I'll say this; I've always been a much bigger fan of the puck possession, high-skill, cerebral type of players and type of hockey than the big, strong, physically dominant kind.
But let's look at this from another angle; do we think we can realistically build a team that is more purely skilled than Edmonton, than Toronto, than perhaps Winnipeg or Buffalo? If we tank for years, get lucky with the draft lottery in the right years.. maybe. Or if we just go insane with late round picks and assemble another Dats/Z/Lids core. But right now, pure skill and puck possession is at a premium. Everyone is looking for it. Guys like Lias Andersson and Elias Pettersson would not go top 10 in the past. Erik Brannstrom and Cale Makar would be late 1st round picks if 1st rounders at all. Everyone is chasing this same style, because it's been successful.
But when everyone is going in one direction, you can either follow and try to beat everyone at that game or you can ask "what are other teams potentially overlooking right now?". Maybe, just maybe, there are teams looking too hard at the skill factor right now. It doesn't really matter in a playoff series if you're a skilled team, if you're not MORE SKILLED than the other team you're unlikely to win barring unexpected events. Our road to a cup in the next 10-15 years will go through guys like Matthews/Marner/Nylander, Eichel/Reinhart/O'Rielly, McDavid/Draisatl/Puljujarvi, etc.
Are we going to beat them at their own game? Or are we simply going to beat them up? Line up Rasmussen, Mantha and Svechnikov against them and we at least have a physical advantage. We saw how huge that was when San Jose, Anaheim, Boston etc. became huge matchup problems for us. Those teams weren't without skill, but they weren't on the level of Dats/Z/Lids. They were simply bigger, stronger. LA never had a core like Crosby/Malkin/Letang, but they were big and tough as nails to play against. If you can't be the most skilled team in the league, being the biggest or the toughest may be the second best thing.
Luckily, we're not without skill either. And we're adding d-men like Hronek/Saarijarvi/Hicketts who may complement the big forward group with smart and skilled puck-movement. If nothing else, we may be starting to carve out a road map. A lot of things need to fall into place for us to be successful, but the nice thing is the higher we draft the better our chances of actually finding size+skill in the same player.