[Phanuthier]

I think you're just overthinking it H&L ... both guys just picked the best player avail. Hey sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Its easier to pick a guaranteed talent at 13th overall and 6th overall then in the mid-20's.

The whole mandate and vision thing is overrated; granted, Darryl did admit his misread the direction the NHL went and changed strategy in 2006, and by 2007 on drafting has started to pay dividends; but its always been BOP. The only "stamp" put on is really an ego stamp... its the scouting staff that do 99% of the work. They liked Jankowski, so they specifically targetted him. Otherwise they specifically like Sieloff, so they targetted him. Just because Sieloff is a 2nd round pick, doesn't mean he doesn't follow some mandate or ego stamp or whatever... the process is likely the same.

Also - not really an exact science on how you draft, a lot of it is development too. A development program that was crap / did not exist (didn't even have a farm team) so it had to be rebuilt, and now you are seeing the dividends pay off for it.