Round 7 – 197th Overall
Original Pick: C Evan Fuller
New Pick: W Erik Condra (211th to OTT)
Honorable Mentions: None
After picking Patric Hornqvist in the seventh round of our 2005 NHL Redraft, the Canucks only get a bottom-six player this time. But, that is more than most teams got in the final round of the 2006 Draft. Only six 2006 seventh-round picks played at least one game in the NHL, and only one appeared in more than 100: Erik Condra.
Condra is no star player by any means, and he “only” has 379 NHL games. However, that is the best player teams could get in the 2006 draft. The Ottawa Senators were the lucky players who got him, and they are also the club Condra spent the first five NHL seasons with.
After six years in the Senators organization, Condra went into free agency in 2015, and found a new club in Tampa, Florida. Now a Tampa Bay Lightning, Condra will have a better shot at the Stanley Cup than he did in Ottawa. But he has yet to come as close as he could have with the Canucks in 2011.
Erik Condra is not the kind of player who turns a contender into a Stanley Cup Champion. But he is one of many important bottom-six contributors. The only 2006 seventh-round pick who is still in the NHL, Condra will likely stay for a few more years.