Quoting: mhockey91
3- Reaves didn’t work out for us and Lauzon was a stupid pick. klim kostin is very good and we desperately need an A level forward prospect just like him and Sundqvist has developed into a good bottom 6 forward. Since 2006, Pittsburgh has 1 first round pick drafted by Pens currently on their team... (Olli maatta-2012). Dropping out of the first round and drafting a D with very little upside was very dumb. If we took Josh Brook instead I’d be okay with it, but Lauzon will prolly never play a game in the NHL
Reaves was a Lemieux mandate, so you need to point the finger at Lemieux.
They weren't going to pick Kostin, they were going to pick Lauzon. If that is a fail it falls to the scouts giving poor information. Drafts are full of 1st round failures and 7th round successes (to a lesser extent). Looking back makes it easy.
Sullivan wasn't playing Sundqvist.
Considering those last two points, Rutherford got Reaves (Lemieux) for a guy that Sullivan had no interest in. ie: basically free.
Sundqvist STUNK last year in StL, but was good this year. What will next year bring?
The Pens only have the one home grown 1st round D on the roster, but the do have three 1st rounders on D. (Including Johnson, just to show how unimportant of a topic this is) On the roster are eight 1st rounders, and six 2nd rounders. And those does NOT include: Guentzel 3rd, Hornqvist 7th, Letang 3rd, Murray 3rd, or Rust 3rd. Five players on the roster were taken top-5.