I got a ton of shit when I ranked PK Subban over McDonagh while he was in the OHL still. People said how can you rank him over a guy picked 12th OA? I said go to hockeydb, look up any draft that's 10+ years old and then click on the points tab. Let me know how many times you see the top 10 picks end up 1 through 10 in production or impact and that's the highest success rate for NHL draft picks since after the top 21 it starts going very south quickly.
Where someone is picked means nothing. With prospects it's always about progress or the lack of, and that's often a lengthy process for any of the non McDavid's of the world, that often have highs and lows over time. How said prospect responds to said ups and downs can be extremely difficult to predict which makes most opinions, rankings, reports, etc.. nonsense since there are so many factors and variables involved that to really think most could really know what these 17, 18, 19 year olds will do in 5-10 years. Of course if you just say most will bust you will likely be right a good bit of the time.
Mesar was picked 26th OA, do you think GMs would rank him over Lane Huton who went 62nd OA?