Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Trading down to acquire a high pick AND another NHL ready body for Yakupov was always the right move, and showed an incredible lack of hockey IQ when they didnt do it.
talk about minimizing risks...that ^^^ deal is a minimal risk compared to taking an enigmatic though supremely talented Russian, when your team has glaring needs everywhere except the position he plays.
It was a dumb dumb move last year, it is this year and will still be a dumb move in 10 years, regardless of how Yakupov progresses.
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Recent examples of trading down from the First Overall Draft pick (
underlined players were unselected draft picks at the time of the trade):
1998:
San Jose traded the pick to Florida for Viktor Kozlov and
Jaroslav Spacek.
Florida traded the pick to Tampa Bay for Bryan Marchment, David Shaw and
David Legwand
Tampa drafted Vincent Lecavalier
Winner: Tampa
1999:
Tampa traded the pick to Vancouver for
Pavel Brendl,
Brett Scheffelmaier and
Jimmie Olvestad
Vancouver traded the pick to Atlanta for
Daniel Sedin and
Max Birbraer
Atlanta drafted Patrik Stefan
Winner: Vancouver
2002:
Florida traded the pick to Columbus for
Jay Bouwmeester
Columbus drafted Rick Nash
Winner: Columbus(?) see note 1.
2003:
Florida traded the pick and
Dan Carcillo (!) to Pittsburgh for
Nathan Horton and
Stefan Meyer
Pittsburgh drafted Marc-Andre Fleury
Winner: Pittsburgh(?) see note 2.
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Back to the original quote, the idea that a 1st overall draft pick gets traded for a "NHL ready body" is almost non-existent within recent history of the NHL. The only time it has happened was the Vincent Lecavalier trade and the pick that eventually because the first overall was traded twice during the season, before it was known that the pick would be the 1st overall.
There is basically no precedent for trading a first overall pick for a NHL regular. Without having at least one example of a team making that trade, it's hard to gauge what sort of value would have been required to convince any team to trade their 1st overall pick for a NHL regular (or a combination of NHL regulars).
Trading Yakupov for a NHL regular might have been the right move, but it takes two to tango and it seems as though no team has been able to agree to the asking price of a 1st overall pick (with respect to NHL regulars).
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1. I picked Columbus because Rick Nash is big, plays center and scores goals. It doesn't hurt that Columbus got some nice assets that have helped make their team better when they traded Rick Nash to New York. Florida got Josh Birkholz and the negotiating rights to Jordan Leopold (who they eventually signed him but not until free agency began. And he signed a one year deal. And he was traded at the deadline for a pick that became Connor Brickley. Great asset management on display here.).
2. Florida had a young Luongo between the pipes in the season before and after this draft, which sort of explains why they didn't want to draft MAF. That doesn't explain why they didn't draft Eric Staal with their pick. Florida got a 5 years out of Horton (without a single playoff game) before trading him for Dennis Wideman and a pick that became Nick Bjugstad. Florida got 61 games of Wideman before shipping off for a 3rd round pick in 2011 (Jonathan Racine). So to recap the only assets Florida remains with from this trade are Nick Bjugstad, Jonathan Racine and some nice action shots of Nathan Horton in their old media guides. Pittsburgh on the other hand won a Stanley Cup despite MAF's best efforts between the pipes. I think the point here is Pittsburgh won a championship and Florida wrote another chapter in their on-going book series "How to manage your NHL team poorly", hence why I picked Pittsburgh as the winner of this trade. Thinking there was no winner in this trade would also be a completely acceptable opinion with me.