Taken 5th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Islanders, Nino Niederreiter occupied the unenviable position of “Islanders first round pick the year after they took John Tavares”.
At the time, a lot of Islanders country was hoping the team would select Erik Gudbranson so we would have a young defenseman to go with our stud forward. There were quite a few ‘meh’ feelings after we ended up with the young swiss forward.
Those ‘meh’ feelings gave way to anticipation when it was revealed that in the 2011-12 season he was going to be up for the full season.