Besides, why are people complaining. In the last 3 drafts, we have taken:
Phillipe di Giusseppe (38th overall, thanks DaveG for the catch, no impact yet)
Ryan Murphy (a defensman)
Jeff Skinner (7th overall, could have had Cam Fowler)
Phillipe Paradise (an awful pick, but 26th, so no one who would be contributing right now, save for limited minutes from Dmitri Orlov).
Zach Boychuk (This one looks bad: we could have had Karlsson, Del Zotto, Schultz or Voynov).
That we have to go back 5 drafts to complain about JR not drafting defensemen in the first round is fairly indicative.
I might even be more generous to JR here:
2005 - Jack Johnson->Tim Gleason
2006 - Jamie McBain
2009 - Brian Dumoulin
2010 - Justin Faulk, Bobby Sanguinetti (for 2 picks)
2011 - Ryan Murphy
He's turned the last 6 drafts into a serviceable homegrown defensive group. What's missing is a) the kind of stud #1 defenseman that doesn't exactly pop out of the woodwork, and b) quality depth.
Problem "a" is not something you can address in the draft without either a lottery pick or blind luck. You're pretty much forced to go to trades and UFA to find guys like that, and we all know that we're at a disadvantage when it comes to acquiring players at market prices.
Problem "b" is where JR earns some rightful criticism. We really need another utility guy like Harrison who can take care of his end, and won't look completely out of place on either special teams unit. It doesn't have to be a stud, just someone who comes to play. Joe Corvo is not that guy; signing him was just ridiculous. Sanguinetti is not that guy; keeping him in the NHL is just ridiculous. We let Seidenberg go for nothing, we let Allen go for nothing, and we traded Dumoulin who looks like he will become that sort of player.
So really, in terms of drafting and development, I think JR has done a relatively decent job of acquiring pieces. His mistakes have been fairly narrow and in the case of the bottom-4 guys, relatively easy to fix as we go forward. The fact that we're missing that franchise-cornerstone stud can pretty much be chalked up to the odds going against us. But something has to be done about filling the gaping lack of a defensive defenseman, and that is squarely on JR.