Left-winger Brenden Morrow spent most of his NHL pro career playing in the South with the Dallas Stars (13 of 15 seasons). Morrow was originally picked 25th overall in the first round of the 1997 draft by the Stars.
He was one of seven players from the '97 draft class to score over 500 career points. Morrow was also one of just two wingers from this draft class to score over 250 career regular season goals.
Had Morrow ended up getting drafted by the Lightning seventh overall in the first round of the 1997 draft, he could've won a Stanley Cup in Tampa before the lockout in 2004.
Boston picked left-winger Sergei Samsonov with its second draft pick in the first round of the 1997 draft lottery. Samsonov won the Calder Trophy award with the Bruins in the 1997-98 season after scoring 22 goals and 47 points in that campaign.
The Bruins had a very memorable draft class from the first round of the 1997 draft lottery, including Thornton and Samsonov at No. 8 overall on the draft board.
Samsonov played with Thornton and the Bruins for eight seasons in the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s decades. He scored over 150 goals with the Bruins in his eight years in Boston and over 370 points in the regular season.
Brewer was originally picked fifth overall by the Islanders in the first round of the 1997 draft. He was the first defenseman off the draft board to be selected in the lottery in 1997.
Despite falling down a few spots in the top 10 in the 1997 draft lottery, Brewer is still a top 10 pick in this hypothetical redraft. Brewer was the only top 10 pick among defensemen in the 1997 draft class to play 1,000 career regular season games and a few dozen games in the postseason in his career in the league.
Brewer was selected to the NHL All-Star Game with the Edmonton Oilers in the 2002-03 season.
Gritty left-winger Jason Chimera was a steal for the Oilers, going in the fifth round (121st overall) of the 1997 draft. Chimera slides up into the first round as the final to 10 pick in th draft lottery, going to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks picked defenseman Brad Ference 10th overall in the first round of the 1997 draft lottery.
Ference only played three full seasons in his career in the NHL, none of which were with the Canucks in Vancouver.
Chimera played roughly two decades in the NHL, and showed great longevity in his career in the league in the latter years with the Washington Capitals and the Isles. He had back-to-back 20-goal seasons in his late 30s while playing in all 82 regular season games with the Caps and Isles in the mid 2010s.