There is a magic number at which teams start to be concerned with this. I think it might be 12 picks. I am not worried about it so long as you take a reasonable mix of CHL, Euros and NCAA-bound kids.
This.
They will probably draft a pretty even mix of junior, college and Euro guys that will have various signing deadlines between 2 (junior) and as long as 4-5 years or no deadline at all (college and Euro). That will allow them to trickle in as needed. That said, I'm sure (like any draft year) not all of them will end up getting signed anyway.
Another thing would be that as the talent level among prospects in GR increases, the need to go out and sign the Matt Loritos, Ben Streets, Eric Tangradis and Turner Elsons of the world lessens. On that same note, if needed, GR can supply some veterans and/or depth on their own like they did with guys like Ford, Campbell, Elkins and Shine this past season.
for example the Wings had to sign Sambrook this year and didn't do so but if you look at Pearson and Holway they were drafted in 2015(3 years ago at this point and the draft before Sambrook) and the Wings still have TWO years before they're forced to sign them as long as they're in college
i'm much more worried about there being enough playing time in Grand Rapids than I am about contract limits going forward,the Wings have already shown a poor ability at handling that with the defense down there multiple times now over the years and it will probably only get worse with more and higher draft picks
That is probably the second major factor in Sambrook not getting signed. The first being that he never really became more than a "long shot" to get to the NHL. If he had made more of an impact, I'm sure they'd certainly make room by moving a Lashoff or McIlrath. Or, if they had more room, and didn't anticipate better D prospects coming in, they may have signed him as organizational depth at the D position. But at this point, with Sulak, Cholowski and Saarijarvi all looking to grab regular spots in GR for next season, Lindstrom probably coming over for 19-20, and likely (hopefully) some better CHL D prospects coming with the glut of early picks in this summers draft coming in for 20-21, seems like there's no need to shell out the 3year ELC for a guy that's likely to ride the Nastasiuk-Sadowy express between Toledo and Grand Rapids for 3 years.