You still have to give the 1996 draft it's due over this one. That was worse. 1999 had plenty of busts in the 1st round, but 1996 has just one HHOFer that I can see and it's Chara.
1999 at least has ones like Sedin(s) and Zetterberg, most likely getting in the HHOF (although I am not sure I'd induct Daniel Sedin).
The thing is, at the time the 1999 Draft was thought to be a great, deep draft with lots of top end talent. No joke. But those 1st rounders and then some......
1st Stefan - Was thought to be a guy that would be a supreme playmaker
2nd Sedin (both) - It was common knowledge the best recipe was to not separate them
4th Brendl - His first NHL goal was a floater from center ice. He had 10 more after that, but everyone drooled over the 73 goals in his draft year
5th Connolly - I guess he was okay. But only decent.
6th Finley - This was the best goalie? It's true. He only played 4 NHL games though.
7th Beech - There was an entire article on him in the Hockey News about how he was the "safest" pick in the draft. 67 points in 198 NHL games isn't safe.
9th Lundmark - He was a sure thing
15th Kelman - Was often compared to Manny Malhotra. He never played an NHL game.
22nd Ouellet - The one French-Canadian goalie who did NOT translate well into the NHL. 12 games.
23rd McCarthy - For whatever reason he dropped to 23rd. At one point the way they talked about him was the way they talked about Drew Doughty.
24th Cereda - This was a strange time for the Leafs. They picked European players that busted at this time and ignored everything else.
31st Stephens - Best known for the guy who was once in the Esquire Watch commercials. Played 8 NHL games.
47th Keefe - Yes, THAT Keefe. Sheldon Keefe. A disciple of David Frost. One I still don't trust to this day especially with him now the new coach of Toronto Marlies. There are still unexplained things with what he did............well, Google it. Either way, all the talent in the world and a horrible attitude.
The rest were products of that obsession people had in 1999 by taking "big guys". Lots of Americans taken early in this draft too. It was supposed to be the time the Yanks would take over. But size was over-emphasized yet again. Here are these luminaries that were "big":
Jeff Jillson, Nolan Yonkman, Alexei Semenov, Kristian Kudroc................