Canes 2019 outside of Pyotr (he should have had that 2nd goal too) is meh:
View attachment 949171:
That draft signifies the issue that I think is afflicting the organization right now.
At the time, that was a great draft. For one thing, it was the draft where we traded Marleau for the Jarvis pick which was franchise-altering. Suzuki was a decent prospect at that draft position, and has struggled with injury and the COVID development pause. Jamieson Rees looked like a budding depth winger with some sandpaper in his game, like a LaRose or McGinn type. Honkka was a great use of a low 3rd, with a ton of upside that at one point seemed to be blossoming. Puistola was viewed as a potential steal. Fensore and Webber made an interesting contrast. And of course, Kochetkov was a future #1 goalie. With that many picks, you’d think that more than just Kochetkov would have hit.
Pronman
gave us an A- for that draft.
ESPN
gave us an A.
TSN
gave us an A.
Canes Country
seemed confident that we’d found some steals.
On paper, they did it right — stacked up picks, weaponized their cap space, picked high-potential fallers, spread their picks around to diversify their risks. No notes.
Then it just didn’t work out. The draft as a whole turned out to be a disappointment and all those picks but Kochetkov busted. What can you do? Sometimes the odds just don’t go your way.
The assumption was that by this time our talent pipeline would be very robust from hits on depth picks in the 2017-2022 drafts but that’s only been minimally true with Drury and Blake occupying fringe roles and a couple of good D prospects in the wings. We’re not seeing the emergence of replacement talent at core positions that the odds suggested we would have seen by now. Our best approximation of that to date was the Jarvis pick, which was more of a circumstantial move.
Given where we are in the cycle of this team’s build, I’m not sure it makes sense to keep following the original game plan. If we’re going to experience a long gap between Aho and the next 1C, Slavin and the next 1D, etc, we might be getting backed into a more traditional go-for-it/tank/rebuild dynamic. Not that it’s anyone’s fault, it’s just where we find ourselves.