“I can’t speculate right now, but I’d really love to be playing in the NHL as soon as possible. I’d consider it this year. I think I need to work on my game a little bit. I’d like to be confident when I get there.”  — Dartmouth forward Hugh Jessiman, speaking to reporters in Nashville after the New York Rangers took him with the 12th overall pick in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Hugh Jessiman may not be the worst first-round pick in the history of the National Hockey League draft, but he’s the worst since INCH began covering the draft in 2003. The ex-Dartmouth skater is the only 2003 first-rounder who hasn’t played a second in the NHL and is one of two who’ve played fewer than 100 games in the show.

Former Dartmouth forward Hugh Jessiman is the only first-round selection from the 2003 draft who hasn't played an NHL game.

Consider the list of forwards taken after Jessiman, whom the Rangers grabbed with the 12th overall pick: Dustin Brown (13th), former North Dakota All-American Zach Parise (17th), Ryan Getzlaf (19th), erstwhile Ohio State skater Ryan Kesler (23rd), Mike Richards (24th), and Corey Perry (28th). All six represented their countries at the 2010 Winter Olympics. None have played fewer than 363 NHL games, and all have more than 215 career points.

Other standouts taken in that draft, the deepest in recent memory, include Brent Seabrook (14th), Loui Eriksson (33rd), Patrice Bergeron (45th), Shea Weber (49th), Minnesota State power forward David Backes (62nd), Jessiman teammate Lee Stempniak of Dartmouth (148th), Wisconsin sniper Joe Pavelski (205th), and Dustin Byfuglien (245th).

Stempniak was one three teammates of Jessiman taken much later in that draft. Stempniak, who was picked by St. Louis, Tanner Glass (265th to Florida), and David Jones (288th to Colorado) have all played 100 or more NHL games. Heck, Colorado College recruit Jamie Hoffmann, an eighth-round Carolina selection who spurned college hockey for professional baseball career, has more major league home runs — he went deep for the Dodgers last season — than Jessiman has NHL shifts.

Jessiman has become the poster boy for the Rangers’ horrible track record in drafting collegians, which goes beyond choosing Jessiman and former Michigan goaltender Al Montoya, who with ex-Michigan State defenseman A.J. Thelen comprise the triumvirate of top college flameouts since 2003.

From 1998 to 2005, the Rangers have used 23 draft picks on prospects who spent time in the collegiate ranks. Those 23 players have played a combined 511 NHL games, including a mere 106 matches in a Ranger sweater. Let’s take former Harvard standout Dominic Moore and his 374 NHL games, including 87 for the Broadway Blueshirts, out of the equation. The remaining 22 collegiate selections have played a total of 137 NHL games, just 19 of them for the Rangers. In the 2002 and 2003 drafts, the Rangers took 11 players with college ties. Their NHL service time currently totals 72 games — all but nine for teams other than the Rangers.

Perhaps recent Ranger selections Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, and Carl Hagelin can reverse that trend. Clearly, history is working against them.