I wish it was easy getting 2 first line players
This is some deja vu ****
Statistically we almost already have 2 first liners on the way via the draft. Since Petey is so good you can put him with good second liners and his line will still produce like a first line. So any top 6 will do.
Then we can extrapolate the probability that Benning’s 1st round selections will exceed expectations from the current data which is 66.666, repeating of course, percent. (40, 43, 6, 91 did, 6 and 48 did not) To simplify we can say that the rest of his picks have a 17% chance of exceeding expectations. From there we can add up the probabilities of each individual prospect with top 6 potential to project the roster moving forward.
Podkolzin 66% + Madden 17% + Lind 17% = 100% chance of a top 6 player with Podkolzhin being the most likely to take the spot.
Hoglander 17% + Gaudette 17% + Gadjovich 17% = 51% chance of another top 6er. I put Gaudette in there because he still hasn’t had a real shot in the top 6 yet.
These names and numbers are all conservative. So we realistically already have 1.5 out of the 2 big holes in the top 6 ready to be plugged by great draft picks. Benning will probably add even more to that number over the next few drafts while also showing up the defense. We should be well set for the next decade.