I get what you are saying and actually believe in taking the BPA regardless of position, but by the late 1st there is a wide array of views on who the BPA is. That being said, I'm also sick and tired of the Avs drafting centers like Newhook and Jost too. Just completely vanilla wastes of high picks because this team managed to whittle a group of centers that included MacKinnon, O'Reilly, Stastny and Duchene down to just Nate.
I think what bums me out the most about this draft is this crop of goalies aren't worthy of a 1st rounder. Would probably be the proper place and time to grab one if there was.
I see it as if you're drafting a winger, then he's going to stay a winger his entire career. However, if you draft a centre, a good chance he can remain as a centre or be moved to the wing.
The problem with Newhook and Jost is they were never strong draft prospects during their year. I quite liked Jost at the time, but looking back in hindsight, he was super vanilla (as you mentioned). While I was never a fan of Newhook, I saw a player who needed the powerplay to get a ridiculously high point total showing a limit in his 5v5 play. I would prefer Avs to pass on players like Beaudoin as well since he's in the vanilla pile for me.
I keep harping on centre or defence since Avs can become extremely weak in these positions. Avs have only one quality centre in Ritchie throughout the entire system and Mittelstadt's contract today shows that he's probably gone in those three years...meaning we need another high calibre centre in our system. We cannot solely allow Ritchie to be the only one, so I want to draft the BPA centre, especially considering that the draft is going to be mega wildcard heavy. There is a good chance somebody falls to the Avs pick who should've been taken at 15th overall. Now, if Avs draft him is another story entirely lol. Defenceman is another position you can never have too much of and if you stockpile, then trade them away for high picks or for young similar talented forwards that fill a hole. Agreed on the goaltending, this crop is what I consider below average personally, but there is always one or two that are worth a shot. Nonetheless, last year's draft was the one to draft one quite high.