I have some uneasiness too but I am willing to set it aside for the sake of a new direction.
Gillis was all moneyball this and analytics that whereas Linden has said numerously he follows his gut and instincts. So there will definitely be some gambles down the road. I think we may see some more WHL kids (just my gut) come into the system even though TL said BPA would be the best choice.
I still have a lot of respect for TL. He has lots of experience when you consider his role as NHLPA President; his captaincy and longevity; as well as his post hockey business ventures... so it's not like he's coming in cold to the job. He has a lot more charisma than puffy red faced Gillis.
I suspect Gillis was passing on WHL players because our WHL scouts suck and have a horrible track record. He did however manage to get some new blood into the OHL side of things, and has favoured their decisions in drafting. Linden or whoever he hires will be wise to follow that trend, going back to WHL picks just to feel good because they're more local with the scouting we have in place could be a disaster.
Which brings up the real question of how hard it is to acquire good scouts. There are 30 NHL teams after all, and each team has up to 20 scouts. Hard to determine what makes a good scout, and you don't really see a lot of 'poaching' going on in the league. Gillis managed it once with Eric Crawford... from Ottawa I think? Who's focused on the OHL and is now running things.
So these are Gillis' OHL focused draft picks:
OHL: Bo Horvat, Cole Cassels, Jordan Subban, Miles Liberati, Brendan Gaunce, Niklas Jensen, Frankie Corrado, Alex Friesen, Cody Hodgson*
And these are Nonis WHL focused picks:
WHL: Yann Sauve*, Prab Rai*, Taylor Ellington, Dan Gendur, Michael Grabner, Evan Fuller, David Schultz
Guys with a * are from the transition draft from Nonis to Gillis. Not really surprising that under Gilis since that first draft there's only been 1 WHL pick, Hunter Shinkaruk.