The drafting of the last regime was at least better than average.
Show your work, please.
Every team misses with high first round picks.
Show your work, please. But since you won't:
Quick and dirty, I went back 18 drafts to see. What stood out was interesting.
I only looked at players who did not reach 200+ GP threshold for a top 10 pick. Not very scientific, but for spending 15 minutes looking at something, it serves its purpose.
The Rangers had 5 'bust' players, although several of them were goalies (Blackburn and Montoya.)
Columbus was 2nd with 3 'bust' players and NYI and VAN had 2, although I'd argue Bourdon shouldn't count given his circumstances, so make your own call on that.
What is interesting is that organizations that were notably dysfunctional (and cited as some of the worst run teams of all time, ie, the Milbury Islanders and Columbus under Doug MacLean) tended to have high profile flameouts (while still being gifted superstars like Nash) and of course, Jim 'draft guru' Benning being a part of numerous notable organizations with players that didn't work out.
Out of all the 'bust' players, 5 of them were drafted in the top 5, with the remaining 13 being 6 or above and 50% of them coming from 2005 or earlier. I feel that this supports my claim it's very hard to f*** up a pick the higher you go, especially in the modern NHL.
The only teams to have done so were the Islanders, Canucks, Tampa and Anaheim. And for two of those organizations you need to go back 23 years.
2001 - Svitov (3rd, TBL), Chistov* (5th, ANA), Leclaire (8th, CBJ), Blackburn (10th, NYR)
2002 - Taticek (9th, FLA)
2003 - None
2004 - Montoya (6th, NYR), Picard (8th, CBJ), Valabik (10th, ATL)
2005 - Bourdon (10th, VAN, although I'd argue this one should be starred)
2006 - None
2007 - Hamill* (8th, BOS)
2008 - Filatov (6th, CBJ)
2009 - Glennie (8th, DAL)
2010 - McIlrath (10th, NYR)
2011 - None
2012 - Griffin Reinhart (4th, NYI)
2013 - None
2014 - Dal Colle (5th, NYI)
2015 - None
2016 - Juolevi* (5th, VAN)
2017 - Looking like Lias Andersson at this point (7th, NYR)
2018 - Kravtsov (9th, NYR)
Drafting is one area that has worked out well for the Canucks.
Show your work, please.