Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
The Sam pick was huge. I’d argue that Monahan and Tkachuk, the only other reasonably high picks, play at their draft position. But a 4OA should be your stud centre and if we could have run with a centre of, say Brayden Point quality, followed by Monahan and Backlund at their present levels (with or without Lindholm as well), the team would be a contender.
But yeah, 2015 PO run happened after the Sam draft, and the Flames got over excited and traded for Hamilton, with a pick that could have been Barzal, Conner, Boeser or Konecny (or some that didn’t work out of course).
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Monahan and Tkachuk are in the 80th+ percentile for 6OA picks (over the last ~30 years).
At least 40% of the 4OA's in that span are worse than Bennett. Shocking as it may be, he's damn near the median for that slot.
Since Francis/Yzerman, Backstrom is the best C taken 4OA (then Johansen and Weiss). Pietrangelo, Seth Jones, and Makar are the franchise D-men, and then there are a bunch of good to great wingers, and a bunch of disappointments.
It's anything but a guarantee to get a stud at 4OA. Collectively, our 6, 6, 4 picks are a lot better than one could expect.