If the Islander don't draft griffin reinhart they don't draft Barzal

I don't love redrafts where you say "they could've had Josi" because he went in the 2nd round - you could say every team "could have" had him and it would be true.

Strome at 5th in 2011 was still a decent player for them, but I'm surprised you dropped to Couturier at 8th as the "miss" and passed over both Mark Schiefele & Mika Zibanejad. I think you can argue that everyone picking in the top 10 in 2011 wound up happy with what they got.

Reinhart in 2012 was a mistake but Garth did a great job pivoting him into a 1st rounder that he used to pick Mat Barzal, so that's a wash to me, if not a slight win depending on your Barzal vs. Hertl feelings.

As far as Pulock vs. Theodore, is that really an upgrade? I think I'm fine with how that turned out. And when you bring up Verhaeghe, we already have proof that the Islanders wouldn't have known what to do with him anyways.

Beau vs. Carlo in 2015 is a tossup to me - both players are fine, depending on what your need is. I'd rather have Beau on the 2022-23 Islanders because we have 3 solid RHD.

Lastly, I guess I'd rather have Bellows than Tage Thompson, but I also think that Thompson doesn't get the top line ice time on the Isles the past few years the way he has on the Sabres. I also wonder if his dad being coach of their AHL team had any effect on their decision to pass (trying to avoid the "coach's kid" BS that might come around out of that and all.)

For sure if you really look into these things they aren’t realistic because there are always both good and bad consequences from picking a certain player and you never know what it will cause to happen. I just think they are fun to do even if they aren’t realistic

oh they totally are fun, love pulling up the draft history on hockeydb and just going down a rabbit hole with it.

yeah, thats exactly what I do usually, I like to see sometimes how many players in the 7th round actually made it and how many players in the top 10 didn't