Or if the Bolts took Doughty instead of Stamkos, NY would have still chosen Tavaras and we'd have Doughty and Hedman! We'd be Montreal 2.0 looking for a 1st line center till the end of time!

It's interesting how much luck plays into all of it. Especially when you compare it to Edmonton's situation (focussing simply on top 1/2 picks and not the absolutely stellar drafting record the Bolts have up and down the rest of the draft).

When Edmonton took RNH, Hall (seguin was never going to go #1), Yakupov and McDavid...they were all the consensus # 1 picks that year. Tavares was the consensus #1 pick followed immediately by Hedman. Stamkos was the undisputed #1 pick followed by the 4 d-men...Doughty, Bogosian, Pietreangelo, and Shenn.

So, it's not like you can give credit to Tampa or hate on Edmonton for who they took with those top picks....but by sheer luck of the draw (literally), Tampa ends up with a world class C and a world class D, giving them terrific balance. Edmonton ends up with a forward-heavy team and is still trying to find help on the back-end.