Quoting: LuckyMoneyPuck
because the young talent is good just not franchise level good, and it will win games. Which will pull them out of those picks.
This is why I said, rush.
No need to rush these young guys in. Just tank it out is better for the team, the fanbase, and eventually these players themselves.
They aren't signing these guys already to not play them. Nor are they going to bury them in the AHL.
That is unless you think adding these guys isn't going to win games and pull them out of the bottom 5. Which I think is absurd. Of course they will win games, at least enough that other teams are tanking out under them. Which really hurts in the next 2 years drafts, as those 1OA are much better players.
I get it. You're saying that by signing Smith now, they're rushing him into the NHL because they can't send him back to college, and since he'll probably make the team better, but only by enough to lower their draft position, they'd be better off leaving him in college. You may be right, but I can think of a few counter points:
1) He won't necessarily make them better. Chicago with Bedard didn't finish any higher in the standings than Chicago before Bedard.
2) They could send him to the minors. I doubt that they would have guaranteed he would play in the NHL. They could promise to give him a chance, but he still has to make the team. It's not unusual to see a player who's better than some of the players who make the team get sent down because of waivers exempt status and lack of suitability for the available roles. For example, they probably wouldn't want Smith playing on the fourth line.
3) Teams have a limited time to sign college players, or they lose their rights. If they don't sign a player when he thinks he's ready to turn pro, they risk having him refuse to sign later, and then they'd have to trade his rights to avoid losing him for nothing. Some people have speculated that this may have been what happened with Cutter Gauthier in Philadelphia.