I agree with the philosophy. But this team is basically starting at ground zero. Their best players right now are an in your nose 2nd liner and an elite offensive d-man who is awful defensively. There are holes everywhere. 2 wingers with the top 2 picks would not waste away this rebuild, nor would picking 2 centres or 2 defencemen.
What will waste away the rebuild is not developing the prospects we pick well.
I am thoroughly ok with taking the best player available this year. Once we draft this year, you can get a little more picky in future drafts. The positional need of this team is literally everything.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0
I see where you're coming from, but I guess I just have a bit more optimism about the current state. Chabot, Tkachuk, White, and Hogberg are the NHL-level foundation, but I'd say Brannstrom, Thomson, and Bernard-Docker have pretty good top-4 potential. Similarly, the combination of Batherson, Norris, Formenton, and Pinto have pretty solid 2nd/3rd line potential. That leaves a lot of room for high-end talent, but I wouldn't say it's too early to be thinking about positions strategically... especially with the general bias in this year's draft for quality forwards, and the apparent bias in next year's draft for quality defence. As such, their best chance to address the #1C position is
this year with the 3/5 picks.
One point I'm glad you raised, though, is that Chabot needs a lot more support than he's been getting - and piling on more offensive d-men beyond what they have in Brannstrom, Thomson, and Wolanin isn't going to help with that. They would be wise to consider adding some quality physical/defensive-minded d-men, who could support Chabot/Brannstrom like Methot used to with Karlsson. In many ways, Braden Schneider looks like an ideal RHD candidate - because he has the skating and two-way game to complement his physical style. Given their penchant for drafting University of North Dakota players, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Tyler Kleven was on their radar in the 2nd round - and a potential sleeper pick that I've been looking into more is Simon Kubicek (WHL), who's a projected mid-round pick but is a 6'2/205 RHD with solid WJC-20 experience with the Czech Republic.