Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
You know, even Jankowski at 21st that year wasn’t way outside what the others at that position have done. Maata was the consensus around there IIRC. And he has been a bit of a disappointment. The others from 21 onward are pretty underwhelming. Oddly, the picks above him are generally pretty good except for Yak, Reinhart and Koekkoek.
That leaves Bennett who for sure hasn’t lived up to his spot.
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Regarding Bennett, he's only a little below the average expectation for a 4OA pick, but that's a whole other debate for another thread (I listed all 4OAs since 1980 in rough order in a Bennett thread not too long ago)
The Flames have rarely really missed out on a stud by a pick or two either way on many of their picks...even back to Tkazuk and Fata, we certainly should have come away with NHL roster players, but the realistic best case scenario was a Malhotra/Antropov/Samsonov, without dropping all the way to 12 (Tanguay and Hossa).
IMO 2012 is probably the biggest 'what could have been'. To be fair, it was just a weird draft - probably the worst top 10 ever, and almost certainly the best 11-20 ever. 9 of those 10 appear to be reliable NHLers for the next few years (Grigorenko being the exception, and it's probably not a talent level issue).
Wilson and Teravainen were great value players on cup runs (could add Maatta x2 at 22 too), Hertl and Forsberg to the finals, Ceci and Vasilevsky to the conf. finals. Calgary is desperate for another legitimate top 6 forward; three of the next four forwards taken are exactly that...the worst case is Girgenson, who has reliably and cheaply been contributing for years comparably to what Janko's ceiling appears to be. Imagine an alternate timeline with Tom Wilson a Flame...sooooo many things happen differently (most notably no Neal/Lucic...probably never end up with Bill Peters either).
I don't have any problem with Janko, and I retain optimism that he can contribute. In hindsight, trading down was inarguably a massive mistake (all 7 players are better than the him, 5/7 are a lot better), but the thing Feaster and Weisbrod ####ed up the worst was showing such hubris and putting insane expectations on Jankowski. Would it have been so hard to say "we obviously like the player, or we wouldn't have traded down for him. He's young and raw and we will need to be patient"?