Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSquatch
Oh, don't get me wrong, Valimaki, Andersson etc look great to me, and I don't have any idea about Button's role in getting those specific guys into the organization. Maybe he was crucial. Maybe what held back Tod Button's genius for years was the "win now, who needs picks?" attitude of basically the entire management staff and ownership group, going back 20 years now. But for every Valimaki, there's 10 Rico Fatas. There's Kyle Greentrees EDIT just looked and don't see him, so maybe Greg Nemisz is a better example), and ... these are the guys we REMEMBER. There's also a hugely long list of guys we'd never remember - Garret Bembridge anyone? And I get that drafting isn't ever going to be even 50%, I really do. But the flames swung and missed and missed and missed and missed for so many years, don'tcha think? When your big draft "hit" in a 5 year span is David Moss.... there's an issue.
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Look at any NHL team and find me a franchise that has more hits than misses in the draft. The major majority of drafted players, outside the top 15 picks or so, do not have a full NHL career and many many top 10 picks bust.
Look at the Red Wings who were pretty much the gold standard of drafting in the early 2000’s. In 2001 none of their picks have made the NHL. In 2002 only 3/10 players drafted have had a real NHL career. In 2003: 2/8. In 2004: 1/8.
We have Rico Fata, Greg Nemisz, Mitch Wahl, etc. but every team has examples of those. Gilbert Brule (#6), Peter Mueller (#8), Nikita Filatov (#6), Cam Barker (#3), Alex Burmistrov (#8), Griffin Reinhart (#4), and the list goes on and on.
The NHL draft is mostly a crapshoot.