What I would have done

Trading Pitlick for a 4th may be a success, but you're telling me Fischer can't either:
a) Get you more
b) Make your roster better
c) Get better (he's 24)

Decent pick here, but Lauzon is redundant with all the young LDs available. I'd be taking Ritchie to fill the forwards, which is clearly an area with less depth.

Geekie is pretty good and has potential, but IMO Bean has more. He's LD but better than Lauzon or Cholowski. Considering the amount of LD they took, this one made sense.

AT LEAST TAKE SOMEONE?!?!?!

Note: Zadorov is gonna get overpaid, so not taking him made sense even if he has the most trade value.

This was easily the most baffling decision imo. Stenlund is young, has some potential, is dirt cheap. Even if he gets claimed on waivers, it's better than nothing to risk it!

Also, Dean Kukan is a RD with value, which they got none of, and would have been a great pick here as well.

I don't have much of a problem with the Cholowski pick, he is young and had some potential. However, Stetcher is an easy-to-flip RD who is still young. He is more useful to the roster, or to trade. At 1.5M, half the teams in the league would be on the phone to trade for Stetcher.

Another case of a good UFA signing, BUT I'm not sure why they had to select him. I would select Tyler Benson (great AHL numbers, needs an NHL shot and they can easily give him it). If selecting Larsson was the only way to get him to sign, fine, but I don't think it was.

This is absolutely awful. Clague is younger, better, has potential, and is cheap RFA. This is the single worst pick of the draft in terms of opportunity cost, because there is absolutely no angle where it makes sense. Passing on talent due to a cap hit is one thing, passing because you have LD even, but taking an older, worse LD paid the same because he is 6'5... god dammit.

Young goalie with good numbers who is waivers-exempt! Would've been the perfect #3 or #4, or even take the #2. They ended up with two young backups, but why not have three? Soucy is a pure flip IMO, probably gets you a 3rd rounder.

I would take Kahkonen here and Jensen from WSH, Jensen as an RD has more value and the cap hit is basically the same. It isn't a bad pick, but not what I would do. Soucy is still very good tho, don't get me wrong, he's just pointless when you choose 4 young LDs but then give them no chance to get into the roster.

Not the best player, but for cap reasons (PK, Butcher, and Johnsson are all kinda overpaid), it isn't too bad. I would take Johnsson and hope to flip him for a pick.

Note: I really wanted Nathan to stay in NJD with Michael Mcleod, as they played together in Mississauga (OHL), where I got to watch them. So for sentimental reasons, I change this pick.

Ok so this pick is pretty bad, BUT I see why they didn't take the big cap hits of Vorachek, Ghost, or JVR. They easily could've been paid to take one of them on, or chosen one and flipped them (with retention, likely JVR). They saved more than enough cap throughout this draft, taking JVR would have been more than fine and he definitely provides value, whether its to their roster or in a trade.

However, even if I buy the 'save the cap' argument, I think Rubtsov is a better pick than Twarinski. Rubtsov has a bit more potential, is the same age, and did ok in the KHL. I guess he may stay there, so it really doesn't make too big a difference.

Taking Tanev over Petterson (same term, 500k more per year) is fine. Taking Tanev for no payment and leaving ZAR, one of the most underrated Two-way centers in the league, is not. ZAR may not have some of the intangibles of Tanev, but he's younger, not paid 3.5M, not signed until he is 33, and is a better center.

Demelo is the better player, and has more value, so I take him. Appleton is good, and easy to move due to his cap hit, but I just think they gave Winnipeg a pass for no reason on losing their best DFD. I would've gotten compensation to take Appleton at least.

This is a great pick, and could be their version of Shea Theodore (although I doubt it). However, I think you have to take the Best player available, both for the sake of your team, your marketing/publicity, and for trade value. Thats Tarasenko all the way.