The thing with selling at the deadline is that it's mostly the contending teams that are buying. So you're ending up with late firsts, that statistically rarely amount to much. Look at the Iginla trade: Agostina, Janowski, and a 1st. The Flames ended up with Poirier and Klimchuk from those late 1sts. Shea Theodore was drafted late that first round, but the rest were not impact players.
So the "rebuild" is really about getting those 3-5 high draft picks from your own picks and making those count.
I'm not super concerned about lost opportunities to grab late 1st/2nd rounders. The team is likely not getting rebuilt with those picks.
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