From
@haohmaru in the Post Game Zibanejad thread before it was closed:
Well, I think it still counts as a miss when you draft Alexandre Daigle over Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya even if it was consensus. Scouting is an art not a science so there's no formula for always finding which players will hit and which will bust, even if the consensus was "Daigle is the 1OA." (Which was assuredly the consensus that year).
And yeah, sometimes it's just bad luck that you miss. Sometimes the player that everyone thinks is the best player in the draft has a flaw that prevents him from working out. Ryan Leaf probably doesn't ever work out anywhere because, like, he had an alcohol problem and wasn't a hard worker dedicated to football.
But that doesn't mean the teams are relieved of any responsibility for development. On the flip side, the Chicago Bears have not been able to draft and develop a QB in decades. Oh, so this is all just the Bears, over and over again, picking the wrong QBs in the draft despite consensus - which is right more than it is wrong - always saying they made good picks? Like, ok, we get it, Mitch Trubisky over Mahomes and Watson was bad, but consensus was that Trubisky was still a starting QB in the league. How come he never turned into an average starter?
No, the Bears have something wrong with the organization that they don't know how to develop a QB. They spend high pick after high pick on talented guys and none of them pan out. Meanwhile the Dallas Cowboys are going on two decades of QB play that the Bears would literally murder for, and they spent a grand total of ONE (1) fourth round pick on those two QBs.
So sure, there's luck, but, no, if the Bears had a decent development plan, they would have gotten stable QB play at some point out of at least one of Cade McNown (1st Round Pick), Rex Grossman (1st Round Pick), Kyle Orton (4th round pick who went on to be decent as soon as he left Chicago), Mitch Trubisky (1st Round Pick - 2nd overall), or Justin Fields (1st Round Pick).
The Rangers have a similar problem to the Bears. There is something "in the water," so to speak, in the NY Rangers franchise, that they have an underlying cultural issue with developing and getting the most out of SCORING FORWARD TALENT.
It's been that way my entire life. Even when they won in 1994, they had to import a guy like Messier to be their lead, scoring, #1 Forward/Center. They didn't draft and develop him.
After that, it's a literal parade of veterans they imported who underachieved. This isn't a Dark Ages thing. It's a going on three decades thing. Lindros. LaFontaine. Bure. Oh, ok, that was all in their "spend in FA wildly" phase. Ok, Jagr worked for them.
Let's keep going.
Brad Richards underachieved. Marian Gaborik underachieved. Rick Nash underachieved.
Panarin is like their first free agent signing in forever that actually came to the team and delivered what was expected. And you know what we did with Panarin? We turned him loose and basically told him to pick his line mates and do whatever he wanted on the ice for 3 years. He wasn't ruined because we basically DIDN'T coach him.
Then there's the draft busts. Let's forget the main thesis of my argument; that it's "simply unbelievable," that four top 10 picks in a row ALL are misses, especially when two are consensus.
It goes back way further.
Chris Kreider took FOREVER to turn into a true first line player. JT Miller had to go elsewhere. Lauri Korpikoski and Hugh Jessiman busted.
The Rangers have literally NO HISTORY IN OUR LIFETIMES of drafting and developing elite forward talent. Sure, they can develop defensemen a good bit. Sure, they can find the occasional Callahan, Dubinski, Anisimov or Stepan, and turn them into well-rounded, DEFENSIVELY RESPONSIBLE, gritty top 6 or top 9 caliber players.
But that's the rub. That's what the Rangers know. That's what they are doing to these guys. Be Ryan Callahan. Be Brandon Dubinski.
Something in what the Rangers are asking their forward prospects to do is capping them out at 40-50 point players who have lost their scoring spark.
And that is depriving them of the superstardom scoring ability that you actually need in today's NHL to win a Cup.
This is ABSOLUTELY the Rangers fault, just like it's ABSOLUTELY the Chicago Bears fault that every QB they touch turns to mud.
This is undeniable. Anyone trying to absolve the Rangers for their role in this is a team apologist who can't bear to hear their favorite team criticized, or, alternatively, they think the "develop only Callahan types," is the right thing to do and it's the players fault for not thriving at offense in this environment. Either way, those people are wrong. And on a message board it's one thing, but it's clear that these people infect our front office, and that both Sather and Drury (who unbelievably trades Buchnevich for a fourth line grinder in Blais) are part of that sick cult.
