Edited Apr. 14 at 8:25 p.m.
Quoting: mokumboi
Except what a player has accomplished in the NHL to date isn't all that matters unless the world is gonna end tomorrow.
And Nikishin's contact has one year left. In the right now, in a redraft, Nikishin is easy top 5. What has happened is far less important than what will happen from here.
Ik we've had this argument already but what if he re-signs in the KHL, or if his game doesn't translate, the GM taking him that high would look stupid. It's the same reason Michkov fell in the draft, teams knew he may not come to NA, and that they'd have to wait for him to come over. I can't say I've seen Nikishin play but he sure seems like he'll be a stud when he comes over, but putting him top 5, over guys that are established NHL's contributing to their team's at a really high level and are only getting better seems crazy to me. It really depends on the team picking's situation more than anything. If an already competitive team has the choice of a guy that won't come to the NHL for 5 years but has crazy potential vs a guy that can play immediately but may not be as good at his peak, they'll probably take the guy that will help the team now rather than later, and since I didn't redraft this with team's situations in mind, the player that can't come to the NHL for another year while others have been in the league for 3-4 years didn't get picked highly
EDIT: If I was an NHL GM looking back at the draft 4 years later seeing how some of the guys I passed on are thriving while my pick still can't play in the NHL I'd somewhat regret my pick, and as an NHL GM you easily could be fired before your pick makes it to the NHL, and that pick could've been the difference in keeping or losing your job, even if you made the right decision to wait it out, you're job could be lost before the day your pick makes his debut. And god forbid he sucks after waiting 5 years for him to play, that'd go down as one of the worst decisions of your career