obey86
Registered User
- Jun 9, 2009
- 8,013
- 1,274
We have no idea what Mantha and Larkin will do when they get to the professional level. Mantha isn't setting the world on fire in the AHL right now. Brendan Smith was considered one of the top college players and yet he hasn't become anything close to what was projected when he was drafted.
If you look over the past 20 years we have two really good NHL players: Kronwall and Fischer. Everyone else is a bust or is a a run of the mill NHL'er (ie, David Legwand already had three 40+ point seasons when he was Riley Sheahan's age).
The draft picks
2010: Sheahan - run of the mill NHL'er.
2008: McCollum - bust.
2007: Smith - mediocre d-man.
2005: Jakub Kindl - mediocre 7th d-man.
2000: Niklas Kronwall - very good d-man.
1998: Jiri Fischer - very good d-man.
1996: Jesse Wallin - bust ville.
1995: Maxim Kuznetsov - bust bust bust.
1994: Yan Golubovsky - hella bust.
So out of 9 guys who had plenty of time to develop, 2 of them were very good NHL players. Generously that's a 25% success rate.
So yes, Ken Holland loves him some magic beans.
Dave Legwand was the #2 overall pick. NHL ready. When are people going to stop comparing the Wings draft/development strategy to other teams? Kronwall didn't do crap until age 26. Howard was a "bust" until age 25. Franzen didn't break out until 27. It took Ericsson SEVEN YEARS before he became a solid full time NHL player. The examples go on and on. The Wings draft/development is unique compared to the rest of the league...party due to having no high draft picks for 20 whatever years.
AND Ken Holland wasn't general manager before 1997.
So again, since Holland (excluding Mantha, who knows):
3 busts, 2 very good NHLers, and 1 run of the mill player (even though I think Sheahan is definitely better than run of the mill and is still growing as a player/too early to say he has hit his ceiling but I digress).
I guess we should just trade all of our draft picks every season huh? Because there are definitely more busts than hits overall in every found.
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