You want facts, ok here we go...
Cale Makar jumped from college straight onto an NHL playoff roster with 0 AHL games. His first game as a pro was literally a playoff game.
Cole Caufield jumped from college onto an NHL playoff roster ( a team that made the Stanley Cup Final) after playing 4 AHL games
Luke Hughes jumped straight from college onto an NHL playoff roster with 0 AHL games
Wyatt Johnston made Dallas as a 19 year old with 0 AHL games, a Dallas team that went to the conference finals.
Matty Beniers joined Seattle for a cup of coffee (9 games) at the end of the year following his sophomore year at UM, his first full season in the NHL his team made the playoffs, beat the defending champs in the 1st round and went to Game 7 in the 2nd round.
Matt Boldy joined the Wild's AHL affiliate for 10 games following his college season, played 14 games to begin the next season and then became a key contributor on a playoff team.
Matthew Knies jumped from college straight onto an NHL playoff roster with 0 AHL games. His 4th career game was a playoff game
Brock Faber jumped from college straight onto an NHL playoff roster with 0 AHL games. His 3rd career game was a playoff game.
Quinn Hughes joined Vancouver for a cup of coffee (5 games) at the end his college season at UM, his first full season his team made the playoffs, finished 7th in the conference, won a qualifying round, beat the defending champs in the 1st round, and lost in the conference semi-finals in 7 games.
Trying to tell us that these players were playing for bottom feeder teams with "Nothing to f***** play for" is so patently absurd, I can't believe you even typed it, even funnier that you ask to "keep it factual". The amount of made up stuff that you type to defend Rob Blake's unprecedented and horrible development strategies is truly amazing.
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But you know what team did have "Nothing to f**** play for" ? The 2020-2021 Los Angeles Kings, who finished with the 7th worst record in the NHL, 15 points out of a playoff spot and had multiple glaring holes at C. And how many games did the Kings #2 overall pick C play that year for a team with "Nothing to f***** play for", surely it was a full season, right?
Congrats, you have 9 players out of what, 50? 75? 100?
You also seem to confuse teams who HAPPEN to make the playoffs (Seattle, Montreal, Minnesota,) with teams who are actually going for it (Colorado, Toronto etc)
How convient that you leave out JACK Hughes, who you originally mentioned, you mentioned Caufield, but not Kotkenami, and not Slavosky....wonder why,
But let's see going from Turcotte's draft in 2019,
Jack Hughes, right in to the NHL, nothing to play for immediately
Kakko right in the NHL, great results so far
Dach, right in the NHL great results so far
Byram, right in the NHL, traded
Turcotte, right to the AHL, injured every other week
Seider, 1 year in the AHL, then to the NHL,
Cozens, right to the NHL, nothing to play for immediately
Broberg, 3 seasons in the AHL ( f*** I thought LA was the only one to do this)
Zegras, right to the NHL, nothing to play for, AND he's being shopped.
Podkolzin, 2.5 seasons in the AHL (again, f***, weren't LA the only ones to do this?)
That's just top 10, out of those picks, Byram was the only one who went right in, on a playoff team who had something to play for.
How about 2020 you ask?
Lafenrierre - right to the NHL, not a playoff contender, great results so far
Byfield - 3 seasons split, AHL/NHL with 59 AHL games played, covid year
Stultze - right into the NHL, nothing to play for immediately
Raymond - right into the NHL, nothing to play for immediately
Sanderson - right into the NHL, nothing to play for immediately
Drysdale - right into the NHL nothing to play for immediately AND traded
Holtz - 3 seasons split AHL/NHL....damn another team to do what LA did
Quinn - 2 seasons in the AHL
Rossi - 3 seasons in the AHL (complicated because of heart issue)
Perfetti - 2 seasons in the AHL..
NYR, LA, OTT, Detroit, Anahieim, NJ, BUF, MIN WPG, all non playoff teams except WPG and MIN, and look both players played in the AHL....
Wait, you say, what about 2021?
Powers -straight into the NHL, nothing to play for
Berniers - straight into the NHL, nothing to play for
MacTavish - straight into NHL, nothing to play for
Luke Hughes - straight into the NHL, was actually on a playoff team....LAST year.
Johnson - straight into NHL, nothign to play for
Edvinsson - 2 seasons of AHL
Eklund - 1 season of AHL
Clarke - played round the world, ECHL might have been the only league he didn't play in so far
Guenther - right into the NHL, nothing to play for
Boucher - 1 AHL season....
BUF, SEA, ANA, NJ, CBS, DET, SJ, ARI, OTT, LA - only 2 playoff teams, NJ, LA and NJ did bring him right along....
So Turcotte, Byfield, Clarke were LA's 3 picks in that time frame....Turcotte injured, Byfield project, Clarke, no idea, when he did play in NHL there were clear issues in his game, if he had played for Buffalo, they might have ignored them and had him develop in the NHL, or ANA, OTT, DET, ARI, CBS, etc.
Are there playes like Wyatt Johnson who just come in on a playoff team and take over, absolutely, are they the norm, no, no they aren't,
Wanna look at the bottom 10, you know, where most of the contenders pick? Go take a look for 2019, not one player made the jump onto a contender team, all played in the AHL, that's just bottom 10, you wanna include the other 6 playoff teams? Caufield, he made the jump pretty much, Newhook made the jump, then was traded, Krebs, AHL then was traded in the Eichel deal, Harley, AHL time, Thomson, AHL time, Heinola, AHL time,
How about 2020?
Bottom 16, again, where mostly the playoff teams draft from, barring trades
Guhle - made the jump,
Reichel - AHL time
Mercer - made the jump
Schneider - AHL time
Mukahmadulin - AHL time
Chinakov - AHL time (11 games) but nothing to play for with CBS
Lapierre - AHL time
Foerster - AHL time
Zary - AHL time
Barron - AHL time
Neighbors - made the jump, STL, not sure if anyone as an idea of what they are doing
Perrault - AHL time
Greig - AHL time
Brisson - AHL time
Bourque - AHL time
Wiesblatt - AHL time
So yes, you will have players like Caufield, and Luke Hughes and Quinn Hughes jump into the NHL right away, 90% of the time, it's for the OTT, SJ, ANA, BUF, DET,
I wonder if it gets done Draft so Kings know if they have any money to play with July 1st
If they are smart.....IF.....they are smart, they will determine they have ZERO money to play with.....and bring the kids up to fill the spots.....and then see how training camps shake loose around the league and go from there, there's not a UFA goaltender out there that would move the needle