3 teams that have fared well at the NHL Draft

As the 2014 NHL Draft approaches, fans across North America yearn for their teams to select at least one or two players that will become core members of a Stanley Cup winning club. 

Things don't always work out that way, but a few teams have pulled off that very feat in recent years. Here are two teams that have made the very most of their selections, and one that is tracking in the right direction.

Los Angeles Kings

The Kings won two Stanley Cups in the past three years, due in no small part to success at the draft table over the course of the past decade or so.

Their recent string of success can be tracked back to 2003, when, with the 13th overall pick, they selected Dustin Brown of the OHL's Guelph Storm; he later captained the 2012 and 2014 Cup-winning teams. 

Fast-forward two years, when the Kings added both Anze Kopitar (11th overall) and Jonathan Quick (72nd); the former is one of the game's best two-way forwards, and the latter is a two-time Cup champion and a Conn Smythe winner. Defenseman Drew Doughty, selected second overall in 2008, is regarded as one of the best at his position with two Cups and two Olympic gold medals on his resume.

Complementary pieces followed in the form of Alec Martinez, (95th, 2007), Dwight King (109th, 2007), Slava Voynov (32nd, 2008), Kyle Clifford (35th, 2009), Tyler Toffoli (47th, 2010) and Tanner Pearson (30th, 2012), all of whom played a part in the team's latest Cup run.

Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks also have two Stanley Cup banners over the course of the past five years, with pillars of those respective championship squads acquired through the draft. 

The first piece was plucked from the 2002 class in the form of defenseman Duncan Keith, the likely winner of the 2014 Norris Trophy. In 2003, Chicago drafted a running mate for Keith in Brent Seabrook (14th), and a reliable if not quite elite goalie in Corey Crawford (52nd).

Jump ahead in time, and the Blackhawks - in the midst of incredibly poor seasons on the ice - struck lightning twice with Jonathan Toews (No. 3, 2006) and Patrick Kane (No. 1, 2007), as good a pair of forwards as any team in the league could ask for.

Along the way, Chicago added a haul of valuable players: Dustin Byfuglien (245th) in 2003, Dave Bolland (32nd), Bryan Bickell (41st) and Troy Brouwer (214th) in 2004, Niklas Hjalmarsson (108th) in 2005, and, most recently, Brandon Saad (43rd) and Andrew Shaw (139th) in 2011.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning have no Stanley Cup to speak of since their victory in 2004, but, as theScore's Justin Bourne argues here, teams across the league should be terrified of this up and coming club, mainly due to recent success on Draft day.

The Lightning's draft success begins with Steven Stamkos, taken first overall in 2008. In subsequent years, they added Richard Panik (52nd, 2009), Brett Connolly (sixth, 2010), Vladislav Namestikov (27th), Nikita Kucherov (58th) and Ondrej Palat (208th) and 2011, Tanner Richard (71st) and Cedric Paquette (101st) in 2012, and a massive exclamation point in the form of Jonathan Drouin (third) in 2013.

On the blue line and in goal, Tampa Bay looks to have a franchise-type defenseman in Victor Hedman (second, 2009), with Radko Gudas (66th, 2010) already in the mix and promising prospect Slater Koekkoek (10th, 2012) in the system. In net, both Andrei Vasilevski (19th, 2012) and Kristers Gudlevskis (124th, 2013) have the look of potential elite-level goaltenders.