Idk if I agree, a lot of analytics people had some of the players they took as regarded very well. Maybe to a lot of the casuals, they just took a bunch of dudes but some of those players were just lower on their teams depth chart and performed much better than expected with more playing time. Also, they got a bunch of prospects and picks that were very, very good.
A big reason Vegas has success now and have Stone and Pacioretty is because of the picks they got / players they drafted with those picks. Would be interesting to see an alternative dimension where those guys end up if Vegas didn’t have the assets to get them, which they got from the expansion process. Now, Seattle could do the same thing with some of their guys (Eberle, Giordano, Gourde, etc.) depending on how the first season goes and what teams are willing to give up but for now Seattle gets an easy F in the “obtaining capital for the future” category that Vegas aced. hopefully there are a few Wild Bill ‘out of nowhere’ Vegas season 1 players on the roster right now (hell, it’d be great if a few were even HALF what Wild Bill was that first year) that can boost the offense. Defensively and in net they look well built and formidable. Really seems like scoring is the unknown (which ironically enough I think was the same said about Vegas) and hopefully the Pacific is as weak as it appears to be so there are no long winless droughts but we shall see.