glenngineer
Registered User
Glenn,
The player you describe is that about one per draft class (on average) forward. That is a major issue our fanbase has ... expectation management. We all hope for the great find in a draft or a championship, but, the reality is that those things are few and far between ... especially if you're not drafting consistently in the top three (see Pittsburgh and Chicago in the early 2000s). We haven't won a championship in fifteen whole years of existence .... the entire country of Canada hasn't won a Cup in 20 with multiple teams vying for it.
So you're saying in 15 years there's only been 15 great forwards who have been drafted and developed? Really?
I just went to a random draft not 2003 but let's look at 2006.
Picks 2-5 were Jordan Staal, Toews, Backstrom and Kessel. 3 of them are pretty darn good players. Okposo at 7 is turning in to a pretty darn good player. The pick at 22 turns out to be this guy named Giroux. Pick 50 was Lucic. There were some other NHL players from that draft but for the most part, these are the guys.
Let's go to 2007 for fun. Kane, JVR and Turris top 3. I'd say Kane and JVR have turned out pretty well. Let's keep going. Voracek at 7, Couture at 9, Eller at 13, Pacioretty at 22, Simmonds at 61 is a stretch but still a pretty good player. Benn at 129.
I'm going to stop here but from a small sample size, 2 years, how many of those guys are game breakers. Toews, Backstrom, Kessel, Giroux, Kane, Couture and Benn. That's 7 guys in two drafts so reading your statement and doing some research, the two don't quite match up. Yes, great players are hard to come by but they can be had. Very good players can be had without top 10 picks as well.
Regardless of your comments or mine, fact is we have not drafted a guy in that class or developed a guy in that class of player in 15 years. There is no way you can prove this to me because it hasn't happened. When a guy like Benn is taken at 129, it shows it can happen. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were mid round picks as well. It is a crap shoot but when you keep rolling 7's something isn't quite right. There are some no brainers on that list but there are guys that got drafted later and then developed and we have been unable to do it and the talent pool says it's larger than what you're making it out to be.