Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
It actually is just that. It's the beginning, and one that no Stanley Cup Champion can skip. There's plenty that has to be done right after making the top picks, but without making those top picks first nothing else really matters.
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Vegas didn't. St. Louis didn't. Florida had two top-3 picks in the organization, from drafts 10 and 11 years before they won the Stanley Cup.
I find it interesting to look at Florida's top picks. They have picked in the top 3 seven times in their history. Ekblad and Barkov won the Cup there. The other five players were Ed Jovanovski, Jay Bouwmeester, Nathan Horton, Erik Gudbranson, and Jonathan Huberdeau, none of whom ever got a sniff at winning in a Florida uniform.
About all you can say is that if a team has that many top draft picks spread out over the years, it's pretty much guaranteed that
some of them will be on the roster if the club ever wins a championship.