rekrul
Registered User
Another situation to consider is Detroit who for some reason didn't see the potential Q Hughes and took Zedina at #6 overall in 2018. They are missing the franchise center and defensemen and are 7 years removed from making the playoffs. With Celebrini they get a onetime only chance to get an elite C who can move the puck out of the zone and crate. Certainly, we see Toronto missing some of that with a soft playoff team that gets squished by any team that looks at tape. Sharks need to hunt more for that puck moving Dman, and take a chance because there will be teams like Detroit that will overlook a Dman that is not a slam dunk ( too small, too slow, not enough offensive ect,,,) . find a RFA and do a offer sheet, find a UFA in a few years and overpay or draft some that are going to be a risk to develop.Toronto's problem isn't necessarily that their top pieces are bums (although Marner certainly is), it's that Dubas and Treliving didn't/don't know how to build deep teams and therefore have to rely on their top guns to get the job done, and that's not how teams win Cups.
A guy like Celebrini is almost as perfect as it gets as a player to be a core piece to build around. You take him 100 times out of 100. You can get defense in a later draft (or later in this draft if we're lucky) if need be, but an elite #1C is the hardest piece to get.
The Sharks will be bad again next year; we don't have to worry about not getting another high pick next year.