There is hype every year if there is one that is a clear number one pick in the draft. When there is not, look at last year. Barely a peep. But even when there is a clear number one it is not as is implied in this thread. Our perception is skewed because two of the most anticipated prospects to come in two decades came back to back, AO and Crosby. Usually propects with that type of buzz come more like once a decade.
As for the MAF thing . . . already said but I will just
at that to keep from laughing. He pretty much has shut most of his critics up with some amazing play this year, and he still has a ceiling that he has not begun to tap, he is still young and developing. He has shut most of his critics up, but apparently not all. I am not sure that he is the best out of the 2003 draft, but he really was not the number one pick that year absent an arranged 'deal' with FLA, more like a #2 or #3. In the end he is proving more and more that he certainly belongs in that top five and was the best of the bunch for the Pens, who could use a franchise goalie much more than yet another forward to add to Crosby, Malkin, Christensen and perhaps Kessel. And that is good enough for me.