It's possible that all 4 of the picks you listed for the Preds become regular NHL players. Tomasino is emerging now that he's getting a consistent chance, and Askarov is getting a few starts in SJ.
It's hard to separate the nature of the talent from the nurture through the franchise's development. Dallas and Nashville very clearly have much different approaches on the development end. Dallas has a stepwise development process that works their picks up the ladder and plugs them into roles in the lineup where they can be successful. The kid gets veteran support all along the way to teach him the game, how to be a pro, all the off-ice tricks. Their program works. In Nashville, we let our guys cook and cook and cook in Milwaukee. They play with other young guys against inferior competition. If they are brought up, they only play regular minutes if there are injuries. And if they don't light the lamp like a Christmas tree on demo mode, they get minimal minutes, the pressbox, and then cut outright.
The other component to this is the front office having a roadmap for the roster overall. When Dallas drafts a kid, they seem to target a guy that fits their system and for whom there will be a plan on where he will fit into the lineup potentially. Contrasted to us, we are apparently drafting guys based solely on perceived relative value in the draft. The best player available. So we end up with an Askarov pick and then figure out later that we really like Saros and are going to extend him for a million years. So whatever the roadmap might have been, it goes up in smoke. We do this with other guys as well. Instead of continuing their progression, we bring in a handful of tweeners and journeyman in the offseason and those guys block the paths to keep the pipeline moving. So again, we're left overcooking a guy until his ELC and 1st contract are more or less over, and we have no idea if the guy can even play. It's been working out well for other teams when they pick up our draft picks for next to nothing.
