Ghost was drafted a full round after Frk. That's a reach and a half. Severson is more realistic, but then again I don't think he's very good. But sure.
Ritola over Hammer/Yandle, I'll give you that one. Put it down to overconfidence in the Kindl pick, they likely prioritized repleneshing forward depth after the 1st round. Gave us Helm and Abby at least.
Barrie over Ferraro is again basically making a full round's worth of a reach. I don't see that as a fair expectation of our scouts, prioritizing a much worse prospect on the off chance that they'll strike gold. If they make that kind of reach and it fails (99% more likely than success) they lose their jobs, instantly.
Savard? Yeah.. I guess. If only we had made that pick. We'd be in such a great position. With Savard. The missing piece.
Letang? Please let me know how you'd feel if Holland had selected Niemelainen at #20 this year.
Niskanen would be a small reach and is realistic, Vlasic is already a pretty big reach.
Personally I don't count it as a miss if we didn't draft 5th rounders in the 3rd round or 3rd rounders in the 1st round. Ritola over Hammer/Yandle is one of the most glaring misses we've done. And I don't think either of those players would have put this team in a much better situation currently.
As for re-building on the fly, it was always going to require some luck. But personally as I'm sure you know, I think this team has the ability to be better right now. I think our scouts have done a reasonable job with what they've had to work with. And I think they're showing that they can find better talent if they're just given slightly better means to do so. In the 15-20 range they can find good players. Give them an extra 2nd round pick here and there and they'll land us a Bertuzzi or a Hronek. A top 10 pick wouldn't hurt, but I don't feel our scouts are bad enough that an extended tank is required. We're not Edmonton.
Trying to find elite d-men in the 4th and 5th and 6th rounds is unsustainable. Trying to find them in the 15-20 range is possible. Karlsson was picked there for example. No team has successfully built their d core through trades/FA. Having a worse draft position in the last few years doesn't matter, those drafts are still up in the air. Their draft position from 2000-2010 is what matters, and no team comes close to the Wings draft position in that time.