The NHL entry draft is less than 10 days away and, with it, the possibility for some blockbuster trades. Let’s take a look back at the major players from the 2022 draft floor trades and look at some of the big winners and losers.
Winners
#1 – Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks signaled their intent to ‘tank hard for Bedard’ during the 2022 draft. They had already moved a few pieces at the trade deadline and the complete dismantling of their NHL roster was kicked into high gear with draft day trades. Kirby Dach was sent to Montreal and Alex Debrincat to Ottawa. Those two trades brought the Blackhawks two 2022 1st round picks, along with a 2nd round pick and two 3rds round picks. They also then took Petr Mrazek off the Maple Leafs hands in a cap dump that allowed them to upgrade a 2nd round pick into a another 2022 1st round pick.
The Blackhawks picked Kevin Korchinski (7th OA), Frank Nazar (13th OA) and Sam Rinzel (25th OA) with the three 1st round picks they added on draft day. Using the Hockey Prospecting model to assess their growth over the past year, Nazar and Rinzel have dropped off. Korchinski looks like a very good prospect, however, with his NHLer probability rising from 69% to 87% and his star probability rising from 26% to 78%.
Not only did the Blackhawks add plenty of future potential, they were very successful in their tanking effort as well. Their NHL roster was a smoking ruin. Mrazek spent some time on the IR and played in only 39 games. He wasn’t stellar when he was in the lineup, posting an 0.894 save percentage and helping Chicago finish 30th in the NHL. They subsequently won the draft lottery and now have the opportunity to also add highly touted prospect Connor Bedard at this year’s draft.
The Blackhawks rebuild has a long road ahead but their 2022 draft day trades gave it a large infusion of potential.
#2 – New Jersey Devils
Bad goaltending plagued the New Jersey Devils in the 2021-2022 season and they set out to rectify the situation at the 2022 draft. They swapped second round picks with Washington (moving down the #45 from #37) and added a 3rd round pick to acquire the RFA rights to Vitek Vanecek on day 1 of the draft.
The Devils signed Vanecek to a 3 year deal with a modest $3.4M cap hit and Vanecek delivered as a starting goalie in year 1. He helped the Devils to a 2nd place finish in the Metropolitan Division, posting a respectable 0.911 SV% in the process. Things went off the rails a bit in the playoffs, however, with a shaky performance over 7 games played.
The playoff results weren’t what the Devils hoped for this year, but they did find a goaltender who gave them a chance to win most nights through the course of the season.
#3 – Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers had a declining Zack Kassian on the roster with a $3.2M cap hit going into the draft. They traded down from 29th overall to 32nd overall and sent an additional two picks to the Arizona Coyotes to have the Coyotes take Kassian’s contract in a cap dump.
While the move allowed the Oilers more flexibility to shape their roster for the start of the 2022-2023 season, the biggest benefit may have come much later. With enough cap space banked near the trade deadline, they acquired Mattias Ekholm from the Nashville Predators. Reid Schaefer, the prospect the Oilers picked with the 32nd overall pick acquired from Arizona, was part of the package sent to Nashville.
The addition of Ekholm stabilized the Oilers blueline and had many considering them as cup favorites going into the playoffs. The Kassian trade from the 2022 draft floor set the table for it, freeing up necessary cap space and adding one of the pieces sent to Nashville in the Ekholm trade.
Losers
#1 – Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators kickstarted ‘The Summer of Pierre’ with the acquisition of Alex DeBrincat from the Blackhawks at the draft. With plenty of youth in the system and on the NHL roster already, they sent a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd to Chicago for DeBrincat, who had one year remaining on his current deal which would leave him as an RFA with arbitration rights at expiry.
One year later, it’s clear the trade didn’t work out anything like the Senators envisioned. DeBrincat’s projected impact dropped steadily through the season due to poor defensive impact. The Senators results echoed those results and they missed the playoffs. To add insult to injury, rumors abound about DeBrincat’s future with the team as he reportedly is not interested in a long term extension.
‘The Summer of Pierre’ was supposed to help the Senators contend for a playoff spot in the Atlantic. Instead, they hit the golf course early once again this season and Alex DeBrincat might be on the move on draft day again.
#2 – Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers were insistent that they did not need to rebuild last summer and acquired the UFA rights to Tony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes for a package of draft picks. They then signed him to a 2 year deal with a $5M cap hit.
DeAngelo struggled defensively in a big way, causing his projected impact to drop significantly. Changes to the model for the 23/24 season that better account for skaters’ impact to GSAx reduced it further. The Flyers missed the playoffs by a wide margin and cleaned house in the front office.
#3 – Montreal Canadiens
After stunning the hockey world by selecting Juraj Slakovsky 1st overall instead of consensus #1 prospect Shane Wright, the draft host Canadiens continued to make headlines in the first round. They sent Alex Romanov and a 4th round pick to the New York Islanders in exchange for the 13th overall pick. Instead of using it to add to their prospect pool in the first draft since they committed to a rebuild, they flipped the pick to the Chicago Blackhawks to acquire Kirby Dach.
Dach’s first season in Montreal didn’t go as well as he or the Canadiens would have hoped. The Canadiens were likely banking on significant development from the then 21 year old but his projected impact fell significantly over the course of the season instead. Dach needs to turn around his performance next season or the decision to trade for a better known player instead of using the 13th overall pick themselves looks like a bad one.
Trade Trackers
Keep tabs on the trades above with the trade tracker links throughout the article. Also, check out the main Trade Trackers page for links to these and many more significant trades.
