Romanov has not shown to have potential to be a core player.
I don’t think it’s irrational to dismiss that list of players either, considering it took the Habs ten years to draft a single *potential* core player in Caufield.
Waiting two more years for two more years of draft picks so they can become impact players in 2+3 more years is really… not my idea of a good time.
Perhaps the players already drafted, such as Farrell and Roy, become NHLers in the next two years and impact players within two years after that… that’s still the 2026-2027 season we are looking at, at the earliest.
I don’t have any interest in a crappy team for four more years on the hope and dream that half a decade later it’ll suddenly turn good. I firmly believe it’s important to constantly acquire good and cap efficient players at all times — someone like Laine, if he’s available, can only help.
Again, I really think that what you're doing is treating all uncertainties/potentials as zero, and that's probabalistically irrational. There's a difference between having one lotto 6/49 ticket and having 13 million of them. If you have 13 million lotto 6/49 tickets, you expect a pay day.
For first rounders, even Bergevin was able to acquire two core players over eight years (Caulfield, Sergachev), with Guhle and Mailloux still uncertain. And on the trade market he acquired Petry, Danault, Anderson, and Suzuki, and on the UFA market he got Radulov and Toffoli. That's what a mediocre GM was able to do.
Reviewing the current situation:
Suzuki, Caulfield, Wright, Romanov are core players in my opinion. Romanov I expect to be second pair.
From {Calgary 1st, Florida 1st, 2023 1st, 1sts acquired for Petry, Anderson, Dvorak} we can expect 1 or 2 core players.
From all of the 2nd through 7th rounders of 2022 and 2023, we can expect 1 core player.
They should be able to acquire 1 core player from free agency/trades, which I think is quite conservative.
From {Guhle, Barron, Mailloux, Xhekaj, Primeau, Dobes, Roy, Farrel, Kidney, Kapanen, Touch, Mysak, Gorton, Ylonen, Harris, Poehling, Evans} we should expect two good players in my opinion.
That makes 10 good players.
