Meh, you can’t look at it like that. There’s always some guy behind your guy who was better. Some years you get lucky and some years you don’t, and I do believe there’s a significant portion of this that is pure luck. I don’t agree with our philosophy of so many small euro players or guys who are really one way oriented. We are very Rod centric. So even if we draft a Datsyuk he’d have to be playing at a Datsyuk level the day he showed up to really have a chance with us. We also are neglecting the players the coach would actually play, some of which could develop the offense as they go. It’s just as likely a guy with size puts the skills together as it is likely a smaller super skilled euro gets strong enough and plays enough defensively to excel at the NHL level for a guy like Rod. Yes, you can find a Janksowsky for cheap but you can always find an under utilized smaller euro player with good skill that doesn’t consistently score (or play tough on the boards, puck battle or backcheck very well) for cheap too.
I think we should just be drafting all types of players instead of hyper focusing as much as we seem to do. The Artamonov pick is a great example. Wasn’t considered a high end scorer (probably still isn’t), was drafted for his high paced engine/forecheck but he’s showing some pop already. More of that please. That guy always had a chance to play for Rod.