Just for kicks, here's a look back at the players taken by the Avalanche in the first round going back to 1995 (when the team moved to Denver). Here's the Avalanche's picks with their NHL output to date along with notable players taken soon after our player was taken.
| Year | Rnd | Ov | Player | Amateur Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | Notables (Overall) | |
| 2007 | 1 | 14 | Kevin Shattenkirk | USA U-18 (USDP) | David Perron (26) | |||||||
| 2006 | 1 | 18 | Chris Stewart | Kingston (OHL) | 53 | 11 | 8 | 19 | -18 | 54 | Claude Giroux (22) | |
| 2004 | 1 | 21 | Wojtek Wolski | Brampton | 241 | 56 | 90 | 146 | -6 | 60 | Mike Green (29) | |
| 2002 | 1 | 28 | Jonas Johansson | HV 71 Jonkoping Jr. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Jim Slater (30) | |
| 2000 | 1 | 14 | Vaclav Nedorost | Budejovice | 99 | 10 | 10 | 20 | -2 | 34 | Alexander Frolov (20) | |
| 1999 | 1 | 25 | Mikhail Kuleshov | Cherepovets | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | Martin Havlat (26) | |
| 1998 | 1 | 12 | Alex Tanguay | Halifax | 659 | 193 | 387 | 580 | 157 | 345 | Simon Gagne (22) | |
| 1998 | 1 | 17 | Martin Skoula | Barrie | 724 | 41 | 144 | 185 | 13 | 318 | Christian Backman (24) | |
| 1998 | 1 | 19 | Robyn Regehr | Kamloops | 666 | 25 | 104 | 129 | 26 | 664 | Jiri Fischer (25) | |
| 1998 | 1 | 20 | Scott Parker | Kelowna | 308 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 4 | 699 | Scott Gomez (27) | |
| 1997 | 1 | 26 | Kevin Grimes | Kingston | Ben Clymer (27) | |||||||
| 1996 | 1 | 25 | Peter Ratchuk | Shat.-St. Mary's (High-MN) | 32 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 10 | Cory Sarich (27) | |
| 1995 | 1 | 25 | Marc Denis | Chicoutimi | 349 | 112 | 179 | 31 | 3.02 | 0.902 | Jan Havlac (28) |
1998 stands out as far as 1st rounders go; the Avs had 4 picks (this was the Lecavalier draft) and connected with all four. Other than that, however, it's rather bleak as Marc Denis and Wojtek Wolski are the only two players not taken in that deep '98 draft to make it 100 NHL games. It's particularly painful to see the failure of Mikhail Kuleshov, as he was taken immediately before Martin Havlat.