Kopitar and Keith were luck. The rest were top picks.
I don't know if they were luck.
Kopitar was a pretty well known commodity who slipped in the draft - a little like Vilardi this year.
Keith was more lucky. But he was a second round pick - not a 6th rounder.
But overall, I get your point.
And I think you get mine.
You need great players.
Conn Smythe winners.
Hart Trophy candidates.
Selke candidates.
Norris candidates.
Elite players. First line Olympian types.
And they usually come high in the draft.
Larkin and Mantha and Athanasiou .... that's a decent group of forwards.
But how is that any better than Colorado's group. Or Florida's group. Or Calgary's group.
And they're all bad to middle-of-the-road teams.
Counting on Svechnikov, and Rasmussen and Cholowski and Hronek seems especially foolish.
It was only a few years ago that Mrazek was going to be a hero. That Sproul and XO were were going to lead our D. Pulkkinen and Jurco were going to be first and second line forwards. Etc. Etc. Etc.
We need to be drafting for ELITE talent.
Tyler Wright's comments about "going for skill next year" were the dumbest comments I've ever heard from a professional hockey guy in a long time.