Well, yeah

It seems to be an easy concept in theory, but not in practice. A lot of clubs still reach for defensemen or low-ceiling gritty players every single draft. There are clubs out there that reach only in theory but always do well every draft year (ahem, Columbus and St. Louis), that I don't include in these criticisms.

Whenever I read "he will slot in perfectly with player x" or "he projects as that 3rd line power forward" I cry on the inside.

I think Lawton did a good job pointing this out all the time during the draft, but I guess people will still arbitrarily put faith in the people running poor hockey franchises, because, well at least they run a hockey franchise.

That's about as crazy to me - that you tirelessly defend your own front office or whatever. "noooo, this decision was great even though this ex-player without a business resume made it with his gut, my franchise will turn it around this year!!!1!" is such a pointless opinion. You can love your team and still be critical of their decision-making process.

Taking a shot at Ottawa I see. Ottawa isn’t about drafting for need. Ottawa is trying to build a team of players that fit together and are hard workers. If they see any red flags in terms of their identity, they don’t draft those players. They are trying to build a team of players who are tough to play against and give an effort on both sides of the puck. Also one of the reason say last year they took a guy like Pinto over Kaliyev or Lavoie. And why they value where the player is going to develop as one of the things they look at before they draft him

I don't question what the Sens did in the first and second rounds either this year or last year. Pinto's one of my favorite center prospects right now, and JBD/Brannstrom/Sanderson is a scary defensive team to group with Chabot in the future. I scratch my head more about going for the likes of, say, Lodin or Engstrand, in the mid-to-late rounds.

Yeah taking a bunch of overagers late in the last 2 drafts is extremely questionable. And also an undrafted goalie in the 3rd round. Sokolov was a good pick tho

I like Sokolov a lot, as well. It was simply really jarring to watch the 7th round as most clubs were just either going to bed or drafting on bloodlines/grit/physical profiling, and then to watch the Canes just come in and get Pashin when no one else was paying attention. Yes, he is a long shot because of physical attributes, but that statistical profile with a July birthdate in the 7th round?! Sign me up!