Oilers didn't suck forever because they had no prospect depth.
They sucked because they kept pushing too many rookies into the NHL season after season while trading away guys who were just finishing developing.
When you dump guys like Cogliano, Gilbert, Petry, Brodziak, etc. for picks season after season it becomes impossible to fill the holes.
So a good NHL team only needs one or two prospects to step in and fill holes per season while they fill their other immediate needs through retaining vets, trades, and free agency.
Quality is always the most important thing in the NHL. Any team that desires can have 9 fourth liners sitting in their system ready to go at any time.
No one is going to trade 3 first round draft picks for 7 fourth round draft picks.
Likewise, its more important to have quality prospects over a lot of prospects. Of course having both quality prospects AND a lot of prospects at the same time is the best but saying quality=depth is asinine.
Look at the Flames own prospect list from 2013:
The top 3 is worth more than the rest of the list combined.
1. Monahan
2. Baertschi
3. Gaudreau
4. Gillies
5. Jankowski
6. Wotherspoon
7. Sieloff
8. Knight
9. Poirier
10.Klimchuck
11.Horak
12.Agostino
12.Granlund
14.Reinhart
15.Cundari
16.Ramage
17.Brossoit
18.Arnold
19.Breen
20.Berra
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