I'll weigh in on what seems to be the topic of the day, if only because I really hate college football and I'm actually watching Tangled (and my kids aren't with me).
Now that we're three whole months post-draft, I still feel exactly the same way I did on draft day. I still think we should have sold out (not just attempted, SOLD OUT) to move up into the first four to grab Jones. And if you held a gun to my head and demanded I pick a guy at No. 5, I'd have said Lindholm -- and I still do.
I respect Nichushkin and what he's doing for the Stars, but even with all that, the local stories in Dallas are all tinged with the specter of the KHL. It just does not go away, whether a player is currently experiencing success or not. It seems that if a guy is very successful, the KHL pushes even harder to get a young star. And if he's unsuccessful, the KHL swoops in to cure him of his need to push through it. It simply does not go away.
I'm not crazy about Lindholm, but the way we talk about him sounds a lot like Brandon Sutter. I'm hoping he's a better playmaker at No. 5 overall, but I think we'd be happy with that type of guy in his age 19 season.
Also, I've heard that the Canes may try to get him to accept a demotion to the AHL for a few weeks to use as a sort of training camp, since he basically missed ours. He's eligible since he doesn't have junior eligibility, and as long as he knows he's coming back as soon as he's ready, he won't go home to Sweden.
In short, I still think we failed with our first-rounder, but not because we didn't take Nich, because we didn't get bold for Jones.