One Of The NHL's Biggest Draft Busts Might Be Launching A Music Career

Does the name "Nail Yakupov" ring a bell?

If you're a hockey fan, it should, but not for the best reasons.

Yakupov was the first-overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft and was the team's third straight first-overall pick that the Edmonton Oilers made after Taylor Hall in 2010 and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011.

However, unlike the top-picks selected in the two drafts before him, who went on to have long, very successful NHL careers, Yakupov is regarded as the biggest draft dud of the 21st century so far and one of the biggest ever.

Ykupov played just four seasons for the Oilers, and his best season there only saw him hit 33 points in 81 games.

Edmonton traded him to St. Louis ahead of the 2016-17 season, and then he signed with the Colorado Avalanche for the 2017-18 season, then after that, it was back to Russia, where he has played for a few teams, most recently Omsk Avangard.

So why would I bring up one of the NHL's biggest draft busts seemingly out of nowhere?

Because I just learned that Yakupov appears to be launching a music career.

The ex-NHLer posted a video of himself laying down some vocals in the studio.

Was that good? I don't know, you tell me because I honestly can't tell.

It sounds to me like he can carry a tune, but it's hard for me to tell for sure because he's singing in Russian.

It's definitely not the sort of thing I'd throw on any of my Spotify playlists, but godspeed to him.

It would seem that Yakupov is trying to crack into the entertainment business on the side while he continues to play hockey, because a few posts before the one of him singing was one of him acting on the set of some kind of production.

Well, we've seen athletes make this kind of jump before, so maybe it will work out for him.