Other notables:
Straight up: the exercise was rigged. In naming the greatest NHL Draft Classes of all-time, I might have been better off excluding 1979. After all, it’s the only class that essentially combined two age cohorts into a single year. Following the 1979 NHL/WHA merger, the NHL draft age was lowered from 20 to 19, and that new age cutoff meant underagers who had already played in the WHA were draft eligible.
The Edmonton Oilers made out like bandits in 1979, landing three Hall of Famers and dynasty pillars in Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Kevin Lowe. Messier and Anderson went in the third and fourth rounds, while Lowe was the final pick of the first round. Amazingly, the Class of 1979 could’ve been even better. Wayne Gretzky should’ve been eligible, having played in the WHA for the previous two seasons, but refused to void his contract as he wanted to avoid getting taken first overall by the Rockies. As a tradeoff for keeping Gretzky, the Oilers were dropped to the final spot in the first round. So their “punishment” was Lowe.