Mitts is by far the better player than Henrique today. Zegras has his warts, but also a better player with much higher upside than anybody, including Ritchie. You probably also don't have to trade Ritchie in any of those deals.
People are going a little wild with Ritchie hype since January. People should really look into most OHL centers of similar caliber and how they have transitioned over the last 10-15 years. I can list off many names that people will think are meh or bad players who were more dominant than Ritchie is today... that doesn't mean Ritchie won't be better or won't be good. Just this idea that he's a sure thing high end NHL player is way off base.
Absolutely, there are rarely any guarantees. Even players selected with Top-5 picks end up busting like Galchenyuk and Yakupov so in that sense, there are never any guarantees.
But the Avs have been so bad at drafting for soooo long, that they've
seemingly maybe hit on a late first round pick for the first time since Marc Denis? in 1995? I mean, it's about frikkin' time and I feel like it's our turn to have finally made a good pick that seems like he's trending in the right direction.
Personally, I feel like the Avs should be happy with that guy and
keep him but at the same time, still try to go out there and win the Cup. Whether that means Mitts, Zegras or Nelson or whatever, they should definitely do that.
They should break with their 'tradition' of thinking "this guy is just 1 year away from being a cheap #2C on entry level" like they did when they thought Jost would do that and then followed by Newhook and make the right decisions for
right now. That's one of the reasons why I like the addition of Nelson so much is because he gives you 2 cup runs and then you can see what you have with a young kid like Ritchie.
