Don't you see how people's patience might be wearing pretty thin at this point? What has this organization done to deserve that kind of benefit of the doubt? From where I sit this move just looks like more of the same that has gotten us nowhere.
I've been a die-hard since 94, believe me I have witnessed futility.
But this isn't just more of the same. I think people have been a bit deranged by the experience with Benning (which was really him as the figurehead for FA) wherein we made some really poor, 'win now' moves.
I don't think this is that at all. I also don't know for sure that this is a good move, by any stretch. But the hardest position to acquire, which Canuck-luck is also where we are probably worst in the league, is RD. We just acquired a good one who is 25 and trending upwards, and will be an RFA at the end of his deal.
Depending on what else happens, this could be a fantastic move.
If the Islanders' pick rolls over and becomes top 7 next year, I will be angry right along side you and it's why I would have preferred to wait.
Let's say the pick this year ends up btw 15th and 20th this year.
2010:
Derek Forbort
Vlad Tarasenko
Joey Hishon
Austin Watson
Nick Bjugstad
Beau Bennett
2011:
J.T. Miller
Joel Armia
Nathan Beaulieu
Mark McNeill
Oscar Klefbom (good but injured)
Connor Murphy
2012:
Cody Ceci
Tom Wilson
Tomas Hertl
Teuvo Teravainen (Decent, but not a big miss if you don't get a one dimensional scoring winger, especially with where we are at).
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scott Laughton
2013:
Ryan Pulock
Nikita Zadorov
Curtis Lazar
Mirco Mueller
Kerby Rychel
Anthony Mantha (decent, but meh).
2014:
Dylan Larkin
Sonny Milano
Travis Sanheim (maybe)
Alex Tuch
Tony DeAngelo
Nick Schmaltz (meh).
2015:
Barzal
Connor
Chabot
Evgeni Svechnikov
Eriksson-Ek
2016:
Luke Kunin
Chychrun
Dante Fabbro
Logan Stanley
Keifer Bellows
Dennis Cholowski
2017
Erik Brannstrom
Juuso Valmaki
Timothy Liljegren (decent)
urho Vaakanainen
Josh Norris
Robert Thomas
2018:
Denisenko
Kaut
Ty Smith
Foudy
Jay O'Brien
Rasmus Kupari
2019:
Caulfield
Newhook
Krebs
Harley
Lassi Thompson
Heinola
-
I will stop there since 2020 guys aren't done developing (neither are some of the 18 or 19 guys).
So looking at that list, Tarasenko is a bit unique because he wasn't leaving Russia for at least a couple of years.
2012 looks good at first, but then you remember it has maybe the worst top 5 in 20 years, so if those picks hadn't been so incompetent there would have been less available here, it's a bit of an outlier.
Otherwise, there are some good players, but a large number of them are guys who took 3 years to develop and then became skilled wingers who didn't play much two-way. Which the league currently has a surplus of.
So is Hronek (if he's a good top 4) worth more than about a 1 in 5 shot at an effective player (possibly in a redundant position) in a minimum of 3 years?
There's also a lot of busts in these lists.
Further, this is a total back of the napkin assessment since the value of players in the past means little for this year's stock. But presumably our management has assessed the pool and doesn't think we will the the ~1.5/5 lucky team that gets an above replacement level player in that range.