Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagger
There is some luck involved with things like injuries, personal situations and what not but a lot of developing guys comes down to how you handle your players.
It's no wonder Detroit could seamlessly transition from core player to core player when Holland knew what he was doing keeping those players in certain leagues for X amount of years, and then brings them in with a specific plan for where they play and for how long, before they're fully settled.
Or why Edmonton's first rebuild with Gagner, Cogliano, O'Marra and Nilsson went belly up when Lowe through many of them into the league prematurely. I mean Gagner was considered 2-3 years away but made the team out of a camp weighing not much more than a paper weight, and constantly finding himself on different lines and different situations.
You mention how Bogosian potentially had the highest ceiling of that stacked d-class, which is true. But Waddell saw his job in jeopardy and needed to justify that he was bringing talent through the organization so he threw him in there right away, even though he probably could have used another year in the CHL at the minimum(his upside was always down the line).
Look at Stamkos Tampa put him in right away, Melrose thought he was awful and gave him almost no time, and then suddenly he's given a top 6 role and he flourishes overnight. What would a year of Melrose done to his development? You can control a lot of these things as a GM if you know exactly what you're getting yourself into.
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What Holland is real good at is keeping prospects in the AHL almost too long - it's the opposite of rushing them in and the advantage is once their 3-year ELCs expire they aren't proven stars yet so you can re-sign them cheaper.
Everyone likes to evaluate teams' drafting ability but that is only 50% of the equation, the other important part is development and Edmonton is the prime example of how if you're bad at the latter, it doesn't matter how good you are at the former.
Out of all their "future superstars" only Hall has taken a step forward this year.
It's development. Not just drafting.