And they failed to win a Cup, as well.
I never said its easy, but I think over-drafting an "NHL ready with lower upside" center because you have a hole at 3C on your NHL team or taking a slightly off the board winger when winger is pretty much the strength of your team is somewhat dumb. Gorton's strategy to begin last season also was counter to trying to get a high pick. Why are you signing Shattenkirk and Smith for a rebuilding team? I think what we saw was an in-between strategy that didn't work, he realized it a couple months into the season, and then was stuck with two big contracts, a mediocre but not awful team, and a team that made some decisions as if they were rebuilding and some as if they were contending.
I don't think I said they were depth players. I said they are depth, which is different from a depth player. I think a depth player is most likely a lower-line or pair player on most teams. Depth in the context of how I meant it was to say they are complimentary players to the needed elite players. They are along the lines of Zibanejad, Buchnevich, Skjei, Kreider, Zuccarello types. Maybe marginally better or worse, but not stars around the league. If you made a list of the top 50 skaters in the NHL, the Rangers wouldn't even have one player on that list, and you know it. We probably wouldn't even have one player on a list of the 75 best skaters in the NHL. Teams don't win Cups that way. If we turn it around, it'll likely have more to do with 2019 or 2020 draft picks than anything from the last few drafts. Those players, as you took exception to, will likely be the depth to help out hopefully the stars we draft in the upcoming drafts.
