Owen Power got overpaid. Just because Buffalo did that does not mean we need to do it as well.
You are talking about an idealistic scenario where we have all the time we need to build that core out via drafting. Next season is #4 for us. You are unwilling to trade our draft pick that would be for season #5. Fine, that would pretty much mean we are not going to be competitive for season #5 as well. Now what? 5 seasons with pretty much nothing to show for outside of Beniers and Wright, and this is assuming Wright turns into the #2C we expect. No guarantee that we have more core players outside of Wright and Beniers. Dunn and McCann are the other 2 good players we have who will be 29 and 30 years respectively.
Players like Geekie, Sprong, Soucy are exactly the kind of players that should be coming in through the later picks in the draft. Francis has done an excellent job in the 2nd round and beyond to fill those needs. As I had mentioned earlier, Evans can easily surpass Soucy. Players like Goyette, Firkus, Rehkopf, Nyman, etc. have the potential to surpass what Geekie does. Also, Vancouver and Boston are much better teams than us. Geekie and Soucy doing well is not exactly a surprise. I don't want us to overpay for complimentary players like that because they are much easier to replace via the draft.
Anyway, my point is that timelines matter. We can keep failing until we happen to hit the lottery and succeed, but even that is not guaranteed. High drafting does not automatically guarantee success. But a proven top line player like Necas has a much better chance to help us than the draft pick for next year. Also, at 25 years, we are getting someone who fits our timelines. I am 99% sure Francis does not have the luxury of building just via the draft.