FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. – Dating to the trade deadline and even this week, Chuck Fletcher has (so far) resisted trading his second-round pick (50th overall) in Day 2 of Saturday's NHL draft.
This may not seem newsworthy, but for a Wild general manager who has used several draft picks as currency in many trades, this would be big news if Fletcher keeps his second-round pick.
"It's important for [assistant GM] Brent [Flahr] and his staff to be good because I've put more pressure on them by trading some of these picks away," Fletcher admitted.
What Fletcher's doing is not abnormal. It's the price of doing business in the NHL. For example, of the 60 second- and third-round picks in this year's draft excluding a compensatory awarded to Chicago, 28 draft picks (46.7 percent) have been traded. Five of those 28 have actually been traded twice.
"This is not a unique phenomenon," Fletcher said. "Second- and third-round choices are moves usually made at the trade deadline."
Fletcher is considering trading down from No. 20 on Friday night in order to "recoup" some of the picks he has traded. He indicated he'd be more inclined to do that particularly if the Devan Dubnyk negotiations go haywire and he's forced to trade for a goalie. That's because the asking price could be a second-rounder.
In the 2015, 2016 and 2017 draft, there's six second- and third-round picks allotted and the Wild has traded four of them. The Wild dealt this year's third to Arizona for Dubnyk and next year's to Florida for Sean Bergenheim. It traded next year's second and a 2017 second to Buffalo for Matt Moulson and Chris Stewart, respectively.
In 2013, the Wild sent a first- and second-round pick and prospects Matt Hackett and Johan Larsson to Buffalo for Jason Pominville and a fourth.