Apples and oranges. This is such a lazy comparison in my opinioin. Chosing Schwartz ahead of Tarasenko because there is ONE pick in between the two, and hoping a player falls one spot, in that scenario you can argue possibly the Blues organization liked Tarasenko more all a long and that was a drafting strategy to obtain both players. However, in the case this year if the Blues thought Kostin was a cant miss they would have taken him at 20 not risked the SIX picks between their selections and then on top of that traded down another FOUR picks hoping the guy they wanted all a long (even more than Thomas) would still be there at 31. I actually believe Kostin had less of a Russian factor than Vladi and he fell due to his injury/lack of production this past season. He came out a few days before the draft and said he would be playing in the AHL or NHL next season.
Therefore, in my humble opinion in the 2 whole weeks that have passed since the draft, with zero competitive hockey being played i stuck with the Blues front office and their criteria on my opinion and placed Thomas ahead of Kostin cause they JUST drafted them with that priority.
Now, that all being said, i think Kostin can shoot up the ranking very quickly and surpass a ton of prospects regardless of draft position, however he needs to show he's healthy and can adjust to NA ice before he earns that respect IMO. I for one do hope he turns into the next Rick Nash or whatever comparison you want to throw out there, BUT its been 2 weeks and im tempering my expectations until he proves otherwise.
LGB
