I would be interested to see what Yzerman would have done in 2018 at #6 for the Wings. He's obviously focused on the back end at these early stages with Seider, Tuomisto, Johansson in the first two rounds of 2019. Is he a believer in the Hughes or Boqvist mold? I tend to think not with how Tampa's defense was outfitted towards the end with Hedman, McDonagh, Sergachev; that's some pretty solid size, but also complete defensemen. Does he go with a forward like Zadina? Does he go with the complete defenseman like Dobson? How does that trickle down to 2019?
Personally, I had Dobson up near the top for a number of months leading up to draft night, and that's still where I would have gone in hindsight. Still think there is a path for Zadina to be a success, but it's just going to take some time for him to learn how to best implement his game into what works. Early viewings of Mantha in his 6th year of professional hockey, he's doing things that he would rarely attempt even 3 years ago. For a majority of D+1 players we are talking about even 2-3 years before they even show a glimpse of being able to do what Zadina did in his first year, so the worry I think is probably a bit overdone at this point. Based on everything we have seen, and all the things that have changed since, I think I would still take Zadina over Hughes