Chris Drury had a stellar rookie campaign with the Avalanche in the late 1990s after Colorado drafted him in the third round of the 1994 entry draft. Drury was an All-Star in 1999 during a spectacular rookie season that saw him net 20 goals and 44 points in 79 regular season games in Colorado.
In the postseason, Drury was a valuable contributor on the top six forward lines with the Avs, Buffalo Sabres, and New York Rangers in the late 1990s, 2000s, and early 2010s. He tallied up nearly 90 career playoff points in over 130 postseason games in the NHL.
After Drury debuted in the NHL with the Avalanche in the late 1990s, he won the Calder Trophy in the 1998-99 season in Colorado. He went on to help the Avalanche win a Stanley Cup in 2001 and made deep postseason runs in Colorado and Buffalo, respectively, in the early to mid-2000s decade.
The New York Islanders originally picked winger Brett Lindros ninth overall in the first round of the 1994 entry draft. Lindros is one of nine players drafted in the first round in 1994 who didn't play 100 career regular season games in the NHL.
Mattias Ohlund could've been a better pick in hindsight at ninth overall for the Isles. He finished second in the Calder Trophy voting in his rookie season in 1997-98 for the Canucks, and he was named to the All-Star Team for the NHL in 1999.
Ohlund is one of just three defenders in this draft class in the NHL who played over 900 regular season career games. If the Isles could pick Ohlund ninth overall instead of Lindros, it would've gone much better for New York in the long term. He also scored 93 goals and 343 career points, the second most of any defenseman in this draft class.
Instead of picking defenseman Nolan Baumgartner in the top 10 of the 1994 draft, we have the Washington Capitals selecting longtime Detroit Red Wings left-winger Tomas Holmstrom instead.
Holmstrom was a proven winner in the postseason, helping the Red Wings win a whopping four Stanley Cup rings in his decade-and-a-half-long career in the NHL. He was one of the seven players from this draft class to play in over 1,000 career regular season games.
Knowing that the Sharks needed a goalie in the 1994 draft, Tim Thomas is a great option for San Jose to select at 11th overall in this redraft. Thomas was a really good starting goalie for the Boston Bruins for multiple decades in the NHL, including winning two Vezina Trophy awards and the Jennings Trophy.
The Sharks pick of forward Jeff Friesen with the 11th overall pick in the 1994 draft wasn't a bad one in reality. Friesen was one of the best scorers among wingers in this draft class. But if the Sharks aren't able to draft Nabokov in goal in 1994, then they need to get a goalie from somewhere.
And one-time Stanley Cup winner and four-time NHL All-Star Thomas does a more than capable enough job of manning the nets for the Sharks in the coming decades in the West in this hypothetical scenario redrafting.