Ranking Every New Jersey Devils 1st-Round Draft Pick Part 1: The Busts
By Mike Luci
No. 35: Adrian Foster
Center
28th Overall, 2001
There were some who thought Adrian Foster might’ve been a steal when New Jersey selected him late in the 1st round. Injuries limited Foster to 12 games with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades between 1999 and 2001. There, he only tallied one goal and eight points. After averaging a point per game in an 01-02 season split between the Blades and Brandon Wheat Kings, he had 15 points in as many postseason contests.
Besides Ari Ahonen, Foster is the only other draftee on this list to never play an NHL game. He spent five AHL seasons playing for Albany and Lowell, appearing in 122 games, where he posted totals of 20 goals and 49 points. After a sixth AHL season with the Houston Aeros, Foster spent most of the next six years playing in Europe, the ECHL, and managed two more AHL stints.
Who knows how Foster would have turned out if he managed to overcome his injury woes? Not only was Foster the second first-round choice (and first forward) in New Jersey Devils history to never play an NHL game, but he headlined what might have been one of Lamoriello’s worst drafts, which only saw one pick—Aaron Voros—go on to play more than 100 NHL games.