IMO the solution would be to make more top 15 draft picks bust. In real life you see top 5 draft picks not reach their expected potential all the time but in the game you never end up with say a Yapukov or a Griffin Reinhart when you have a high pick.
Drafting is just too safe in this game.
You can actually select that as an option in NHL 21. When you are in Franchise mode, scroll to the "League Settings" tile and then select "Rules." You will see stuff like "Difficulty" and "Head Coach Edits Lines" but if you scroll to some of the options toward the bottom of the menu you will find stuff like "Trade Difficulty" which makes it easier or harder for the CPU to accept trades as well as the options "Draft Class Quality" and "Generated Prospect Quality" which you can adjust to get more/less strong draft classes and individual top prospects each season.