Okay. Now let's see how many the Preds were in a position to actually get.
2006:
Toews, Backstrom, Kessel: All picked long before Nashville would have picked.
Giroux: Picked just before the Preds could have picked. (The Nashville 1st had been traded to Washington at the deadline.)
2007:
Kane, Couture: Picked long before Nashville ever could have.
Benn: Picked 10 picks after the closest Preds pick... and was the second of three picks by Dallas in that round.
I'd say all seven realistically qualify as "unreachable".
Oh, and while we're at it... of those seven, how many of them have been on teams competitive enough to win a Cup? I count three, and it's that high only because two of them are on the same team.
Trust me, hon. You don't want to play this shoulda-coulda-woulda-drafted game with me. I've had LOTS of practice; it's one of those ancillary benefits of cheering for a team that's sucked for more than just two years.
You want to play the game, let's go. I usually enjoy your posts so I'll start there. Where you have gone with this is way off track though. I'll take you back through the discussion with 101 and where you have taken it and that wasn't the point.
First off I said we have never drafted and developed a great forward, a game changer, someone that gets on the ice, puts the team on his back and makes the play that you clamor for and the crowd is in amazement that they just scored the goal or made the play to tie or win the game. 15 years we have been unable to do it. We have drafted and developed some of the best in net and on D, there is no questioning that but up front, it's abysmal.
101 countered with the type of player I'm talking about happens in a draft about once a year in which you need top picks to land those sorts of guys.
I countered 101 with 7 guys from 2 drafts in 2005 and 2006 that fell in to the category of game changers. Some went early, some went later in the first round and then you had a guy like Benn who was taken very late in a draft. The point being, you can land and develop top players in this league at any point in the draft. The other guys I mentioned in my post were also very good forwards that have made a nice NHL career so far. I did not include them in the game changers but mentioned them as top 6 type players. They are in no way game changers but solid players. So I did research, listed two tiers of players but then narrowed it down to the list of 7 that falls in to the category the discussion is based around.
You have interjected and said the Preds couldn't have drafted them. That's true but that wasn't the point of the discussion, the point was to refute what 101 said about 1 game changer being available per draft and I came up with 7 in 2 years.
You also interjected and said some of the guys I listed were on par with Erat and while that's true, I never listed them as game changers. They are good NHL players. They are all top 6 guys but they are in no way, shape or form the game changers we have been unable to develop.
I'm not talking about what the Preds could've done or should've done. I never said the Preds should've drafted any of these guys or could've drafted these guys. I'm not delusional enough to go back and think that we could've changed history and taken certain guys in a draft from 10 years ago. If I had that power or foresight, I'd be an NHL GM with a gazillion Stanley Cups to my name. This was also something you brought in to the discussion which was once again never the point.
You also made mention of where those guys went to and if the teams were competitive or playoff contenders year in and year out. Also, not part of the original point but while we're at it, how many teams have won a Cup or Cups without some sort of great, if not elite talent up front? That is at the crux of my original post. A team can have all the goaltending and defense in the world but if they don't have the balance up front and ability to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis, they will never succeed. This is where I feel the Preds have sorely missed on many levels and after 15 years of trying, a different direction in my opinion is warranted. Even if the GM and/or coach that comes in and can only draft and develop forwards, we've already got the D and goalies in place for the next bunch of years and if they're smart enough to realize that, they've already got a leg or two up and can build from a great foundation. Poile and Trotz had the foundation, tried to go up the mountain, it didn't work and we're going down the other side of the mountain. So either we keep sliding down the mountain or we get a new trail boss.
And if all we have to go on is that our best forwards have been Erat, Hornqvist and Legwand that's a pretty bad track record. No offense to them as players but in 15 years, that's not saying much.