Oh man, it was painful reading all the blowups on this thread after the whole Nichuskin rumor earlier.. Now allow me to give my take.
Does anybody realize that there's a very large chance Feaster and co. are taking a page straight out of Colorado's playbook (though for another purpose)? In fact, I bet Sakic and co. inspired Jay to make this move. If a #1 C is their preference, and Barkov, Monahan are their most desired pieces (after MacKinnon of course, but he's likely out of reach) and if they realize they might not be able to move up come draft time and those two pieces could be gone before #6, wouldn't you go and pump the tires of the one other player who is high profile enough to be chosen in the top 5? By putting out the image that they're very comfortable with Nichuskin, and have it look like they're getting the piece they want, the Nashvilles, Carolinas might take another couple glances at the kid to see what all the fuss (or lack thereof) is about. It makes too much sense, and it's smart. If the Flames look like they have his whole russian factor situation sorted out, then maybe those teams will think they missed something with him. If Jay gets his way, then the chance of one of the center prospects falling into his lap increases substantially.
Clever.
