Building solely through the draft is not really a viable strategy. Plus it's a bit weird to say we threw picks away when we've drafted 26 players over the last 3 drafts. Yes, it would have been nice to gave another pick or two at this year's draft, but it was a calculated gamble to try to add pieces to a team that was fighting for a playoff spot. It's easy to sit here now, after Grabner did nothing for us and Maroon walked, to say those trades didn't work or shouldn't have been made. The Mueller trade is still up in the air as he's played pretty well, and if he ends up being a solid top 4 guy, I will gladly have given up a 2nd round pick (which we picked up in a previous trade by the way) for him. The MoJo trade hasn't worked out so far. I'd say the Vatanen trade worked for both teams. The Palmieri trade was a home run. You can't expect to win every trade.