When you compare SJ's top prospects from the past six drafts to two of the better drafting teams during that period, LA and Mtl, there's not much debate over which list is lacking.
Here is Los Angeles' top 20 prospects from the past six drafts.
Alexander Frolov
Mike Cammalleri
Dustin Brown
Lubomir Visnovsky
Jeff Tambellini
Brian Boyle
Laurie Tukonen
Anze Kopitar
Denis Grebeshkov
Andreas Lilja
Cristobol Huet
Yannick Lehoux
Jens Karlsson
Dave Steckel
Jaroslav Bednar
Sergie Anshakov
Peter Kanko
Aaron Rome
Brady Murray
Dany Roussin
Not a single top ten pick among those selections, but I would certainly take it over san Jose's last six drafts. In fact, if every team were to make a list of it's top 20 prospects form the past six drafts, I would hazard to guess that San Jose's list would rank in the bottom five. That may change through time, but at this point it doesn't look overly impressive.
Montreal's top 20 from the past six drafts:
Komisarek
Kostitsyn
Price
Chipchura
Perezhogin
Higgins
Lapierre
Hainsey
Hossa
Balej
Plekanec
Latendresse
O'Byrne
Streit
Grabovsky
Mikus
Locke
Yemelin
Halak
Milroy
San Jose's top 20
Michalek
Bernier
Setoguchi
Ehrhoff
Goc
Kaspar
Morris
Hennessy
Patzold
Ehelechner
Carle
vlasic
Plihal
DiSalvatore
Greiss
I can't do the rest. The rest are, to be kind, not top rated players, I can't rank them without making a guess. Why exactly have they drafted about a dozen goalies in the past six years? Has anyone ever told them that you can only dress two at a time?
They may have a history of devloping goalies, but teams like Buffalo are finding out that there is not a huge demand for third-string goalies any more. There are enough good goalies in the professional ranks that most teams have at least two good goalies each in their system. I'd be looking to beef up their less than imposing defensive and forward prospects rather than trying to become six-deep in the nets.
Anyway; enough ranting. If I'm a SJ fan, I have some concern over the club's drafting in the past six seasons. It hasn't been showing up on the ice yet, because the team is presently reaping the benefits of strong drafting in the previous decade. I don't know your team's scouting history as far as who always called the shots, but I get the feling that Dean Lombardi didn't get enough credit for putting together a solid scouting team in the 90's, and he is missed. The drafting of Hannan, Sturm, Marleau, Stuart, Cheechoo, Rathje, Kipper, Nabby and Toskala are a big reason why the team has been a player in the western conference for at least three of thenew millennium's NHL seasons.
Poor drafting IMO over the past six seasons, however, is why San Jose is not going to get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup any time soon. If the Sharks were entering this season with Cammaleri, Frolov, Grebeshkov, Brown, Vishnovsky and Tambellini instead of Michalek, Goc and Ehrhoff I'd be picking them as western favourites. Their lack of depth, particularly on the prospect front, however, leads me to believe that they will be closer to fifth or sixth than first in the west.