Broberg has 2 assets, size and straight line speed. He gets by on that. His defensive game is lacking, his shot is below average and his hockey IQ is below average too. He could absolutely be an NHLer due to size alone but anything more than a 6/7 defender would need almost a vertical improvement in his game. Which isn't something you waste an 8th overall on. Our last 3 first round picks have been really weak .Thankfully we improved our drafting in the later rounds.
I'm certainly not that high on Broberg's game, as my post history will show you, but even though I think that Broberg doesn't have the highest upside, he has at least an outside shot at being a top-4 defenseman despite his offensive IQ woes and so I disagree with what you posted.
Some scouts, like Button, were absolutely gushing after Broberg's performance at the U-18 dominating the scoresheet. All I saw was a defenseman that was stronger and faster than anyone at that level and that was constantly shooting the puck without taking into consideration what was happening on the ice in the offensive zone. A shoot-first mindset is good, but there were times when passing the puck would have created much better offensive opportunities for his team and that was when I seriously began questioning his hockey sense. The fact that he managed to score so many points in that tournament has much to do about him lucking out and getting important deflections and screens in that allowed him to nab both goals and assists. A bigger sample size would have seen his totals drop off quite a bit, I'm sure.
Upon closer examination, I discovered that his shot was strong but not that accurate or dynamic, his release is good but not much more and his one-timer is pretty bland, which also lowered my opinion of Broberg's potential upside.
What I saw defensively was pretty good, not incredible, but definitely something that could be polished and could shine in the NHL, same as his skating, which is all-around elite for a defenseman, not a weakness by any stretch of the imagination. The physicality was a bit inconsistent and sometimes a bit unplanned, but with that frame and strength, it should come with time and practice.
Overall, I understand what the Oilers' brass saw in Broberg and what they wanted to do with the pick, and Broberg indeed could be a pretty good piece for them in a couple of years, I'm just not sure if he was the best value available with the 8th overall pick (Zegras or Boldy probably were) and think Edmonton's brass might have passed on better players for a ''safer'' player in a position of need. If he had been drafted anywhere after the 20th pick or so, he would have been a good pick, and if he slipped into the second-round, he would have been an absolutelly stellar grab.