You know we often seem to overlook that every year there are talents who aren't seen as "first round" picks who rise, and talents who are that fall.
We sit back and say "Player X was ranked 70th overall on most lists, and we were able to nab him 110. That's a steal."
But we don't give much thought to the fact that one of the reasons the player went 40 picks later than expected is because other teams took players who were ranked lower.
As a result we often throw around certain buzzwords or phrases like steal, reach, stretch, safe, skilled, etc. without every fully acknowledging that there's so many different factors at work.
And most times, we tend to do it over second and third round picks who have probably 20 percent chances of playing more than 300 NHL games.
It's kind of like the novels we right on prospects/players who are on the bubble. We dedicate literally tens of thousands of words and HOURS of debate to guys who usually are no better than support players, for reasonably short periods of time, if they even make it at all.
The reality is that we won't know what the hell we have for a while still. It's way too early to proclaim victory or defeat on any of these kids yet. We can discuss their pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, and debate their potential.
But we can't really declare wins and losses at this point for many of these kids. We're just not there yet.