I have to say, I came away from this tournament a LOT more impressed with Roy than I have been in my past, albeit limited, viewings. His skating looked much better, his hands were better than I recalled and he played with aggression and urgency. Really liked what I saw from him, even more-so than Gauthier. I know in the past I've hated to write off prospects so early, but man, based on what I saw in this tournament, I can't imagine how Bean was touted as highly as he was. I had never seen him play 1 second before he was drafted so could only go on what was written/how he was ranked. He was like Ryan Murphy with less confidence, if that's possible. I think the Canes are going to regret this pick almost as much as taking Fleury over Ehlers. Hope I'm wrong, but he looks to be a LONG way off from ever stepping foot in the NHL.
While the jury is surely still out, the first round picks under Francis aren't looking very great right now. IIRC, Lindholm was his guy in 2013. Fleury over Ehlers/Nylander in 2014. Hanifin was kind of a no brainer in 2015 (although it remains to be seen if he'll be better than Provorov or Werenski). Bean in 2016. Not jumping off a bridge by any means here as the final judgement won't be until we see these guys in the NHL for a couple of years, but early returns aren't great.
BBA, I think you're right...it's still too early to tell. I believe the toss up that was the choice between Lindholm and Monahan probably felt like a win/win. I'm not entirely sure that Lindholm won't pan out to be a very good player in the long run. The key issue, for me, was Jim Rutherford's insistence on throwing him into the lineup as an 18 year old, seeing him injure his shoulder, and have him smothered by the 1-2 punch of wasted development/playing through injury...all in his first North American professional year. The right play, in my opinion, would have been sending him back for a full year in Sweden while encouraging him to build strength.
The Fleury pick, in hindsight, could be viewed as a fail, but, again, I think it's way too early to tell. The kid has all the tools but got derailed by injury this season. Hence the slow start. Plus, this team needed significant upgrades on the back end. We literally had next to no depth across the board and from a development perspective, building from the goal out is a sound philosophy. Add to this that perhaps we are spoiled by the rare occasion of defenders developing ahead of schedule. Give Fleury his year or two in the A and I believe he will prove to be a very good pick....or valuable trade bait as the case may be. While Nylander, Ehlers. Larkin, and Fabbri have taken off in the NHL, it is indeed difficult to watch a slower development progression for Fleury. Who knows, the pick might just suck in the end. But right now, I think it is much fairer to say the jury remains out.
By the way, I was of the opinion that we should have traded the #5 in 2015 to drop down a few slots. My thought was that if we wanted blueline help (and I think we would have focused on that regardless), we could have dropped 2,3, or 4 slots and picked up one of Provorov or Werenski while garnering an additional 2nd rounder. But it takes two to tango....again, 20/20 hindsight is a gem.
