2009 Draft Day Speculation - Part Two

Another day comes and goes, which means one less day until the Islanders select their player with the first overall pick. Much like yesterday, I will continue along with my ingenious general managing skills that saw me offer up a fair trade to Minnesota yesterday, in my opinion. Today’s trade, while allowing us to move up from the 26^th overall pick, will not lead us as far up as yesterday’s pick did. Today’s trade is with the St. Louis Blues.

To NYI: STL 1^st Rd Pick (17^th Overall)

To STL: SJ 1^st Rd Pick (26^th Overall), TOR 2^nd Rd Pick (37^th Overall), BOS 2^nd Rd Pick (56^th Overall)

I believe that St. Louis gets a fair value for their first round pick, while still getting being able to select a player in the first round, and adding two additional second round picks. Why do I believe that St. Louis would make this kind of trade? Well, there are several reasons. First, St. Louis has developed a wealth of quality players from within their system, and still have more on the way. Some of these names include: TJ Oshie, David Backes, Patrik Berglund, and Alex Pietrangelo. Secondly, now that they have stocked up many quality picks in different positions, it is time to bolster the entire system. St. Louis could use the 26^th overall pick to select a player whom they believe will develop in the position of necessity. With the additional picks in the second round, St. Louis would be able to select players that they feel will enhance the team in two to three years, and players that they feel will help to win a Stanley Cup championship. These players, especially with the 37^th overall pick, could truly develop into extremely talented players. The additional second round picks will also allow the Blues to select a “flyer” player, much like the Islanders did last year with Kirill Petrov. Time will tell what they would do without the additional picks, but I feel they would entertain this type of deal.

Why should the Islanders do it? Well, this is where it gets a little trickier. The actual movement is only 9 spots higher in the draft, however, there may be someone still available with the 17^th pick that the Islanders have marked extremely high on their draft board. First, we must analyze the cost. We are essentially giving up three picks in the 26^th overall to 56^th overall range in order to secure one extra pick in the top 17. While I am an advocate of moving up to do so, I can see the flip side where many believe the price is simply too high. At this point in the draft, players such as Ekman-Larsson might fall, with the possibility of other big name players falling this far. Who would be available at this point specifically? I will not get into as much detail with that as I did yesterday, but I do feel someone will slip considering it always happens.

What do you guys think about a deal like this? If you were Garth Snow, and the option with Minnesota was out of the question, would you try and push a deal like this through?

*Quick Note: Seconds before I was about to publish this blog, I came across Jon Jordan’s mock draft and noticed that he has the Islanders in the 17^th spot and St. Louis in the 26^th spot. This had no bearing on me writing about the trade with St. Louis, but I do intend to ask him what kind of trade he had in mind. When I get that information, I will be sure to pass it along to you.