Quote:
Originally Posted by The Voice of Reason
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.
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Some good points, but think you over-state it a bit.
First, by only looking back to 1998, you miss the era where it was more common (early expansion). You also miss the biggest one - the Lindros trade, where I think everyone would agree that Quebec/Colorado won the trade.
As for needing a dance partner, that is an obvious requirement of any trade, but I think it is misleading to suggest that finding a trading partner would be more difficult in this type of trade (this is directed to other comments, not necessarily the quoted post). I think it is more the case that the team with the pick is leery of moving it - there are usually teams each year that express an interest in trading for it. What they would pay is obviously a factor, but nonetheless...
The team picking first is usually in more or less of a rebuilding position, so it makes sense that they would be reticent to trade the pick. However, the Oilers were in a different position last year (or at least should have been as they already had two 1st overalls and should have been looking more at organization needs).
One example of a possible trading partner would have been Pitt, who had the #8 pick. I would think they would be very interested in acquiring a pure goal scorer and, with multiple quality defensive prospects in their system, could afford to offer decent assets. A good D prospect, plus the #8 pick where they could have acquired one of Reilly, Reinhart or Trouba, depending on how the draft played out, would have made the basis for an excellent return for Edm IMO.
The point being that finding a trading partner for a trade involving the #1 pick is no different, and no more difficult, than finding a trading partner for any other major asset.
Which reminds me, not sure why you kept referring to trading for a current player since no one suggested that.
Anyway, whatever. I believe that the Oilers missed an opportunity that will lengthen their rebuild. But that is just my opinion of course.