Another thing, to continue one of the discussions in the previous trade thread:
Talent or not, if you put Turris up next to all the 3rd overall picks since 2000, you could probably group him amongst the busts.
2012 Alex Galchenyuk C
2011 Jonathan Huberdeau
2010 Erik Gudbranson
2009 Matt Duchene
2008 Zach Bogosian
2007 Kyle Turris C
2006 Jonathan Toews
2005 Jack Johnson
2004 Cam Barker D
2003 Nathan Horton
2002 Jay Bouwmeester
2001 Alexandr Svitov
2000 Marian Gaborik
Only players I wouldn't take over Turris: Svitov, Barker
Players I'd say I'd be hesitant to trade Turris for based on team needs: Bouwmeester, Horton
Players for who the jury is still out: Gudbranson, Galchenyuk, Huberdeau.
I think it's unfair to compare Turris to other 3rd rounders: it ignores the variance in skill from one draft year to the next. After all, it's not like Phoenix had the choice to draft Toews, or Duchene, or Gaborik
instead of Turris. You have to measure him against his own draft class.
Here's a list of the guys selected AFTER Turris, who went 3rd overall:
(4) Thomas Hickey
(5) Karl Alzner
(6) Sam Gagner
(7) Jakub Voracek
(8) Zach Hammill
(9) Logan Couture
(10) Keaton Ellerby (recently traded for a 5th rounder!)
(11) Brandon Sutter
(12) Ryan McDonagh (heh, Gomez)
(13) Lars Eller
(14) Kevin Shattenkirk
(15) Alex Plante
(16) Colton Gillies
(17) Alexei Cherepanov (R.I.P.)
(18) Ian Cole
(19) Logan MacMillan
(20) Angelo Esposito
So, there's your top-20. Right off the bat, you can identify a guy like Voracek who you might take ahead of Turris, but an arguement can still be made for Turris because good centers are hard to come by, plus Turrs gets the defensive edge.
Hickey and Alzner were taken immediately after Turris, which in hindsight are laughably bad value for 4th and 5th overall draft picks. LA & Washington would have been much better off moving the picks for value elsewhere, all things considered, with the benefit of looking 5 years into the future.
So is there anyone in that top-20 you'd pick ahead of Turris? I'd say the only real standout guys there are McDonagh, who looks like he's going to be a legit 1st pair guy, and Couture.
Turris, where he was picked, was absolutely in line with his skill when compared to the skill available in that draft. There were LOTS of 1st round "Busts": Hickey, Alzner (to a degree), Hamill, Ellerby, Eller, Plante, Gillies, Cole, MacMillan, Esposito, Riley Nash, Backlund, Patrick White, Nick Petrecki, Nick Ross...
And as an aside, while we're on the topic of the '07 Draft: for the posters who dump on O'Brien (also an '07 draft pick) for being a bad 1st round pick (not a common sentiment these days, but it's been out there in the past): take a look at who was drafted AFTER him.
How many guys would you take over O'Brien with the benefit of hindsight? It's a short list:
- Subban (2nd round)
- Wayne Simmonds (last pick of the 2nd round)
- MAYBE Matt Frattin (4th rounder, but was a lost cause up until recently)
- Jamie Benn (5th round)
- Carl Gunnarsson (7th round)
... that's it. 181 players were drafted
AFTER Jim O'Brien.
One hundred and eighty one. And, of all those guys, only 5 (five!) are more palatable.
That's pretty good, I'd say.
TL;DR - bad draft year was bad.