Islanders who just plain suck.
It's amazing how with so many top picks, they still have so many holes.
- They had five straight top-5 picks.
- Two firsts in 2009.
- Three seconds in 2008.
- #7 in 2006 and 13 picks total that draft.
- In 2000 they had not one, but two top-5 picks, including #1 overall.
- FOUR (!) first rounders in 1999, 3 of which were in the top-10.
- #9 in 1998.
- Again, two top-5 picks in 1997.
- #3 overall in 1996.
- #2 overall in 1995.
All these players should still be playing in the NHL. That's a full dozen top-5 picks and 3 more between #6 and #9.
Prior to this, they had top-10 picks in 5 of 6 drafts between 1989 and 1994. They aren't expected to still be playing, but should've been helpful in the recent past. Such a plethora of top picks and yet no results.
You would think that if they just followed THN and drafted people that way without signing anyone, they would've already filled up their lineup. But there are still massive gaps.
1) The defense has major holes and they need pretty much every decent prospect to make the NHL to fill those holes, which is not possible because some prospects always bust.
2) Goaltending is totally busted.
3) Even the forwards are not great. On the RW are two average players: Okposo and Grabner, then nothing. Moulson is a good LW and they better hope either Strome or Nino develops into a top-6 guy. Centers (Tavares, Nielsen, Bailey) are ok, but not spectacular after Tavares.
The reality is that they need another two years of sucking to draft another RW in the top-5 and another D in the top-5. That or completely collapsing and pulling a first overall so they could add a star. Then they'd still need to acquire a goalie.
