I’ll give them credit where it is due. Koivu is an amazing player. He should have been a no-brainer with who he is and who is brother is. He has turned out to be the only solid player the team has ever really had, save for Backstrom.

On the rest of your list… hmmm… not sure I’m ready to give them credit for them yet. All high picks who have not made it to the upper echelon of NHL players.

PMB is an artist with the puck, but if he doesn’t stop with the spinning at the blue line, he is going to get run over every time. Burns is a good player. Not a great player, mind you. He is good. I would put him as a number three d-man on most Cup contenders. His defense has suffered in the new system, and his offense has not compensated for that. Both players now have serious concussion issues, which may cloud an ability to make a solid judgment about their performance for the rest of their careers. If they fail, it will be blamed on the concussions. If they succeed and excel, then they will truly be super stars, as not many players do.

With Harding, I am very skeptical. He has never shown he is ready for a number one job. No, he hasn’t really been given the chance, but it is not like there are NHL GMs pounding down the door to get him either.

The jury is still out on all of them except Koivu. Busts? No, not one of them. But none of them are good enough to compensate for the other stupidity from that regime.