glenngineer
Registered User
I think this highlights how it's really an egg-then-chicken situation. Teams aren't really on the hook for the decision, it comes down to how intrinsically good the player is. If he's good enough and has the higher ceiling, he'll force his way onto a team sooner. If he's not, he'll have to work his way up over a longer period. So basically it just comes down to the fact that we haven't been picking star caliber forwards with our top picks in recent years, not that we have any particular method of development that we adhere to with them.
Now, is Tomasino finally the guy who emerges as a star caliber forward for us? I have no idea, but the odds of that aren't good with a #24 pick. Yes, it has happened. There are Pastrnaks or Ahos or Kucherovs and everybody says, hey, why don't we just get ourselves one of those? When's our turn? Absolutely it is not impossible. But considering all the picks that don't turn out to be players like that, it's also not remotely likely.
We've had the star players coming from later in the draft, it's just been on defense and goal. Weber, Josi and Rinne. Two seconds and Rinne was a 6th or 7th? It's all about perspective.