turnbuckle said:
I still remember Calgary being lambasted for taking Derek Morris a few years back, mainly because he was ranked 80th or so on most lists. He ended up being one of the best players from the first round, and they got him witht he 13th pick.
Yeah, I remember that ... actually CSB had him ranked 100-something. It was pretty shocking, and everyone said, "Oh, you could have had him later." But then, what if someone else saw what you saw in him? Sometimes, if you're really sold on someone, you gotta take him regardless of anything else.
Another example was Peter Forsberg ... when the Flyers took him, everyone said he was drafted way too high. But their scouts said he was the best player available.
At some point, you just have to trust your scouts. After all, if a team's just going to go by general consensus, why bother hiring scouts at all? Might as well save themselves the money, buy a copy of the draft previews for a few bucks each, and draft strictly by the rankings. I'm sure if they felt Ryan and Johnson were equal they'd have gone with the bigger need ... that they went with Ryan suggests that they felt he was far and away the best player.