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Not at all why Ras was drafted. He was ranked 5th by NHLCS. Right behind Vilardi. He got a bad reputation because one guy picked out one advanced metric from one year and made a big deal about it. Maybe Vilardi would have been a better pick, but he was the only player available consistently ranked ahead of Ras, and he had many of the same question marks about his potential. Considering Ras's strengths also addressed notable team weaknesses, no one should be complaining about that pick. Furthermore, Ras has put up numbers similar to what Mantha did at the same age, with the exception of at 19, Ras had an underwhelming season in the NHL while Mantha had a dominate year in juniors. Mantha 17yo - QMJHL - 63gp - 22g - 51p .81ppg 18 - QMJHL - 67 - 50 - 89 - 1.33 19 - QMJHL - 57 - 57 - 120 - 2.11 20 - AHL - 62 - 15 - 33 - .53 Ras: 17 - WHL - 50 - 32 - 55 - 1.1 18 - WHL - 47 - 31 - 59 - 1.26 19 - NHL - 62 - 8 - 18 - .29 20 - AHL - 35 - 7 - 22 - .63 Ras is 5 months older, in relative terms, and so was able to start in the CHL a year earlier, which would explain the disparity in the first year. Shouldn't have much impact in the later years though. Of course, none of that means Ras will develop in the same way Mantha has since then though. It will be disappointing if he doesn't, doubly so if Vilardi turns out significantly better, But this does illustrate how profoundly expectations can be effected by players being in different situations.

Gone for so long and the conversations have hardly changed at all. Cholowski's demotion last year, much like the year before, was likely to allow him to develop against a more appropriate level of competition. He wasn't effective in the NHL; playing in the AHL was better for him. Considering he really didn't improve at all from his first year to his second, and now hasn't played in 10 months, I wouldn't expect much this year. Maybe he'll surprise, but I won't hold my breath. He has not been good offensively. 24 points in 88 games. Not even that good in the AHL. 25 points in 55 games. Dekeyser level offense .69 P/60 last year with 2:40/g PP time. For comparison, Daley (who you call one of the worst in the league) with less than a minute PP time per game scored .63 P/60. Staal and Stecher both produced better without any PP time worth mentioning. At even strength, Nemeth, Biega and Merrill all produced more. You made the same arguments about Smith and Sproul. Like once you label a player an offensive defenseman you'll say he's "good offensively" no matter how he performs. If he was actually good, he wouldn't have any problem beating out the likes of Daley or Biega or Merrill. That's why Hronek has stuck despite his own somewhat weak defense. You like to say "be given every opportunity", but what you really mean is that he should be given a spot no matter what. You know there's nothing Staal, Merrill, Biega, or Lindstrom (or likely even Nemeth, Stecher, or Dekeyser) could do that would make you believe they deserve a spot over Cholowski. And you're against adding anyone you think could beat him out, like Vatanen. We can gift him a spot next year, no need to do so now when he's still waiver exempt. Granted, Vatanen isn't good enough to make a big deal about, but I do think we should make every reasonable effort to improve as much as we can. I personally think a major factor in last year being such an embarrassment was Yzerman writing-off the season before it started, and he's done essentially the same thing this year. Getting too used to losing, or even worse wanting to lose for a higher pick like most fans seem to want, is terrible for a franchise.

I fear his time is short here as well. Maybe Yzerman can deal him to a Western Canada team, where is from, and maybe he can ignite some kind of career. I know drafts are crap shoots for the most part, but (I know Holland wanted to dump Pav's salary) most of us, if not all, wished that Holland would've just drafted Chychrun. Here's to hoping that we aren't saying the same thing about Zadina and Hughes 4-5 years from now. That trade was great because it got us Hronek with that extra pick who is better than Chychrun.

Said the same thing to CRL.

TBH I'm amazed that they didn't put a giant f*cking Little Caesar on the side.

What do you consider elite? For D-men it's top 5 in the NHL. For forwards, it's top 10. I wouldn't put Pietro in my top 5 or Tarasenko or O'Reilly in my top 10.

I said at the time that was a bad pick, if he was in fact drafted solely on his ability to play net front on the power-play. You can get those players in the later rounds, and it looks like we may have done just that with Soderblom. I still think Rasmussen can be a capable 3rd liner, but that's not a great look for a 9th overall pick. Svechnikov's value is at an all time low right now. He needs to play this season so we can see what we have in him. Likely another 3rd line winger, but maybe he has a big season and can up his trade value...