[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

Trade Deadline is just over a month away. If the Flames are sitting out 2-6pts do you trade him?

Most likely a late first round and a B prospect?

I actually picked apart the only times that other teams have traded top 10 picks in the last decade, in an effort to see if somehow getting Tkachuk 3.0 was possible:

Teams that have traded top 10 picks:

2017: Arizona --> NYR , 7th overall (Lias Andersson) -- They had another pick in the 1st round from Minnesota. The trade looks pretty bad in retrospect, but it was to obtain a 1b/2C in Stepan.
2016: None- 11th was highest pick traded
2015: None- 13th was highest pick traded
2014: Ottawa --> Anaheim, 10th overall (Nick Ritchie)-- Ottawa was acquiring Bobby Ryan, and did not have another pick in the 1st round. Terrible trade in retrospect (they also lost silvferberg lol)
2013: New Jersey --> Vancouver, 9th overall (Bo Horvat) -- This was to acquire Cory Schneider. Probably a fair trade.
2012: Carolina --> Pittsburgh, 8th overall (Derek Pouliot) -- This trade was to acquire Jordan Staal (another 1b/2c) so that seems like an established cost. This trade looks pretty good in retrospect, but it also makes the az trade last year look reasonable
2011: Columbus--> Philadelphia, 8th overall (Sean Couturier); Toronto --> Boston, 9th overall (Dougie Hamilton) -- Columbus traded this pick for Jeff Carter (another 1b/2c, slightly better than the other two listed but had off-ice blemishes), the toronto/boston was part of the infamous kessell package.
2010: None outside of the kessell/seguin toronto fiasco
2009: None
2008: NYI --> Toronto, 5th overall (Luke Schenn); NYI ---> Nashville, 7th overall (Colin Wilson); Nashville ---> NYI (Josh Bailey) --- Although there were three trades in the top 10, none of the teams who traded actually left the top 10 in terms of picks, just shuffled the deck chairs
2007: St. Louis --> San Jose , 9th Overall (Logan Couture) -- This one is the only one i could find where a team moved out of the top 10 for less than an established 2nd line centre, and really they only moved down 4 slots to 13 and picked up a 2nd rounder in the process. Normally this is a decent trade, but in retrospect they lost as they missed on Couture for Lars eller and a nobody.
2006: None
2005: Atlanta --> San Jose, 8th overall (Devon Setoguchi) -- this was another trade down scenario, atlanta moved down 4 slots to 12th and picked up a 2nd rounder.

So since the lockout, only two top 5 picks have been traded, only one while it was known to be top 5 and it was to move down within the top 10. The going rate for a top 10 pick seems to be as part of a package for a high caliber centre, or a trade down in the round to get more picks.
Out of 130 available top 10 selections since the salary cap was instituted, only 12 (9.2%) have been traded, and only 7 (5.3%) were trades that didn't recoup a 1st rounder from the same year.
In short I don't think it's likely at all that we can trade to get Tkachuk, especially if he's drafted top-5

In summary, top 5 picks are never traded, but picks from 7-10 were sometimes traded, and for centres in the same range as Backlund (or maybe slightly better). However that was with some term, backlund being a UFA kills his value a bit.