[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Absolutely. Other than CAR, the top contenders in the league (FLA, TOR, COL, VGK, TBL) have traded away most of their 1st and 2nd round picks for years. It’s the standard operating procedure in the league today, when contention windows only last 4-6 seasons.

The Avs, for instance, have no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round picks in the 2025 or 2026 drafts. They didn’t make a 1st round pick in 2022 or 2024 either, and have traded away the player they drafted in the 1st round in 2023. You’ll see similar stories with the other contenders.

The Panthers traded away their 1st round pick in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. The Lightning traded away their 1st round pick in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027.

The Stars are somewhat more conservative, having only traded away their 2023 1st, 2024 2nd, 2025 1st and 2nd, and 2026 1st. Same with the Oilers, who have only traded their 2021, 2022, and 2025 2nds, and 2023, 2025, and 2026 1sts.

Yeah but those teams have won cups or on the cusp of winning a cup. Treliving made those moves for an unfinished team that was on a rotation of making the playoffs/missing the playoffs the next season. The Flames needed difference makers to get to where the teams you listed were and he traded a lot of assets for depth players that never moved the needle. He's doing the same thing today in Toronto as the guys he traded top prospects and 1st round picks accomplished nothing for the Leafs in the playoffs. He's not a good GM.