A lot has been made over time concerning the Pittsburgh Penguins’ new president of hockey operations, Kyle Dubas, and his tendency to commerce again within the draft. In his introductory press convention, he talked about taking a “two-pronged” strategy to the job:
“I see this activity forward of us as a two-pronged effort.
“Within the quick run, it’s to proceed to make selections which can be going to permit the group to be aggressive whereas the core group of gamers which have led the group to championships prior to now proceed to carry out on the ranges that they’ve for so long as they will.”
“On the identical time, we’ll additionally start at delivering a long-term hockey group that may be the category of the NHL. And to scale back any hole in time that there in any other case may very well be from the top of these nice gamers’ careers to the following period of nice hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins.”
Kyle Dubas, (Cam Lewis, OilersNation.com),
This leads us to the 2023 NHL Draft. The Penguins maintain six draft picks with no choices within the second or fourth rounds. If Dubas plans to commerce again from the 14th general spot, he might add a decide in both spherical. However does it make sense?
Does Buying and selling Again Make Sense for the Penguins?
In hockey, draft decide worth charts rose to prominence prior to now decade, or so, with Michael Schuckers writing a paper on it for St. Lawrence College in 2011. Under is a tweet from Chace McCallum (@CMHockey66) about his personal draft decide worth chart vs Schuckers’.
As such, in line with draft worth charts, should you commerce for choices decrease within the draft, you may make up the worth by buying a further decide. A well-known “Kyle Dubas” instance of that is:
In 2018, the Maple Leafs traded the twenty fifth general decide to the St. Louis Blues for the twenty ninth general decide and the 76th general decide. The Maple Leafs chosen Rasmus Sandin with the twenty ninth decide, and the Blues chosen Dominik Bokk twenty fifth. At 76th general, Toronto chosen Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. As of now, they gained the commerce. Sandin is the a lot better participant and Toronto additionally used him to accumulate a 2023 first-round decide and Erik Gustafsson from the Washington Capitals at this yr’s commerce deadline.
The Dubas-led Maple Leafs had been in a position to purchase the higher participant by buying and selling again and had been additionally in a position to purchase a further prospect to additional inventory their cabinets. They then traded Sandin for an additional first-round choice in an analogous spot and added a roster participant to shore up their blue line. This reveals the doable advantages of buying and selling again, in addition to nice asset administration.
Blackhawks a Potential Commerce Companion
Looking forward to the 2023 NHL Draft, there are some alternatives for the Penguins brass to commerce again, in the event that they see match. One candidate is the Chicago Blackhawks. Along with the primary general decide, the Blackhawks at the moment maintain the nineteenth general decide in addition to 4 picks within the second spherical and two within the third. This might give the Pens a shot at recouping some draft capital to assist re-stock the cabinets for after Crosby, Malkin, and Letang are performed.
This may very well be particularly useful if the Penguins see “their man” presumably obtainable on the nineteenth slot, or in the event that they really feel they may get a participant of comparable worth at that spot. Nevertheless, it’s contingent on the Blackhawks desirous to scoop up a participant at 14th. It will even be rational for the Penguins to see a participant obtainable on the 14th spot that they don’t wish to threat shedding out on.
No matter whether or not the Penguins do or don’t commerce down, the important thing will likely be for Dubas and co. to accumulate extra picks in preparation for the top of the Crosby period. They may additionally use younger low cost gamers on entry-level contracts for his or her present run over the following few seasons, and the easiest way to accumulate these varieties of gamers is through the draft.