Lets take it easy here. He's freaking 19.
I always held Jiricek at clear first and perhaps Nemec behind and as a third followed by Kulich, Slafkovsky, Cooley, Lekkerimäki, Kemell, Lambert and others.
My point in writing this is that this draft was difficult to analyze.
Wright trended downwards a whole year and it was clear that he couldn't even be one of Canadas leading players at the WJC's etc. Cleary overhyped those years before?
Cooley was always good but still pretty small. But this good? I wasn't sure and now you could easily claim that Cooley and Jiricek are looking like the gems from this draft, for now that is.
Lekkerimäki got a lot of praise but not before this on going season he's started to show something really special in my opinion.
Kemell was always exciting with his shot and ability to dangle but his shot precision his draft year was pretty horrible for somewhat reason. Injury or illness, who knows. He was really ineffective.
Lambert who had and probably has the most spectacular tools together with Cooley in this draft had two lousy seasons before the draft and he still is really difficult to evaluate.
When it comes to his tools he's a clear first liner imo, but the overall impression makes it really difficult to know if he becomes a top9 or one of Jets leading players.
I mean Nyman will probably be better than a lot of those first rounders in the end.
Sapovaliv is another one, long-term project perhaps and not a sure bet but I really liked what I saw in him last year before he got injured? Also a second rounder...
Also, my flyers picked Gauthier before Jiricek as well. No matter if Cutter is good or not, I would take Jiricek before him all day everyday.
It's not like Laf and Byfield have been two great picks so far either.
Beniers has looked better than Power imo, but who knows in the long run...
Last but not least, the franchise drafting prospects are responsible too. If the player is not a clear cut star, then they will have a bigger role in building him up. It's not like Montreal has been the best in that aspect. Even if the Jets and perhaps old Oilers and Sabers wasn't that good either.
The 2019 draft is a good example of this for me. I still think Heinola was the second biggest talent amongst D's after Seider and that Thomson was the worst in the first round. But he hasn't been able to take the next step. Mostly because of a lousy organization and of course injuries and so on. Those things will always be relevant factors.
I still think that Heinola was up there after Hughes,Kakko, Seider, Zegras, Cozens, Dach and Boldy (but that happened way after the draft). Clearly above his Swedish peers in this draft and perhaps even before Byram. And I won't change my mind just because he got injured and mishandled by his organization. I saw him play and he dominated with both skill and especially IQ in the offense.
But at the end of the day it's history for now and the draft is what it is, a lottery. And if you don't get lucky and lay your hands on prospects like Bedard, McDavid and those generational talents you will always find busts and steals but I just don't get the point on highlighting a bust and especially if he's only 19 still. Just plain stupidity frankly.
Also, some franchises seem to believe that they are drafting a done product and won't or can't take any responsibility or do have the knowledge to develop him in the right way. It baffles me how bad some of these organizations are in that aspect. Almost like they wouldn't give a rats ass if someone succeeds or not.
To sum it all up, this wasn't like some other drafts. Therefor this thread is pretty stupid, it's making it to simple and excluding a lot of relevant factors.
