Brutal contract!
I really like what PLD bring to the table... had Puljujarvi not fallen to 4, I wanted the Oilers to go for Juolevi, but if PC was hell bent on picking between Tkachuk and PLD, I wanted PLD.
I would have hoped the Oilers would have sent either Tkachuk or PLD back to junior. Puljujarvi is more NHL ready in my mind but would not be upset one bit if they sent JP back to Finland or to the AHL. Puljujarvi being more NHL ready is the reason he was more highly regarded than PLD but I would not be surprised at all if PLD ends up being better... my personal opinion is JP will be better but I've been wrong before and these are still very young men.
To me the only guaranteed pick was 1OA being Matthews... after that I don't think you can say anyone made a "mistake"... yet.
In the first round where consensus is so over analyzed, most GMs like to play the safe route and take the consensus BPA and other go the less popular route, going with their gut and swing for the fences. Let's be honest here, no one in the top 10 went way off the board.
I would bet not even one poster on HF could accurately name who, in this draft pool, will be the top 10 talents in 5 years time... never mind putting them in the correct order, but we will all be geniuses in 5 years, second guessing our own GMs pick &/or making fun of someone else's GM.