There’s always a remote chance Buffalo could trade the top pick
John Vogl of The Athletic: The last time a trade happened where slots were swapped including the top pick was 2003. That is when Pittsburgh and Florida did the deed. In most cases, this does not pan out well.
Some of the returns on these trades certainly did not pan out. When Washington did it in 1975 for essentially Bill Clement, Clement was traded off to Atlanta after just 46 games. The pick they also got played just nine NHL games.
Then there is Florida, which was on both sides of this in the early 2000’s. Needless to say, that did not work well either. In 2003, Pittsburgh picked Marc-Andre Fleury then added some guy named Sidney Crosby the following year. That turned out well for them.
Buffalo likely holds on to the pick just after some of these horror stories alone. They will be tempted to make a move. However, the Sabres have bigger fish to fry.
St, Louis Blues: Will they hold on to their first-round pick?
Jim Thomas of StLouisToday.com: It will be the pressing question overheard for the next week and a half. Does a team hold on to their top pick or do they trade down? St. Louis holds the 16th pick in next Friday’s draft.
There are lots of other things going on with St. Louis in the meantime — Tarasenko, Dunn, Seattle exposure, etc.
The last two times St. Louis drafted this high, were in 2008 and 2010. They picked Alex Pietrangelo and Jaden Schwartz. The two players still play in the NHL — Schwartz with St. Louis and Pietrangelo now with Vegas.
Needless to say, it worked out.
Doug Armstrong tends to trade these picks for assets and consider the last four first-round picks have not exactly worked out.
It is a coin flip at this point but several viable picks are there for St. Louis at 16. Sasha Pastujov and Jesper Wallstedt are two that stick out a bit along with Cole Sillinger.