Quoting: RClay321
Snuggerud was ranked as high as 8th predraft and Bolduc was selected pretty much where he was ranked. Neither were reaches imo. You have to draft on best player, not need. As far as this draft, my center rankings are Bedard, Fantilli, Carlsson, Smith, Benson, Moore, Danielson. Only forwards I would stay away from at the 10 spot are Dvorsky and Sale, at least for the guys ranked in that area. Reinbacher is still the only defenseman woth a top 10 pick imo.
The TSN guys had him rated pretty high, but Wheeler had Snuggs 26, Pronman had him 29, Murphy had him 26, Scouching had him 33rd, McKeen 31st, Smaht 42nd, FC Hockey (scout aggregator) had him 38th... a lot more places had him rated below where we picked him than had him ranked higher. Not everybody praised the pick after it happened, either.
Bolduc - Wheeler 35th, Pronman 33rd, Smaht 43rd, McKeen's 29th... you get the idea. Oddly, again, the TSN guys all had him pegged right around 16 where we took him. Weird. And kinda disconcerting. But I definitely saw the word "reach" thrown around over picking him.
You draft BPA when you're Arizona or Chicago. We're drafting guys who might be able to start blending in 1-2-3 years from now. We already have a decent idea of what that roster will look like, so ignoring need when you can kinda predict it, yeah, sorry. Don't know where anyone gets that idea. We having wingers falling out of our ears right now. Present and future. Wasting our first top 10 pick in ages (and two in the 1st round) on the last thing we need is something bad franchises do.
I agree with you on Reinbacher being a possible snare. And unless we somehow win the lottery, my C rankings go Moore, Danielson, Ritchie with Dvorsky in there somewhere (just not sure where). But if we cannot get Moore or Danielson, I say hold off until late in the round, focus on the D and C, and then maybe take Stramel late.