Agreed, awful pick IMO.
I honestly have not been too impressed with Yzerman's work in Tampa so far. Koekkoek over Forsberg and Grigorenko seems like an awful pick, and I really don't like Connolly at 6th overall in 2010 (the next 3 picks were Skinner, Burmistrov and Granlund, and guys like Tarasenko, Fowler, Gormley, etc. were on the board too).
He's been pretty poor outside of the draft as well. IMO he overpaid for Lindback (two 2nds and a 3rd), he dumped Mike Smith for nothing, he traded a top pairing dman in Meszaros for nothing but a 2nd round pick, traded Downie for essentially a late 1st, and he just hasn't made many impressive moves. People loved him after Tampa's improvement in 2010/11, but he walked into a pretty ideal situation. He was given a team with an outstanding core (Stamkos, MSL, Lecavalier, Meszaros, Hedman, Purcell, Malone, Downie, Bergenheim, 6th overall pick in the upcoming draft, etc.), but awful supporting players and coaching. That's a GM's dream, all you have to do is find a few serviceable players to patch up those holes, and your elite core can shine through. His best move has been, what, trading for a 40-something year old Roloson?
If Yzerman was making these moves as the Leafs' GM, he'd be crucified.
