I always like looking at what else was available at the time when going back to shred draft performance. It's one thing to not like what we got, but the players have to be available at those slots:
I'll show draft slot and good NHL'ers taken in the next 10-15 picks
2015:
34 - Dermott: 35 Aho, 37 Carlo, Blackwood 42, Cernak 43
61/65/68 - Bracco/Nielsen/Dzierkals: Kolesar 69, Cirelli 72, Adin Hill 76, Montembault 77
95 - Lindgren: 96 Nicolas Roy
125 - Timashov: 127 Mikkola, Kaprizov 135
155 - Desrocher: 159 Gavrikov
185 - Korostelev: 194 Matt Roy lol fuck
Especially with the whole trading down bit out the Konency spot, this one fucking hurts. Like, we were right that there were good players to pick between 30-70, we just fucking whiffed on them. This draft was pretty loaded with good NHL'ers and we just did a poor job of locating them.
2016:
31 - Korshkov: 35 Kyrou, 39 Debrincat,
57 - Grundstrom: 66 Fox
72 - Greenway: None
92 - Brooks: None
101 - Middleton: None
122 - Bobylev: None
152 - Walker: 159 Bagel, 162 Bratt
179/182 - Mattinen/Chebykin: None
Korshkov obviously hurts, I never understood the overage bullshit. I want to be a tiny bit upset about Adam Fox, but with how hard he was to sign and how his rights got passed around, he feels like he would have been one that got away anyway. I know this draft is generally considered to be in a knife fight with 2017 as the worst of the bunch but on a deeper look, it's because the draft itself sucked. Adam Fox is the only 3rd worth missing. Ross Colton the only 4th I'd want on our team now. Bratt & Hagel the only other two picks in the draft I'd even want on the team as well.
2017:
59 - Rasanen: 63 Zetterlung, 67 Geekie
110 - Ian Scott: 111 Swayman, 117 Bemstrom, 121 Batherson
124 - Kara: None
141 - Gordeev: None
172/203 - McGregor/O'Connell: None
Another pretty shit draft in the mid to late rounds. The obvious oof is that 110 pick and while you can't predict injuries, we did take a kid with a .895 in the WHL over a kid with a .914 in the USHL. Can't be too surprised it turned out to be the wrong pick.