Reinhart looks good, don't get me wrong. But he doesn't look exceptional. By that I mean on the same level as the top 3 forwards picked last draft. He looks like he could be on the same tier as Monahan when he was drafted (although Monahan looks like he could possibly exceed his own projections - a 2-way 2nd line C - that were set then). To me, potential 1st line forwards and 1st pairing d-men come before anything else. Reinhart doesn't look as much of a sure thing to be a top line forward as Ekblad looks to be a top line D-man. There's definitely the makings of an eventual top pairing guy there, which we lack entirely in our prospect pool. Even the team we presently have can put up decent offensive numbers - averaging close to 3g/g. But our D is still sticking out like a sore thumb most nights (despite the issues in net). And we don't have much promise coming out of the farm, outside of Sieloff and Wotherspoon. But even Wotherspoon looks like a guy who'll likely top out as a second pairing player at best.
I'd say you go with the surest thing, and Ekblad has all the tools, smarts and size to become your number one or two d-man for years to come, whereas Reinhart looks to be as good as but not distinguishably better a forward than our 1st round picks last year, to comfortably say he'll be a guy on your 1st line in a couple seasons.
So I'd take Ekblad. Shore up the D, then take a swing for McDavid - a surefire 1st line and potential franchise forward - at the next draft. And it's likely we'll have more than one 1st this year as well, so we can look to further stockpile our RW pool with that.
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