Since Luongo is off the draft board at No. 4 overall in the first round of this 1997 redraft for the lottery, longtime Sharks center Marleau drops two spots to the Isles. While Marleau isn't selected second overall by the Sharks, he is still very worthy of getting picked in the top five by the Isles.
Marleau was the definition of a career iron man for the Sharks and for a couple of years near the end of his career with the Maple Leafs in Toronto. He is the all-time leader in games played in the NHL, having played over 1,700 career regular season games for the Sharks and Maple Leafs over the course of roughly two decades in the league.
The Isles ended up regretting in hindsight the trade that sent Luongo and center Jokinen to the Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha.
The first round of the 1997 draft lottery was littered with quality depth at the center position in this class. New York does pretty well here to get two talented centers who were top-six forwards for over a dozen years in the NHL in the 1990s, 2000s, and the early 2010s decades.
Jokinen ended up playing one season with the Isles in the early 2000s after the Kings dealt him to New York in a trade early in his career not too long after he was drafted by LA in 1997.
The Isles picking Jokinen in this redraft to round out the top five rounds up a streak of three centers taken in the first round's top five picks.
Some of the best defensemen value picks in the 1997 draft were seleted in the late rounds. Defenseman Brian Campbell vaults into the first round after originally being selected in the sixth round (156th overall) by the Buffalo Sabres in 1997.
Campbell is the only defensemen from the '97 draft class to be selected to the NHL All-Star Game four times in his career on the blue line. He played over 1,000 career regular season and led all defensemen from this draft class from '97 in points scored (504).
He was a key contributor to help kick off the Chicago Blackhawks dynasty in the early-to-mid 2010s, playing as a first-line with the defensive core in the Windy City in the 2010-11 postseason.