Drafting is apparently the key to developing a team...huh. Shall we take a trip down memory lane and see how that vaunted 2014 class is doing once again for us? You know, the first one assembled by the master drafter?
1) Jake Virtanen. Now on the team again...7 points so far this year. Definition of inconsistency. 3 line banger/crasher would be a good outcome for him now.
2) Jared McCann. Traded for Gudbranson, he of the great leadership, character, and stats of a 3rd pairing dumb muscle dman.
3) Thatcher Demko. Still coming up, still showing promise.
4) Nikita Tryamkin. Came over, played, got disgruntled, and went back to Russia. I defy anyone to come up with a single shred of proof he'd consider coming back.
5) Gustav Forsling. Given away for half a season of Clendening who was thrown away in the Sutter deal.
6) Kyle Pettit. Gone, waste of a pick.
7) Mackenze Stewart. Waste of a pick.
So out of that we may have a goalie and probably a bottom 6 winger at the NHL level, and that's still down the road. Meanwhile, we have a potential impact dman alienated for no reason and a dman who's currently logging top minutes in freaking Chicago given away for no reason, and maybe another scoring centre gone for a worse dman than either Forsling or Tryamkin.
I have no reason to think that the currently vaunted draft haul of last year won't be whittled down in similar fashion. Some WILL bust. Some will get injured, some will develop character issues, and some will probably be traded for crap returns because Benning still thinks he can bypass building through the draft.
And next time someone does one of those lineup projections for 2 or 3 years from now, don't forget Eriksson. He'll still be here, remember? Drafting doesn't mean shit if you can't manage a team.