For a team that's gotten Forbort, Pearson, Kempe in the 1st round since 2010, and traded the 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016 picks, if Vilardi ends up as a miss, that's going to be big. That's another year's worth of a setback, on top of everything else. That's pretty close to missing on the 4th pick in 2007(and one of the 2008 picks), and then having to trade a bunch of the future to get Penner, Richards, and Carter in response to missed opportunities like that. Then on top of that, things only started to really work once Carter got here. It was a lot to pay to not get anywhere. That's why Lombardi was on the hot seat by the 2012 deadline.
Whatever pick they get this year, it has to be a home run. That much more so if Vilardi can't ever get on the ice.