Edited Jul. 18, 2023 at 4:44 p.m.
Quoting: Erbas1915
If two of the first four become stars you'll be lucky. If all 4 becomes stars you're looking at a Tampa level team, which... seems unlikely
But like you said anything could happen
Just for fun and for the sake of debate, CBJ are actually in a very similar position as Tampa was before they exploded. They have some really solid veterans in Gaudreau, Laine, Werenski, Jenner and Kuraly already in place who all want to stay in Columbus (although Laine could always change his mind).
Three of those four aforementioned potential stars are top-6 picks (much like Tampa had with Stamkos, Hedman and Drouin), and the other, Marchenko, came over from Russia and put up 21 goals in 59 games in his first NHL season at age 22. Jiricek has dominated the AHL as an 18-year-old (very rare), KJ looked great putting up 40 points as a rookie with not much support on a team decimated by injuries while having very good zone entry and transition numbers - not to mention scored a Michigan goal and made it look easy. Fantilli is not yet proven but is pretty consensus among scouts as about as sure a thing as you get in a prospect due to his combo of size, speed, skill and compete. I'd put money on 3 of those 4 becoming top of the lineup core pieces, with a more than decent chance that all four do. It's hard to say any of them will come to be on the same level as Point, Stamkos or Kucherov, but they will still help create a well-rounded lineup with high-level skill.
As for the second group of four, all have shown potential, but have yet to put it together at the NHL level. Certainly, they could all bust, but I think Voronkov probably has the best chance to succeed of them all because of his size, intelligence and mean streak. Mateychuk's skating, vision and passing are elite, so he's probably going to adjust fine. Sillinger worries me the most because his skating and anticipation are currently not good, but he has great work ethic and maturity to be able to work on his game and still become a decent NHLer. Chinakhov is a real wildcard who has looked dominant at times and then has completely disappeared for stretches. I'm not counting on any of those guys, but 2 of the 4 could/should become very solid NHL contributors.
This also doesn't even consider they have a dynamic scorer in Jordan Dumais playing in Juniors, another big, fluid-skating, two-way RHD in Ceulemans who is still maturing, and handful of other prospects who have looked like real candidates to become solid two-way players like Luca Del Bel Belluz, Stanislav Svozil, Gavin Brindley, Alex Texier, and still more prospects who are longer shots but have very unique traits or skills like Kirill Dolzhenkov, Wiliam Whitelaw, Guillaume Richard and Sergei Ivanov.
Now they also have a coach in Mike Babcock who is well known and respected as a detailed tactician they can actually get the best out of this team.
They also still have all their own picks except a 2nd, with an extra 3rd and 7th.
They also could still trade Peeke, Boqvist, Bean or Roslovic for extra picks or prospects.
The uncontrollable factor here is injuries, which could happen to any of them, but if they pan out, yes, I think we're looking at a very competitive team for a lot of years, much like Tampa, with hopefully at least one Cup mixed in.