I will speak as if it's definitive...OBVIOUSLY KNOWING THAT IT'S NOT. But this is my opinion right now.
Now, everytime a subject like comes....the same question remains...is this an evaluation in hindsight or not? I will say yes to this 'cause when you evaluate something, it has to be based on what we see now. 'Cause if the evaluation is based on what happened then...NOBODY should ever have a bad review as they ALL believe they did great.
So here it is...
2017: A bad draft that looks pretty fine when it happened. But there's at least 15ish players that we could have taken with our picks at any point in tihe draft that would have done something better than we did. Good news, if we can say is that it wasn't a game changing draft. The 2 game changing players that we could have drafted that year would have been Robertson instead of Poehling and Batherson instead of whoever....Would have obviously helped though.
2018: Another bad draft mostly driven by needs vs BPA. See JK. And see all the C's that were taken. In a world where we keep hearing...CHOOSE THE RD or the C ahead of everything else, the C's we picked were JK, Olofsson, McShane, HIllis, Houde and Stapley. Wow...thank god we did (sarcasm). Side note...kudos to the Euro scout for the Romanov find. He's not a top end player....but one of the few WTF picks by Timmins that paid out.
2019: Here's an example of a BPA working out...Caufield. Not a C. Not a RD. Not a big guy despite us needing it.....we picked the guy who scores. And he does. Rest is awful. 4 D's in a row 'cause we needed to replenish our D squad...thank god we did with all those guys that are doing great in our organization in Struble, Norlinder, Fairweather and Leguerrier...missing out on Protas and Macelli. So is picking Caufield makes the draft great? I will never answer yes to that. It makes the pick great. No idea how it excused hitting 0 for the rest of the picks. But, again, not a game changing draft in it's entirety either. How do I know that? Right now (it will change), the great Alex Newhook is the 10th best scorer of the entire draft...lol. Oh and...I do have to say for the last time the name....Ruscheinski. One of the most WTF pick of all time. And they have the nerve to honor a deceased scout by picking that guy.....
2020: A better draft. the Guhle pick is a great combination of need and BPA. I think Tuch was a great gamble at that spot. And you get your hands on Dobes at the end. See? That's where the difference is between 2019 and 2020. I think Caufield is OBVIOUSLY the much better player. But Guhle, Dobes with a possiblity of Tuch makes 2020 better. Right now. And in this draft, you have 2 examples of players at the opposite side of the spectre, a surebet in Mysak, a WTF pick in Smith. Both won't make it. Nothing is a surebet.
2021: When you force something, it's often not the best decision. I will always believe that we didn,t make the right decision. Not with Stankoven there. Not with a lot of 2nd rounders that when all is said and done should be better than him. I don't see aside from his shot, the exceptional qualities that made him a guy you had to take no matter what. To this day, still don't think it was a good decision. Needless to say the rest of the draft is worst. Though Kapanen and Roy are still uknown. Somehow, I have more faith in Kapanen....
So those are bad drafts, and it explains our state right now.