If none of them ever have a chance at the NHL, then you can say on the whole, they were not very good picks. All of those you mentioned were not very great picks, and none of them has turned out, intriguing or not with our organization or any other. As for Caleb Jones, this is his first year out of junior for God's sake, give the guy and org a chance. You think he should just show up in a tough man's league like the AHL and light it up in his first year? This organizations biggest fail has been drafting anything of quality after the first round, and even some of the first round selections have been iffy, to say the least.
As for Nelson, in spite of the winning, I don't recall a plethora of players called up from his teams that made an impact on our roster. There was a lot of struggling then as well. The #1 priority down there is to develop NHL players to help the big league team. Winning is great and obviously important, but if you win and no one down there is able to play up here, what is the point? As was stated, there is not a lot of forward talent down there, so I'm not sure who is really being shafted by learning to play a defensive system.