I’m going to start off this profile by saying some controversial: the point of the NHL entry draft is not to pick players who are really good right now, but to pick players who will be very good in the future. More specifically, you want to take a player who has the best chance at developing into an NHLer.
That sounds simple, but if it was that simple then no team would ever miss on their picks. One interesting thing to consider is when a draft eligible prospect is born, as there are three significant points that can affect what you think of a prospect’s future development:
1) They’re born between September 16th and December 31st in 2002.