Watching Mackinnon (1st) do everything in his power to end the Blues tonight after watching Makar (4th) have one of the best four game sweeps in modern history the series before and recognizing that their heart and soul captain Landeskog was drafted 2nd while Byram (4th) keeps getting more and more responsibility and now has back-to-back multipoint nights, it becomes hard for me to recognize any argument that drafting at the top isn't a near necessity.
This is after watching the Oilers go up 3-1 on the back of two players, McDavid (1st) and Draisaitl (3rd) while Nugent-Hopkins (1st) is flirting with a point-per-game.
And watching the Lightning sweep the Eastern conference champs who relied on Barkov (2nd) and Ekblad (1st). Lightning did it with the immense help of Hedman (2nd), Stamkos (1st), and Sergachev (acquired in trade with third overall). And surely would have lost against the Matthews (1st) and Marner (4th) led Leafs without them.
Sure, you can build around the 4th overall if you're the Blues. Just as long as that pick ends up being your 30 minute a night, elite defenseman, a rookie goaltender comes out from nowhere to post a 0.950% in the four Stanley Cup finals wins, you get another minute crunching top pick defenseman for a mid 1st rounder, and are gifted a Conn Smythe winning center for peanuts.
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