Rangers aren’t doing that.

Take out Lafreniere, I might. Rangers still wouldn’t.

Fox only wanted to play in NYR. He basically forced his way out of 2 franchises because of that

Sure heck isn't the Rangers? When Matthews contract is up he'll probably head home to Arizona. And then the Rangers are screwed.

Toronto would be very stupid to trade Matthews

super star centers are becoming rarer in recent drafts as after Matthews and Mcdavid none have lived up to expectations.

Arizona cant even afford to pay for most of their players or facilities. By the time his contract is up the coyotes will be in Texas or Quebec lul

Not many teams will be able to give him his 14+mill in Signing Bonuses on his next deal

Leafs say no because Fox doesn't want to play anywhere but NY.

Then the trade is Laf for Matthews so the Leafs say no

I'd say Draisaitl, Eichel, Hischier and Pettersson have done well for themselves. Vilardi only truly lags from that 2017 class due to his injury history. There was no top center in 2018, and Hughes is only beginning to make a name for himself.

Philosophically, how much of that 'failure to deliver' from top picks that we've seen in recent years is due to the expectation that top picks should play in the NHL immediately upon their drafting? In the case of the past top three picks since 2018, only Quinn Byfield has been sent to play against lesser competition than the NHL and I don't find it coincidental that he's apt to be the best of the nine players in question. Would Dahlin, Kotkaniemi, Hughes, and Kakko all be objectively better players had they taken an extra year in either Europe or the AHL? Lafreniere could have played in Hartfort this season and had a much better season than what we saw from him at the NHL level.

To further extrapolate the question, are prospects overhyped by institutions in favour of clicks and ad revenue? The word 'generational' or 'superstar' gets thrown around a lot more than it used to when it comes to players within the top-10 as opposed to the upper echelon of the draft. While I will concede that player development and scouting has come a ways in the past decade, are the expectations of these 18- and 19-year-old players too high?

Agreed. Until bedard probably. These kids get way overhyped and I wish the analysts could put it into better context vs other elite prospects so people don’t lose their heads every year over guys like Hughes hischier Lakota and laf. All fine players but nothing like Matthew’s McDavid or even Eichel. I almost feel bad for the kids they have to live up to expectations that were never realistic for them.

keep adding

more

more

mooooore.

Bruh what? Rangs fans think Fox is worth MAtthews? Delusional fan base

Rangers do that easily

Leafs would be morons if the did that

A "generational" post right here
Human beings - hockey fans included - have habit of taking large, complex sets of information and narrowing them down to recognizable form.
For highly drafted centers, it has become reduced to two buckets: Elite from day one, or they are a bust.

Nothing stamps "hockey simpleton" on one's forehead faster than calling a 20-year a bust.
Second, would be saying a player needs a ppg offensive production to be a top-line center.

The list of "busted" players (MacKinnon, Couturier, Getzlaf, Lindholm, Draisaitl, Huberdeau, Aho, Barkov, etc) that are now stars is much longer than the list of players that skipped straight from draft to producing that level of offense in NHL.

You are probably right but Crosby saved the Penguins from bankruptcy! Without Crosby they wouldn't have made it through the 2005-06 season.