Last summer AT Fulemin wrote an examination of a seeming trend in Mark Hunter’s draft strategy for big defencemen.
I think it’s fair to say that some of these picks have been the most controversial in Hunter’s tenure. More than once I’ve seen the Middleton and Maatinen selections characterized as “lighting draft picks on fire”—in other words, that these players showed so little beyond height that their chances of being NHL contributors are effectively zero. Progressive-minded fans tend to think old-school hockey thinkers overvalue size to a fault, and when their team picks a big player who seems to have obvious flaws—poor skating, or meagre point production—well, they get upset.