potential but Gali and Malone seems to have NHL career potential.

2006- 18th- Chris Stewart, 81st- Mike Carmen-

2005- 34th- Ryan Stoa, 44th Paul Stastny, 47th Tom Fritsche, 88th- T.J. Hensick, 124th- Ray Macias, 168th- Justin Mercier, 222nd- Kyle Cumiskey,

2004- 21st- Wojtek Wolski, 55th- Victor Oreskovich, 184th- Derek Peltier, 239th- Brandon Yip

2003- 63rd- David Liffiton- 163rd- Brad Richardson, 288th- David Jones

2002- 61st- Johnny Boychuk, 129th- Tom Gilbert,

2001- 63rd- Peter Budaj, 144th Cody McCormik, 227th- Marek Svatos

2000- 14th- Vaclav Nederost, 47th- Jared Aulin, 88th- Kurt Sauer, 159th- J.M. Liles, 252nd- Darryl Bootland

After this point has to have played in at least 82 NHL games

1999- 93rd- Branko Radivojevic, 183rd- Riku Hahl, 212nd- Radim Vrbata, 240th- Jeff Finger

1998- 12th- Alex Tanguay, 17th- Martin Skoula, 19th- Robyn Regehr, 20th- Scott Parker, 53rd- Steve Moore- Steve Moore would have played more then69 games if he was not gooned, so I included him.

1997- 55th- Rick Berry, 78th- Ville Nieminen, 87th Brad Larsen, 161st- David Aebischer

1996- 79th- Mark Parrish, 146th Brian Willsie, 167th- Dan Hinote, 176th- Samuel Pahlsson

1995- 25th- Marc Denis, 81st- Tomi Kallio, 129th- Brent Johnson

Pre Avalanche Picks

1994- 12th- Wade Belak, 35th- Josef Marha, 72nd- Chris Drury, 87th- Milan Hejduk, 217th- Tim Thomas

1993- 10th- Jocelyn Thibault, 12th- Adam Deadmarsh, 179th- David Ling

1992- 4th- Todd Warriner, 52nd- Manny Fernandez, 96th- Steve Passmore, 220th- Anson Carter

1991- 1st- Eric Lindros, 24th- Rene Corbet, 68th- Dave Karpa, 103rd- Bill Lindsay, 156th- Janne Laukkanen

1990- 1st- Owen Nolan, 148th- Andrei Kovalenko, 158th- Alexander Karpovstev

1989- 1st- Matts Sundin, 22nd- Adam Foote, 43rd- Stephane Morin, 68th- Niklas Andersson

1988- 3rd- Curtis Leschyshyn, 24th- Stephan Fiset, 66th- Darin Kimble, 108th- Ed Ward, 129th- Valeri Kamensky, 213th- Alexi Gusarov, 234th Claude Lepointe

1987- 9th- Bryan Fogarty, 15th- Joe Sakic, 72nd- Kip Miller, 114th-Garth Snow

1986- 18th- Ken McRae, 81st- Ron Tugnutt

1985- 36th- Jason Lafreniere

1984- 36th- Jeff Brown, 57th- Steve Finn

1983- 52nd- Bruce Bell, 54th- Iiro Jarvi, 152nd- Tommy Albelin, 232nd- Bo Berglund,

1982- 13th- David Shaw, 34th- Paul Gillis, 55th- Mario Gosselin, 181st- Mike Hough

1981- 11th- Randy Moller, 74th- Clint Malarchuk, 116th- Mike Eagles,

1980- 24th- Normand Rochefort, 66th- Jay Miller, 87th- Basil McRae, 108th- Mark Kumpel

1979- 20th- Michel Goulet, 41st- Dale Hunter, 62nd- Lee Norwood, 83rd- Anton Stastny, 104th- Pierre Lacroix

So which draft year in franchise history was the best?