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Garth Snow and the 2008 Draft
alt
Jonathan Willis
May 14, 2016, 11:00 EDTUpdated:
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Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli has made it
clear that he’s willing to discuss trades involving his team’s No. 4 overall
pick at this summer’s NHL Draft. For the most part, he has suggested trading
down, rather than trading out entirely, and if that’s the plan it’s helpful to
look back at what Garth Snow and the New York Islanders did in 2008.

Chiarelli

Chiarelli’s comments in a recent
interview with Bob Stauffer suggest that trading down is perhaps the most likely scenario for the Oilers:
I look at us like we’re at the top of the next group [at
the draft]. I’ve had four or five teams call me already, and I’ve made it known
that we’ll look to trade down if the right deal is there in the context of just
a pure trade down or a trade down with kind of giving up the value in the draft
numbers, in the draft rankings in getting a draft pick and an NHL player. We
went through a lot of scenarios at the amateur meetings; that’s when you’re
most creative. Executing these things is often hard but there’s some real stuff
that could come across our desk in the next few weeks, so looking at a lot of
stuff. But again, No. 4-9, pretty good players.
There is some room for interpretation in those comments, but
as I see it the following is probably true:
  • Edmonton doesn’t see a big difference in value
    between the No. 4 and No. 9 selections, and may view someone other than
    presumptive selection Matthew Tkachuk as being the best fit for team need.
  • The Oilers would consider a trade involving a
    current NHL player. Given the team’s needs, a right-shooting defenceman or
    right-shooting centre seems the likeliest target here.
  • The Oilers would also consider a trade involving
    draft picks as the sole return. The objective here could be either to stock up
    selections as ammunition for a later trade or simply as a way to reload a
    somewhat barren prospect system.

Garth Snow

In 2008, the Islanders owned the No. 5 pick at the draft,
but the team obviously had one prospect in particular in mind: Josh Bailey, a
smart two-way forward who exploded for 96 points in his draft year. The
question with Bailey was overall offence; the centre/wing was highly rated both
for his defensive play and character but the public consensus at the time was
that he lacked high-end scoring.
New York obviously liked him and did end up selecting him.
Taking him at No. 5 would have been a big reach, though. The Hockey News had him pegged as the 14th–best player in the draft,
while Bob McKenzie’s
list ranked him a touch higher at 12th overall.
So the Islanders made some trades. Prosportstransactions is
invaluable for this kind of research and gives us the
details:
  • Islanders trade the 2008 No. 5 pick (Luke
    Schenn) to the Maple Leafs in exchange for the 2008 No. 7 pick and the
    Islanders choice of either a 2008 second-round pick/2009 third-round pick or a
    2008 third-round pick/2009 second-round pick (they chose the latter package).
  • Islanders trade the 2008 No. 7 pick (Colin
    Wilson) to the Predators in exchange for the 2008 No. 9 pick and a 2008 second-round
    pick.
  • Islanders draft Josh Bailey with the 2008 No. 9
    pick.
It’s hard to argue with New York’s assessment of those
players, because even though Bailey hasn’t emerged as a unique talent he has at
least kept pace with those other skaters. Bailey has 250 points in 557 career
NHL games (37 points per 82 games played) while Wilson has 202 points in 432
career NHL games (38 points per 82 games played). Schenn averaged just over 17
minutes per game this season, first in Philadelphia and then in Los Angeles.
There’s not a big difference in talent between those selections.
In exchange for moving down four slots in a fairly flat
draft, the Isles got two second-round selections and a third-round pick.
The deal gets more complicated after that. The third-rounder
was traded for two other picks; Jyri Niemi didn’t work out while David Ullstrom
played 49 NHL games. One second-rounder, Aaron Ness, is still bouncing around
the AHL and got into eight games with Washington this year. The other was used
as part of a trade in 2009 to move up and take Calvin de Haan, a key member of
the team.
The important item here for the Oilers, though, is value.
There’s a lot that can be done with the equivalent of two second-round and one
third-round pick.

Recent trades

One good example is another Snow move, made in the fall of
2014. The cap-strapped Boston Bruins traded defenceman Johnny Boychuk to the
Islanders in exchange for two second-round picks that fall. Boychuk two seasons
ago was 30 years old, a proven top-four option and a right shot; in a lot of
ways, that’s precisely the player that Edmonton needs. The only real caveat
here is that Boychuk had just one year left on his contract, though the Isles obviously
(and correctly) decided the risk of him bolting was worthwhile.
Tampa Bay added Jason Garrison, a left-shooting rearguard
who has been a fixture in its top-four ever since, at a lower price at the 2014
Draft. The deal there was essentially straight across for a second-round draft
pick.
Andrej Sekera has been a part of such a move in the past,
too. At the 2013 Draft, Carolina acquired him from Buffalo in exchange for a second-rounder
and reclamation project Jamie McBain. McBain wouldn’t last in Buffalo, but
Sekera would emerge as a top-pair rearguard for the ‘Canes. Another trade at
that draft saw 36-year-old Lubomir Visnovsky flipped from Anaheim to the
Islanders (Snow is a recurring character in this piece). There was some drama
over Visnovsky reporting at first, but New York ended up getting three decent
seasons out of him.
In 2012, Toronto added John-Michael Liles from Colorado in
exchange for a second-round selection; the trade wasn’t exactly a smashing
success but Liles is still in the league and was playing 20:33 per game in
Carolina this year before being flipped to Boston at the trade deadline for a
package of futures.
Pretty much every off-season, there’s a reasonable top-four
defensive option available for nothing but picks. A second-round pick alone
sometimes gets the job done; other times there’s a need to add a second pick or
a McBain to the deal in order to make it go through. Those deals are available,
though.
If Chiarelli is nervous about missing out on a first-rate
prospect at this year’s draft, this is a pretty interesting possible route.
Edmonton could conceivably move down four spots or thereabouts, land the raw
ingredients necessary to acquire a top-four defenceman, and still have a little
bit left over. In the absence of a true top-pair option being available, it’s
not a bad plan. 

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