[Nuje]

Building through the draft is not the secret to success, but it's probably the best avenue to it. Success in the NHL is based on having

A. The players to win, and
B. The coach(es) to guide them.

Sounds simple. You can hire any coach available. With point A though, the salary cap is in the way. You need bang for the buck. The best way to get that (by far) is to build through the draft. Sutter instead:

1. gave up a draft pick to acquire an injury prone 3rd pairing defenseman
2. Replaced that with a lower draft pick, and gave up a $650 000 Dustin Boyd, rather than say, a $1 300 000 David Moss (who has less points, is older, slower, and while it's certainly an off year for him, the guy's 28, this is as good as he'll get)
3. Insisted on Jamal Mayers coming in the Phaneuf trade, even though Prust did the same thing for half the money
4. Gave up Prust (which in Sutter's eyes neccesitated Mayers as just mentioned), along with Jokinen (who was a UFA, and would either make less money next year, or simply be out of our hair) for Kotalik, who will be making 3 million a year for the next 2 years.

That's just a small bit of his moves this year. Now I think Tod Button should be out of a job (and should've been a while ago). But even he finds the occasional good player. As mentioned, Howse seems like he's going in the right direction right now (although the first round pick of Erixon should've been Despres instead IMO if they really wanted a dman). I think that John Negrin will be able to be a competent 2nd pairing guy with some skill, and T.J. Brodie seems like a nice steal. Our 1st rounders since Phaneuf, outside of Backlund, seem to be atrocious though.

I like Matt Pelech a lot, and years after the draft (unless the guy went top 10 or so), I don't expect a player to have to live up to his draft position, but the GM and scouting should have to answer to the effectiveness of their scouting. It is seriously sub-par.