Quote Originally Posted by patsdude114 View Post
Its a risk every team takes when they have a player drafted in the 1st round of the NHL draft. Sometimes drafting too good at the bantam draft is just as bad as not drafting good enough. In the 2009 Bantam Draft it was the year of the top 4 defensemen (Pouliot, Reilly, Reinhart, Dumba) 2 of which have already played in the NHL...top 3 forwards in that draft were Stephenson, Winther, Rankin.

Look at when RD drafted RNH played what 2yrs for them and off to the NHL they would of been better off drafting Rattie, Siemens, St. Croix or McNeill & got 4yrs out of them. You guys would of gotten 3yrs out of Reilly had he not gotten a serious injury, but then again had he not gotten that serious injury maybe the Leafs would of kept him up at age 18 instead of 19
As a loyal Rebels fan, I have to say I think they got it right when they picked Nugent-Hopkins. You have to take the best player available, as good as a kid is there's no way of knowing if he'll be in the NHL at 18 until the time comes. IMO, RNH was about 4 pre-season points away from being sent back to junior, and had he been back at 18, we'd all have been crying about how we could've passed this kid over at number 1.

Coupled with the reality that the Rebels have drafted as poorly as anyone for the better part of a decade and we've been deprived of any depth of talent for years (with the exception of a couple top 5 picks), I was thrilled to be able to watch RNH on a nightly basis, even if it was only for two seasons. I'd take RNH for two years over McNeill for 4 any day of the week.