2-3 NHLers
He didn't even get us AHL talent for the most part in 2016 outside of the Top 60, what are you trying to defend here?
Matthews - obvious pick
Korshkov - huge reach that is looking terrible
Grundstrom - awesome, traded
Woll - trending very well, goalies are voodoo
----Top 60 divider----
Greenway - USHL overager, trending horribly
Brooks - originally 2014 eligible, fine AHLer whose NHL potential is very much in question
Middleton - went unsigned
Bobylev - went unsigned
Mattinen - went unsigned
Walker - went unsigned
Chebykin - mediocre VHLer, will go unsigned
So you have an obvious pick in Matthews and then only Grundstrom (a Top 60 pick) as a near guaranteed NHLer. This Draft was nearly 3 years ago and there is really nothing to show for it other than Matthews (an obvious pick who Hunter should not get credit for) and a promising G prospect in Woll. Great, but he had 11 (!!!) Picks.
You can't just ignore the Grundstrom pick. He was arguably the main piece in getting Muzzin. If you get two NHLers from a draft you did fairly well.
I think people commonly ignore the actual odds of the draft. If 3 of Hunter's 5 2nd round picks actually become top-9 players or Top 4 players, that is a very high success rate given the odds (about 20% or less). Dermott is clearly an NHLer, Grundstrom looks to be a top-9 player, and Bracco has a solid chance. Past that, Woll and Scott are very good goalie prospects. Obviously, some of Hunter's shine goes away if he missed on Liljegren, but even that pick was basically a coin-flip odds wise. It also shouldn't be ignored that he went with Marner over Hanifin. The industry was heavily leaning Hanifin, so that wasn't a "give-me" choice. Would I rather have Debrincat, Girard, or Hart than Korshkov? Absolutely. But, I do think you are grossly inflating the rate the 31st pick becomes something of significant value. A good drafter doesn't mean a perfect drafter. Even teams who organizations who get often praised for great drafting like Tampa have sizable blemishes on their record (Koekkeok over Forsberg).
I don't think ELC's should be the primary source of measuring success in a late-round pick. For some reason, SDA has gotten one, and he hasn't come close to earning it this year. Also, when there is a regime change, the next regime may be less willing to sign guys from the previous regime to ELC's. SDA absolutely didn't get an ELC on merit, he got it because he was a flagship Dubas pick and that pick and move will be tied to Dubas for that. Nothing past Sandin from that draft is likely to be an NHLer or even has odds above 25% or so.
Hunter helped turn around an organization that was a complete disaster drafting outside the top 10 from anywhere outside of Sweden for years into something that was at least competent, to even good. Was he some "super-scout" the Toronto media went overboard with? Hell no. But, the Toronto media pretty much always overpromotes people until they can tear them down when it comes to hockey management.