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Displaying pretext
In what will be a continuous look at draft rankings and philosophy, I turn my attention this week to how teams should approach the Entry Draft in terms of their organizational priorities. Every year we hear this same old question come up in discussions around the time of the NHL Entry Draft about how a team should approach the draft:
"Do you draft the best player available or do you draft for need?"
This question is thrown towards NHL executives repeatedly around draft day and the responses are usually one-sided towards always drafting BPA (best player available). There are various interviews out there that support this and it's become a general philosophy in the hockey world, but just for a summarization of what I'm talking about I will quote Brian Burke at the 2009 Draft:
Q: Do you approach it by best player available?
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From Daigle To Datsyuk (11/01)
2 comments have been left for this article. 
Good article. I now agree with your theory that you just can't draft the BPA or needs. It's a combination of both like Lawton said. Also I had no idea at the dropoff after the number 5 pick overall. I guess the scouts were right about Ovechkin, Crosby, and Taveres. I still wonder about Erik Johnson. Were the scout wrong about Lawton? I suppose they were.