They weren't "all bums," but he had a lot of whiffs, given (8) 1sts and (6) 2nds. Some bad luck (Lindblom), some bad choices (Rubtsov, JOB, Laberge, Ginning), some both (Patrick). Provorov underachieved (relative to draft spot), so did NAK, TK overachieved. His good later round picks were Lindblom, Ersson and Cates. And Zamula as a UDFA. Nor did he hit any HRs, TK is the closest, maybe Farabee or Hart down the road.
York is already better than Provorov or Sanheim, though it's early, he could progress or regress.
Foerster will probably be as good as any forward drafted by Hextall other than TK and Farabee.
Brink??? Who knows.
Gauthier? He looks like a NHL lock, will he be worth a 5th or underachieve like Provorov.
Andrae looks like as good a bet as Hextall's late 2nd rd picks other than Hart.
Tou whiffed like Laberge and Ratcliffe.
We'll see if Samson, Gendron, et al develop, it took 5 years for Frost and Cates.
My point is that amateur scouting hasn't been a disaster, either under Hextall or Flahr. It could be better and more consistent.
However, look at the list of pro players brought in by Hextall, Gudas, MDZ, Schultz, White, PEB, VdV, Gagner, Medvedev, Neuvirth, Weal, Weise (4x2.65), Gordon, Lyubimov, Filppula, Lehtera, Elliott, JVR (5x7), Folin. Not exactly an exciting group.
