Thomas Drance

Yes, you're right.

You want to be the team that drafts that player, regardless of how it turns down eight years down the road.

Every time.

And have a blast in the interim.

It's not like the Matthew Kachuk era in Calgary wasn't super fun.

It's not like the Quinn Hughes... I know we remember it now through this dour lens, but like...

But the thing here after year, we were going to watch Quinn Hughes do crazy stuff on the ice being like, wow, this is unbelievable.

Actually, I'm still shocked they haven't raised a banner.

I also don't think we should ignore, like...

The 12 months leading up to Hughes's departure in Vancouver, really starting with the JT Miller leave, right?

And then like the rift, the trade, talk it defecting, right?

Like, just like you actually like go through all the stuff, right?

The Adam Foote training camp, the early season injuries, the amount of minutes that he was playing.

And it's just like, you can understand how someone would just be like,

wide-eyed and like, what are we doing here?

You know, like, what are we doing?

By the way, throw in the four nations where it's not at all clear that Hughes couldn't have played in that gold medal game if not for the Canucks intervention.

And then in Brady's case, I actually think it's even wilder.

Like if you remember how this Senator season actually went, how hot they had to run down the stretch to make the playoffs, how miserable it was, how bad the goaltending was, how well they were constantly playing and just not winning games.

Then there was that moment mid season where rumors started flying about like team infidelity connected to a player's mental health issues.