In hindsight, the 1998 NHL Draft delivered some great results over the long term for teams picking in the top 10 of the draft lottery that year, going back nearly three decades. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators, and San Jose Sharks all picked players who played over 1,000 career regular-season games and who each played over a decade with the respective teams that drafted them in the top three picks of the draft lottery in 1998.
The center depth highlighted the 1998 NHL Draft in the first round, despite the Los Angeles Kings picking a blue-liner late in the first round that offseason
The Los Angeles Kings picked defenseman Mathieu Biron with the 21st overall pick in the first round of the 1998 draft. Biron was one of a handful of players selected in the first round of the 1998 draft who didn't play in over 100 regular season games in the NHL in the late 1990s and the 2000s.
This 1998 draft was also known for having mostly forwards and defensemen picked as prominent players in the next decade from this draft class. Under a dozen goalies were selected in the first five rounds of the 1998 draft.
The first couple of rounds of the 1998 draft ended up being amazing for the Lightning. After Tampa nabbed center Vincent Lecavalier with the first overall pick of the 1998 draft, the Lightning then grabbed another franchise center in Brad Richards in the third round (64th overall).
Lecavalier and Richards both played over 1,000 games in their respective NHL careers in the 1990s, 2000s, and early 2010s. They led the Lightning to the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup pre-lockout in the postseason in the playoffs in 2004.
However, it's hard to do a redraft of the 1998 NHL draft class without putting Hall-of-Famer and four-time Lady Byng Award winner Pavel Datsyuk at the top of this hypothetical reimagining of the '98 lottery picks in the top five.
Datsyuk ended up being a generational steal for the Detroit Red Wings, being picked 171st overall in the sixth round of the 1998 draft. Not only was Datsyuk the only player in this draft class who registered over 110 career point shares, but he was also the only player with 300 goals scored and 600 assists.
While he doesn't go first overall to the Lightning in this hypothetical reimagining of the 1998 draft lottery, Lecavalier only falls one spot. The Nashville Predators originally picked center David Legwand with the second overall pick in the first round of the 1998 draft.
Legwand played over 1,000 games in his career in the regular season, along with a couple of 20-goal seasons for the Predators in the late-2000s decade.
Instead of picking Legwand second overall in the first round of the 1998 draft lottery, the Predators get to select the original first overall pick in Lecavalier from Tampa. Lecavalier was the only player from this draft class from '98 who played over 1,200 career regular season games.
Lecavalier ranked first in points scored (949), goals (421), and he led the NHL in goals scored to win the Rocket Richard Trophy in the 2006-07 season.
The center position was absolutely loaded in the early rounds of the 1998 entry draft. Seven centers from the 1998 draft class played over 1,000 career regular season games, including Richards from the Lightning.
The San Jose Sharks originally picked defenseman Brad Stuart with the third overall pick in the first round of the 1998 draft. Stuart and Robyn Regehr were the only two defensemen from the 1998 draft class who played over 1,000 career regular season games.
Richards slides up over 60 picks in this hypothetically reimagining of the 1998 draft lottery to go to the Sharks third overall in the first round. He was one of just two centers from this draft class who played over 1,100 career regular season games and scored over 900 points.
Winning the Stanley Cup twice with the Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks (2016), Richards is a likely future Hall-of-Fame inductee for pro hockey. Had Richards ended up playing for the Sharks in the 2000s and the early 2010s, San Jose might've been able to win a Stanley Cup getting out of the Western Conference.