Drafting and developing is great and its the best way to secure core star players. However, drafting is hardly an exact science and we're going to need to take advantage of other avenues to fill out the rest of the roster and there's no reason to not start soon. I mean, even look at the past 2 years of high draft picks. Outside of Bedard (who is a Blackhawk because of sheer luck), no ones a sure fire first line player. Nazar is closest imo and even then he's still just a ppg in college and he lost a year of development to injury. People were expecting an easy 55+ points Reichel this season en route to becoming a point per game winger and now who knows what he ends up becoming.
Like it or not, drafting Bedard has changed things and last thing we want is for his development to stall or for him to become disgruntled.
Nazar and Reichel were never garuntee picks. That's why they need those top 5 picks or top 3. They generally do have a 3/4 chance of hitting. Yes some bust, not that many in hockey. Sometimes the guys who aren't good enough you are smart and trade early you get good value for.
That's how Tampa got on by trading Drouin despite him being a letdown. Top 10 generally help too. Like Tampa with 4K too but him Ruuta weren't far off in ability I think.
But if the Hawks say wind up with Bedard and Celebrini or Eiserman... thinking that's good to add talent to and try to move on is like thinking the Oilers have McDrai therefore they should win. But you need more sure bets than that.
I dont get this desire to be the maple leafs. Even Buffalo signed talent vecause of this idea with Eichel. They didn't suck because they didn't sign players. They did! That's a big issue of what hurt them 2-4yrs later when they should of been able to try. They signed okposso, gionta, and even added Kane who was hurt but the deadline trade. Saying just make good ufa signings is living in a faulty reality.
If Nylander is available, it makes no sense for Chicago. It's like when Toronto signed Tavares. It made no sense and hurt their future.