This is awesome and greatly appreciated.
It shows that Rutherford has tried to keep from completely emptying the cupboard.
However, wherever people say that we have no prospects, what they really mean is high-end ones.
Other than the last two drafts, we have one player still in the system and not busted who was drafted in the first *three* rounds: Bjorkqvist. I guess Philips, too, if you want to count him.
He's done better keeping higher end picks the last two years, but that much missing for that long really hurts the pipeline.
Now, I'm not blaming him for a lot of it, as a lot of those picks were put to good use, and many were spent by Shero, too, but that's what people look at when they say that he has mortgaged the future.
Don't kid yourself - JR definitely trades away a _lot_ of draft picks. More so than Shero did, in fact.
JR has made 30 picks as a Pens' GM, out of a possible 42 (6 drafts, 7 rounds per draft). Granted, three of those picks were traded by Shero, but the rest were traded by JR. So he's picked 71.4% of the picks he could have.
When looked at on a per-round basis, though, it gets worse, as most of the picks he's retained are in the later rounds:
Round 1: 2/6
Round 2: 6/6 (he acquired a couple extras to make up for others that he traded away)
Round 3: 3/6
Round 4: 2/6
Round 5: 7/6
Round 6: 5/6
Round 7: 5/6
Rutherford has traded away almost 1 out of every 5 picks the Pens have had while he has been GM.
For comparison, here's what Shero did during his 8 drafts as Pens' GM:
44 picks made out of 49 possible (89.8%) (two picks had been traded away by Craig Patrick)
Round 1: 7/8
Round 2: 5/8
Round 3: 7/8
Round 4: 9/8
Round 5: 8/8
Round 6: 10/8
Round 7: 4/8
Of course, it's also worth pointing out that Rutherford won two Stanley Cups, and Shero won one. That's the goal after all. Stockpiling a prospect pool doesn't mean much if it doesn't translate into success.
