People here have the shortest memories in the world. I posted earlier in this thread that I really wish we got Stutzle. But let’s not pretend like there’s some astronomical gap here.
Here’s an article from March of last year:
The Race For 3rd Overall: Lucas Raymond or Tim Stützle? - DraftGeek
Interesting article, but really a bit of anomaly. The gap between Byfield and Stutzle was very small. The gap after the top 3 was quite large, and Raymond wasn't even the guy coming close to cracking the top 3, according to the experts anyway. This is based on MacKenzie, Button or the CSS folks podcasts.
For context, several ratings had Stutzle ahead of Byfield ( Button and a few others), where as no ratings had Raymond ahead of Stutzle. Raymond wasn't even #4 on the consensus / average, and had ratings like 9th (Button), 9th (Draft Analyst), 11th (Redline) and many other ratings outside the top 5. In all the ratings I looked at (over 10), none had Raymond at #3, and only 2 had him at #4.
That said, many acknowledged Raymond's upside, and still do. The guy could absolutely end up a 1st line player. So in that context, I get the Raymond comparison to Stutzle. If Sens missed on Stutzle for some reason, I don't think anyone would have complained if we took him at #5 or later. A lot to love about the way he plays and he is fun to watch for sure. But more people were probably comparing and debating Raymond v Perfetti as a debate, rather than Raymond-Stutzle.