Even last year, White was producing more than a 4th liner.
This is obviously not the 80's anymore
Like I said - there was nothing good about our drafting from 2012-2014. This also includes that our two 1sts (Ceci/Lazar) were immediately followed by high end skill players (Hertl / Teravainen / Mantha).
Well, of course, the vast majority of draft picks are followed by what would have been better picks, this isn't a Senators thing at all
And while the 2012-14 Sens drafts weren't anything to write home about, there's a few things to consider. I talked about it yesterday so can jut copy/paste and re-arrange
- We still got 2 regular NHL players in 2012 (Ceci) and 2013 (Lazar)
- Eventually traded Lazar for a 2nd, which resulted in Formenton, so in hindsight that Lazar pick could still pay big dividends
- Eventually traded Ceci for Connor Brown and Zaitsev. Pretty good trade in hindsight. Drafting Ceci was not the best possible scenario but getting several years of regular NHL players is much better than a pure bust or a cup-of-coffee player at 15th OA, which used to happen quite often.
Rest of my quote :
Even if they were not "great" picks, there was not that many "better options" left on the back half of the first round these years. 2012 was a weak draft and 2014 was seen as even worse. That's why the GM didn't mind trading our 1st that year to get a guy that played 6 seasons in Ottawa and scored almost 300 pts. We also have to mention Maidens that was an excellent gamble in the 3rd round, but unfortunately never recovered from his concussion issues. There's also Driedger (that Dorion let go for nothing) that is turning into something good.