This is a good discussion to have and I've been thinking about this for a while. It's hard to compare JR (in Carolina), Francis and Waddell, simply because JR and Francis had Karmanos's shallow pockets vs. Waddell having Dundon's deep pockets, and that is a big piece of the behavior, so I'll ignore the JR/Francis era and just look at this current group.
After some thought, I do believe that the new regime is concerned with development, but not in the traditional way I think of drafting and developing. For me, drafting and developing meant a model where you draft guys, let them marinate at a lower level, and as guys at the NHL level get older, want too much money, or leave as UFAs, you have a crop of guys in the system to fill in, even if it's depth and someone else on the NHL squad moves up the food chain. I DON'T think the current regime is concerned about that type of development overall.
This is my view (which admittedly could be off). First, I think the current regime looks at drafted/developed players as
currency, as much as they do as a guy that can step in down the road, particularly if the guy isn't viewed as a top end guy (Aho, Svech, Necas, etc..). I think they want lots of draft picks to keep refilling the pipeline, and if some of those develop/project to be high end enough, they keep them and promote from within in a traditional draft/development sense. If they feel they top out as low end - middling players (Wallmark, Roy, Gauthier, Saarela, Carrick, etc...), they view them more as currency in a trade more than as a guy they want at the NHL, because they probably feel they can get that type of guy anywhere.
Look at Nic Roy. He was developing nicely, but he looked to be maybe a 4th line C, 3rd line tops in the most optimistic projection. Canes moved him to get Haula. Canes then moved Haula, Wallmark (4th rounder 3rd/4th line C), Luostarenen (2nd rounder who looks like tops out as a bottom 6 player), and Priskie (who was free) for Vincent Trochek. Now, Trochek post injury isn't what he used to be (although in the AMA I was told he said he is still recovering), but a year ago, if anyone would have proposed Roy, Wallmark and Luostarinen for Trocheck, they'd have been accused of making the worst proposal on HF and be told "3 nickels for a quarter" (or some analogy like that)...but that's essentially what the Canes did. If Trocheck never recovers his game to what it was, it's still an OK trade (provided they can work the salary cap), but if he does recover his game, it could be phenomenal.
I also think this regime isn't afraid of taking high risk, high reward chances.
- de Hann was coming off a bad shoulder injury in which he missed the a ton of time when the Canes signed him.
- Gardiner, the same, injuries are why he was still around.
- Trocheck is another case of a guy that has a high reward if he recovers/recovers his game.
- Haula was coming off a horrible injury and the Canes took a chance on it.
- Vatanen (albeit a rental), might not even suit up for Carolina due to injury
- Skjei struggled the last couple of years in NY.
etc... Some of those were no brainers, some of them could backfire, some could work out nicely, but it seems they aren't afraid of more high risk/high reward type moves. Even Dougie/Ferland for Hanifin/Lindholm falls a bit into that category. Ferland had concussion problems and was a UFA in a year. Hamilton had a bad rap and was onto his 3rd team so giving up two, young, cost controlled 5th OA picks is a high risk move. In fairness, it's a lot easier to make high risk/reward moves when the money is there to do it. The two "kinda" high risk/reward moves JR made (T. Kaberle , A. Semin) backfired and Karmanos came right out and said "never again".
Anyhow, TLDR, I do think they value developing, but not in the traditional sense I'm accustomed to.
