I remember seeing a lot of down comments over the years about this draft class, with some people citing it as one of the weakest draft classes in history. However once you get past the abysmal 1st overall pick (Remember “Fail for Nail”?). it actually is a pretty talented draft class: Morgan Rielly (5th) put up over 70 points this year and looks like a Norris contender in the next few years, Hampus Lindholm (6th OA) is an elite 2-way defender, Matt Dumba (7th) is already all-star caliber and is set to take over as Minnesota's 1D after Suter slows down, Jacob Trouba (9th) has developed into a top-2 Defender at this point. Filip Forsberg (11th) is a legitimate star you can build a contending forward corps around. Tomas Hertl (17th) scored at nearly a point-per-game pace last season. Last but certainly not least, Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th)is the reigning Vezina winning goalie. On top of all those guys there are lots of solid picks later in the draft that have played valuable roles in the NHL like Olli Maata (22nd) and Brady Skjei (28th). Even Galchenyuk (3rd) who has not met his lofty expectations is still a legit top 6 forward who has scored 30 goals before, and Ryan Murray (2nd) hasn’t been “bad” so much as hobbled by injuries (as we saw this past season).
Overall, this “historically weak” draft class looks pretty stacked with talent, especially on the blue-line.
There are some good dmen, but overal, it's definitely not stacked. It's weak, but some solid D talent came out of it.
The forwards are quite clearly a large step down from most other draft classes, and compare the defense - Rielly, Trouba, Skjei, Maatta, and Murray, to say:
2013 - Seth Jones, Ristolainen, Pesce, Zadorov, Nurse, Morrissey, Theodore, Pulock, and Ben Fricken Harpur.
2014 - Ekblad, Montour, Sanheim, Deangelo (2012 D is much better, but not enough to make up for the amount of offense in that draft, like Point, Ehlers, Draisaitl, Larkin, Pastrnak, Nylander).
2015 - Werenski, Provorov, Hanifin, Carlo, Nutivaara, Chabot, Dermott
There may be some good D, but it doesn't really set itself apart from most years, and the forward talent overall is quite frankly atrocious. only 4 forwards with more than 200 points. Despite having 1 less year to accomplish that, 2013 already has 6. Despite having 2 less years, 2014 already has the same, 4. Despite having 3 less seasons, 2015 already has the same, 4. If Debrincat has another year like last, 2016 will have 4 after this season.
Overall, it's definitely a bad draft class. Average, maybe a little above in terms of dmen, bottom of the barrell for forwards.