Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Darryl's most serious flaw as a GM was in his drafting record, and this was well before he lost his mind. Yes, he snagged Brodie and Ferland in later rounds, and Backlund and Phaneuf were great first-round picks. But beyond these four guys there is almost nothing there through eight drafts. Out of 59 players he selected, nine played +200 NHL games, and Ferland and Backlund are the only forwards to score +50 career goals.
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This is unquestionably true.
However, some more information is also required here.
This was Darryl's first gig as a GM. Nobody was guiding him and mentoring him. He did unquestionably make the team a more talented squad under his tenure, and then it started waning towards the end.
As for scouting (and development, which is a crucial part of it), it was Sutter who got buy-in from the owners to expand both departments. Hired additional scouts, had them commit at the time to owning their own AHL team to control (which would have happened eventually, but he did have the foresight to push for it at the time), and so on.
Todd Button gave a really insightful interview way back when in discussing the drafts year over year. He pointed at the '07 and '08 drafts as being a huge turning point for this franchise. That's when they started identifying what kinds of prospects to go after - emphasis on character and compete, as well as IQ. That's when they set on the methodology that they still currently work under (though unquestionably have added to it, I am sure). You see it in the picks that they made since then. That 2007 draft should have been a home run - Backlund, Negrin, Aulie, Renaud (RIP), with only the 7th rd pick never looking like a bona fide future NHL'er. The rest all did after the draft. That's when this organization started becoming a better drafting team in my mind. Too little too late, but there was a lot of work to be done to get to that point.
I also remember the 2010 draft wrap-up with Button. He basically summarized that draft as drafting for 'IQ'.
Yes, Darryl's draft record was not good in hindsight, but I do think that context matters, and also knowing that Darryl wasn't happy about it and made the commitment to improve it - and I argue that it was improving.
Wahl was a home-run pick before his career got derailed.
Max Reinhart looked like a great pick even a few years after the draft. Everyone thought he was looking like a can't miss player.
Ramage (though picked lower than 1st and 2nd round picks that I am talking about) looked like an astute pick-up as well - solid play even after the draft, and had leadership intangibles out of the park (college and US national team) - but just failed.
Joey Leach was looking like he was going to be a player, then a bad knee ended that.
Erixon - as much as we hate him, a redraft 2 years later would see him ranked much higher and he was looking like a complete stud, until he suddenly sucked.
Howse was a bad pick - scouts didn't see beyond his wicked shot I think.
Nemisz was absolutely a bust and not a great player at all, but I get why they drafted him. Very cerebral player, just a total lack of footspeed which they thought (wrongly) that they could correct. I understood this pick, even if I didn't agree with it.
At the end of the day, results matter, and though I credit Darryl with really starting the turnaround at the drafting and development level, but you can't argue that he was successful there. I do think that context matters, especially considering the development program was basically non-existent, and this team had one full-time scout and a few part-timers. Things were awful, but I think you have to take a few steps back and see the direction in which things were moving towards at least.
