[strombad]

Originally Posted by moon

Sure but you also have teams with top 3 picks that have won the Cup in the past 15 years:

TB
Chicago (3)
Pittsburgh (4)
Carolina
Los Angeles
Boston

And teams that had top 3 picks but drafted by another organization:

Anaheim

The teams that didn't have any top 3 picks Detroit, Dallas, Colorado, NJ.

So jugding by that if you can get a guy because his team pissed him off so bad he asked to leave or he got greedy (Roy, Pronger, Nieuwendyk, Belfour), have the greatest scouting in a time when that area is not well scouted (Detroit) or have a system that forces the league to change the rules (NJ) then perhaps you don't have to worry about top of the draft talent, but otherwise (and a lot more now that scouting is much more advanced) it appears that top of the draft talent is what is driving teams towards winning cups.

Doughty, Toews, Kane, Crosby, Malkin, Lecavalier, E. Staal. Their teams do not win Cups without them.

The number one thing I get out of your list up there is that if you have moron management (Lowe/Tambellini, Waddell, Milbury, Snow, Sherman) you will not be successul no matter where you draft.

If you have smart guys come in (Shero, Tallon/Bowman, Sakic) your team can take those picks and become a top of the league team.

Hopefully we have ditched our Lowe/Milbury/Waddell (Feaster) and now are moving into the top level GM (Shero et. al)

I don't disagree that you need elite talent to win the cup, but don't equate it to having top 3 picks in the draft.

It's just not all that important.