Of course size still matters. But when a player of Caufield's skill set is available, his size shouldn't matter. And that's not to say the players that were taken before him that have size aren't good picks. But with the league proving that smaller sized players are effective and on some teams, the best player, his size shouldn't be reason enough to have you look elsewhere.
But the fact teams did look to other players benefited Montreal.
Well, before the draft some were hoping Boldy would drop and I said that Caufield was the one with the highest chances to drop to us. My reasoning was quite simple, its easier to project a 6'2 200 lbs foward in the NHL than a 5'7 160 lbs one since at that size, the bust potential is higher...
There was also the Hughes factor, Caufield played most of the last season with a 1st overall pick, what probably added to the uncertainty and in a such deep draft, you dont want to go wrong, you want to make sure to draft an impact player that will play for you for the next 10 yrs, GMs probably felt like there were more risks with a such undersized player than a bigger one... I know Caufield proved he could score without Hughes for some stretches but still...
At the end of the day, Habs are laughing that a such player could drop to them at 15 and we the fans deserve it after missing the playoffs by a couple of points, I call it justice.
