Add Nylander/Ehlers, and Tkachuk to the team we have and our forward group is easily done (in terms of main components in the top 6). Now add in some competent D acquisitions and we're probably looking good right now. But like you said, he's merely average at drafting and his pro scouting and asset management is a complete and utter failure.
It's just so f***ing stupid too. We could have
easily traded Tkachuk for either an elite D prospect or a guy who's very good now. TB was able to flip Drouin for Sergachev but for some reason we draft positional need. If we didn't draft positional need it's even more concerning because they either didn't see the obvious that Tkachuk should have gone ahead of Juolevi or they just didn't like Tkachuk, which is somehow actually a possibility given that Tkachuk said they clearly had no interest in him at the interview. You know drafting Virtanen over Nylander/Ehlers was pretty bad and it really cost this franchise. Drafting Juolevi was awful and inexcusable. I know we make fun of people for bringing up Gillis, but if Gillis had drafted Juolevi ahead of Tkachuk/Keller/Sergachev and maybe even Nylander2 it would still be cited as grounds for his dismissal today.
For Christ's sake we hear about Gillis missing with his very late 1st round picks and not getting players in later rounds where we traded picks away to acquire guys like Higgins/Lapierre who almost put us over the top for a cup. We still hear about how bad the Hodgson pick was when he overruled the scouting staff who wanted to pick Beach followed by Hodgson not only having a serious back injury but ended up getting a rare disease that pretty much prevents him from rigorous physical activity.
Brackett. wanted Boeser, Benning listened so we have to kneel before him.
Gillis hired Brackett as he was in the midst of retooling another one of his great inheritances in the worst scouting staff in the league
Gradin wanted Pettersson, Benning listened so we have to kneel before him.
Gillis identified Gradin as one of our best scouts
Gradin wanted Nylander
f*** that lets take Virtanen, local boy! Hey this isn't Benning's fault though, plus we wouldn't have sucked enough to get other high picks like Pettersson!
Benning passed on Pastrnak for McCann. Benning reportedly blames scouting staff (haven't confirmed this though).
Boy how that tune has changed since McCann had his hot start with us where again Benning was such a drafting genius!
Oh look we have good depth from later picks. Never mind that Benning doesn't actually have an impact on later picks rather than relying on the scouting staff, much of which Gillis assembled, to pick them.
Gillis got our #3D Hutton , our #1D Tanev, and our #1C Horvat as amateurs. Reminder that the trade to get Horvat played a part in his dismissal.
Benning with multiple high picks got Pettersson, Boeser, Stetcher and a bunch of prospects that are hyped up but may never make the NHL. Lind got tons of attention last year as the cream of the Canucks crop, where is he now? Gadjovich? I like some of our prospects but we're certainly not a modern day juggernaut of prospect depth.
It drives me up the wall that the majority of this fanbase
still believes this nonsense. Lots of teams with high pick after high pick look like good exciting teams with youth in the pipeline but that's where they stay for a decade because in reality they're just picking high and they're doing so because they can't actually improve the team at a higher rate than the rest of the NHL outside of their top 10 picks.
I know we've all had this discussion a million times and nothing new is being said in this post, but venting is the only way I stay sane watching this team stay in purgatory while the fans are asleep completely ignorant to the reality that it takes more than drafting to build a franchise, let alone that Gillis' poor draft record was entirely excusable due to the circumstances. Why the hell does everyone have to judge everything in a vacuum with complete disregard for the various factors affecting it?
*flips table*