- Gare Joyce: On the Flames offer of all 3 1st picks for the 1st overall pick. Flames would pick Nathan MacKinnon over Seth Jones as a it’s position of need. “Trade would never get made. Picks and a player of established value, then a discussion. Otherwise non-starter.” Sean Monahan would be the Flames fallback with the 6th selection. Could look to Nashville at No. 4 to get Aleksander Barkov. The Flames don’t have ‘that’ player of established value to make the deal. The Hurricanes could be the wildcard as they are not taking Valeri Nichushkin. They might take Barkov if he’s there. They are looking for immediate help.
- Adrian Dater: Dater has heard along that if the Avalanche trade down from the 1st overall, they still want to remain in the top 3. To trade down, the Avalanche also want a very good established player or two, as well as the 2nd or 3rd overall pick. The Panthers and Lightning have the 2nd and 3rd overall picks, and are not really interested in giving up an established player plus their own pick to get the 1st overall. Dater thinks at this time, it’s more likely that the Avalanche will keep the 1st overall pick. There was no chance the Avalanche would accept the Flames offer, as they hate the Flames for the Ryan O’Reilly offer sheet.
- John Vogl of Buffalo News: The Sabres are trying to move up from the 8th overall pick in this year’s draft, according to their director of amateur scouting, Kevin Devine, “We’re really trying to move up.” To get the No. 1 pick, the Sabres could make a deal with the Predators at No. 4, then make a deal with the Avalanche for the No. 1. The Sabres also have the No. 16 pick, a pair of 2nd round picks (No. 38 and 53), as well as Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek.
“The preliminary talks are that everybody’s talking about our young players to move up,” Devine said during an appearance on WGR 550 AM. “We’ve got to decide if it makes sense to move some of those players to move up. So it’s a difficult conversation, but if you’re really honed in on one guy and he can be a franchise changer, then you have to look at it.”