Even with those 2 not being under Verbeek, it's still like I said, all circumstantial. All it would of taken for Anaheim's supposed love for big players to not be "true" is for them to have won the 1st overall pick last year. Them picking Levshunov or Silayev doesn't validate it. All the teams rank those 2 high.
Some fans were also mocking Silyev to Utah(he won't be available anyways though), but strictly because they took another huge Russian d-man last year, plus a big Russian forward with a high 1st too. Again, as if they didn't draft a small skilled center the year before that...
Even if a team has a decently long history of drafting a specific way, all it takes is for a year where drafting that way just would not make any sense. Anaheim doesn't pass on Bedard for Carlsson.
Also, I don't really keep track of GM timelines, but a two year sample size is extremely limited too...