Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
It doesn't happen all the time.
Does it happen? Yes. Does it happen enough that it's something a GM should rely on being available to him? No.
It's especially unlikely for elite top-line centres in their prime to be available in a trade. 23 of the 30 top-scoring centres in the league are still with the team that drafted them. The Thornton and Seguin deals are the exceptions, not the rule.
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This is the biggest argument for drafting a forward at the top of the draft; franchise centres are absolutely the most valuable commodity in the NHL. Girgensons might be in the NHL; they didn't think he would be a top tier centre. They thought, rightly or wrongly, that Jankowski has a better chance of becoming a top tier centre, and he was available at 21.
So if the ceiling on a player is 'first line centre' at 21 vs 'top 4 d' at 21, I don't give a damn if the defenseman is already in the NHL. Take the centre if you think he projects to be an elite player.
I've said it before, franchise defensemen get traded or hit free agency all the time. Chris Pronger was a Whaler, a Blue, an Oiler, a Duck, and a Flyer. Scott Niedermayer didn't finish a Devil. Zdeno Chara was allowed to test free agency. Ryan Suter didn't get $98 million to stay in Nashville. Defensemen are available if you want to pay for them.
Centres are not. For that reason alone, I'll always support the Jankowski pick. This was never picking a Chucko or Nemisz, who were products of other players. This was picking a guy who was in a league of his own. It was a position of absolute need, and you can crap on the guys that made it or the guy that was picked till you're blue in the face, but the attitude and thought process that went into the pick is something to be commended. And the sort of thinking that leads you to take a chance on Jankowski should not be condemned because we could have had Olli fricking Maata.