We see players drafted high getting multiple chances and opportunities in order to “achieve their potential”, living off their draft position for a long time.
With a guy like Mangiapane, you see the opposite. In spite of impressive progression and numbers, people tend to be skeptical that it’s sustainable purely due to draft position.
If Bennett had put up numbers like this he would have been “finally finding his game”, and we would be wanting to lock him up for top dollar. With Mangiapane there’s the tendency to be suspicious that he can sustain it and to spend the dollars to commit it to him. If he was drafted in the first round, the perspective would be totally different.
It’s draft rank discrimination.
Ultimately, any player can fall off a cliff. But he has done nothing but play hard, tenacious, intelligent, and highly productive hockey since he came into the league.
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