What do Nikita Kucherov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tomas Tatar and Claude Giroux all have in common?

They were all picked after MTL drafted Nathan Beaulieu, Jarred Tinordi, Louis Leblanc and David Fischer.

Still believe in MTL's draft system?

Lots of teams could have picked those players earlier in the draft also. So it's kinda of unfair list of players. It isn't so much the players you bypassed, it's the players you picked and should have developed into NHLers.
Yep, I'll agree. Montreal drafts have been really poor.

It is just super frustrating because I was working as a paid scout back then and told friends of mine in the industry that Tinordi was a waste as a 1st round pick. He should have been a 6th round. Then I told people Leblanc is a super nice guy but he did not have the wheels or pivots to be a 1st round. He should have been a 5th round. Then I told two people, that both played for the Canadiens that Fisher would never even play one game in the NHL and what does MTL do? they draft him in 1st round. The only player I thought might be a good pick was Beaulieu because he did play really well for St. John and I thought he had some upswing. I pegged him as a 2nd rounder. So, it is frustrating to say the least, when I look at these picks.

Scouting and developing players is even so more important in a cap regulated league. The NHL has a roster of 23 so with injuries you need about 27 players to carry you through the season. If the pro average is nine years, that means you need three (at least) replacements of your draft to become NHL good. Other wise you are looking elsewhere to fill your roster, which often is more expensive.

Selecting three NHL good players in every day should be the expected norm, other a team is falling behind on their development. Nothing better than nurturing players , having them play as cheap ELC, and then having some loyalty to the organization come RFA or UFA time. And if you have "too many" good players, then you makes trades and have some assets for the next wave of NHL players.

The pro average is sadly 4.2 years.

Another issue is developing them. Without revealing my identity, I have had 4 players from the AHL farm team contact me, asking for advice on how to deal with a non verbal coach. The current AHL coach is not very good at communicating the game. He is very old fashioned in his approach. Another example to this, is an AHL from another team showed up at my house and was going to quit hockey. He slept in my oldest sons bed and stayed for three days. Once I got him to fall in love with the game again, I contacted a person that is an excellent communicator and told him they should give him a look. He is playing for him this season and has his best numbers since 2011. He is knocking at the NHL door. So, a lot of it, is knowing how to massage your message. Many Canadian men think because they are Canadian and have testicles, that they know how to communicate the game. Sadly, it is false. I keep telling young coaches, it is not about you but about them. I thought I was a good coach but it was only around year nine, that I began to understand how to properly manage a bench and the emotions of the players during a game. I ended up coaching for 23 yrs and can say I was a "yeller" my first 8 yrs. So, MTL needs to get a teacher of the game, a communicator.

Michel Therrien is that you?

Ha ha nope not Michel! too funny!