Nik said:I don't really disagree but it's not like Kakko and Lafreniere right now are contributing a huge amount either. Their eventual development is coming on top of an already decent-ish group.
For sure. They aren't at a contender stage yet but I don't think people would be putting up the 'Mission Accomplished' banner in terms of their rebuild if they drafted 14th in 2020 and 6th in 2019.
If they had to rank their top-25 under-25 right now I'd imagine Lafreniere, Kakko, Fox, and Shesterkin (who was drafted pre-Gorton) would be ranked 1 through 4 in whatever order. Not saying Gorton is a bad GM but I also don't think he's directly responsible for New York's accelerated rebuild as the original tweet might be suggesting.