Five times a throw-in draft pick heavily impacted a Trade Deadline deal in the cap era

Credit: Ilya Sorokin (© Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)

With less than one month to go until the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline, we’ve got you covered at Daily Faceoff with at least one trade-focused story every day until Deadline Day.

Today, we look at supposed afterthought draft picks that were thrown into trades and made significant impacts.

2024 NHL Trade Deadline Countdown: 28 Days

One of the most interesting things about a hockey trade is that, unless a team wins the Stanley Cup right after making the deal, you often don’t really know who truly wins the trade for many years. The key pieces need to adjust to their new team (and sometimes move on in free agency if they are rentals), the prospects need time to develop, and the draft picks need to actually be used before you have a real idea who won a trade.

And sometimes, those draft picks can really swing a deal in one team’s favor. Seller teams covet the first-round pick, but they acquire plenty of picks in later rounds, too, and some smarts (and luck) from a team can help turn an afterthought of the trade into an impact player.

Today, I’m going to be looking for just that: trades that landed a draft pick that seemed to just be there to sweeten the deal only for it to end up turning into a significant piece for that team. Before we begin, I had to establish a few rules for this process:

1. No first-round picks.

2. The pick can’t be the centerpiece of the return (bonus points if the pick actually went to the team already getting the best part of the deal at the time).

3. No draft pick swaps.

4. The pick has to be traded to the team that eventually uses that pick in the draft and selects the player in question.

Boston acquires Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew from Calgary for Brad Stuart, Wayne Primeau and a 2008 4th round pick (T.J. Brodie) – February 10, 2007

Peter Chiarelli’s ability to take losses on numerous trades and contracts has been well-documented in recent years, and while you can’t call the trade as a whole a loss with the Bruins eventually winning a Stanley Cup with Ference, there is a part of the trade that he lost. With the team unable to get a new deal done with Stuart, they opted to move him for Ference, who was locked up for three more seasons beyond the 2006-07 season. Between the fact that they were getting a defenseman with term and getting an upgrade in the forward department in Kobasew, the Bruins threw in a 2008 fourth-round pick for good measure.

That fourth-round pick ended up giving the Flames a defenseman who was as good, if not better, than both Ference and Stuart in Brodie. He’s got the most games played out of anyone else selected in that fourth round in 2008, and only Matt Martin has ended up with more games played out of players selected after him. Brodie played 10 seasons for Calgary before leaving for Toronto in free agency, but the Flames got a staple on their blueline for years, and one that defended well in his own end.

Nashville acquires Paul Gaustad and a 2013 4th round pick (Juuse Saros) for a 2012 1st round pick (Mark Jankowski) – February 27, 2012

This was one of the most baffling deals of the 2012 trade deadline. The consensus on the trade was more or less “Paul Gaustad is worth a first round pick?” and that’s quite valid. Gaustad was a fine bottom-six center, and he was usually good for 20-30 points every season, but it did not even feel close to that of a first-round value. Even with the 2013 fourth-round pick thrown into the deal, it didn’t seem valid for Nashville to trade down three rounds in the draft.

Well, the joke’s on us, because the Predators got the best player in this deal by far, and it’s not Gaustad, although he did play five seasons in Nashville. It was that fourth-round pick that proved to be the difference maker, as the Preds would use it to select goaltender Saros, who probably doesn’t need an introduction at this point in his career. Nashville was careful with his development, giving him four years in Europe and the minors and five more as the backup or tandem goalie to Pekka Rinne, but since taking over sole starting duties in 2021, Saros has been one of the best goaltenders in the league.

Pittsburgh acquires Brenden Morrow and a 2013 3rd round pick (Jake Guentzel) for Joe Morrow and a 2013 5th round pick (Matej Paulovic) – March 24, 2013

2013 Ray Shero was a sight to behold. It’s often forgotten how good the 2012-13 Penguins were because they were overshadowed by a Blackhawks team that was slightly better than them in the regular season and eventually won the Stanley Cup. But they were also a very strong team that season, and Shero owed his players some extra help come trade deadline. He did just that, adding Jarome Iginla, Douglas Murray, Jussi Jokinen and Morrow.

That ended up being all for naught, especially with the Pens bowing out in an Eastern Conference Final sweep at the hands of the Bruins, and all the players left for free agency, but little did we know, the Penguins would end up with the best prospect down the road as well. With three players and four draft picks out the door, the Pens got just one additional pick with those players, a 2013 third-rounder that ended up as Guentzel. While his future with the team is up in the air right now, it’s safe to say that it gave them the best player to work alongside Sidney Crosby in his career, and along with a Stanley Cup in his rookie season, Guentzel has almost 250 goals and more than 500 points between the regular season and playoffs in his career.

Philadelphia acquires Andrew MacDonald from N.Y. Islanders for Matt Mangene, a 2015 2nd round pick (Brandon Carlo) and a 2014 3rd round pick (Ilya Sorokin) – March 4, 2014

Talk about a trade where you take the loss almost right away, and in the long-term. The Flyers bought the MacDonald hype train, as they were hoping to get a tough top-four defenseman who blocked a lot of shots. However, there was one problem: the reason he blocked so many was because he was constantly hemmed into his own zone. MacDonald ended up being a possession black hole for the Flyers for six seasons, five of those attached to a $5 million cap hit that was mercifully bought out in its final year.

And then lo and behold, the Flyers gave up not one, but two picks that turned into solid NHLers. Carlo doesn’t count towards this because he wasn’t drafted by the Isles, but he was exactly what the Flyers were hoping to get in a top-four defensive defensemen. But it’s the other pick that’s even worse, as a Flyers team that hasn’t had consistent goaltending since Ron Hextall moved a pick that ended up being one of the best goaltenders right now in Ilya Sorokin, something the Islanders are certainly reaping the rewards of now.

Detroit acquires Erik Cole and a 2015 3rd round pick (Vili Saarijarvi) from Dallas for Mattias Janmark, Mattias Backman and a 2015 2nd round pick (Roope Hintz) – March 1st, 2015

The Red Wings were quite a sight to behold in the early 2010s. Watching them recognize their championship window had closed but desperately try to be just good enough to keep their playoff streak alive was extremely entertaining from the outside looking in. The deal that brought Erik Cole to the Wings at the 2015 trade deadline was one of many moves in that era that saw them keep the team as middling as possible by bringing in veterans that were well past their prime, and it resulted in them moving out a lot of prospect and draft capital as a result.

The original big piece of this deal was Mattias Janmark, who didn’t quite pan out as a prospect but has still carved out a solid career in the NHL. Instead, it’s that 2015 second round pick that’s come back to haunt the Red Wings, as they went on to use that pick to select Roope Hintz. He’s only just hit his prime now, but Hintz has turned into a strong first-line center for the Stars, especially alongside star winger Jason Robertson, and is the kind of dynamic center the Wings could have used to support Dylan Larkin down the middle. All that for 11 games from Erik Cole with the Red Wings before missing the rest of the season with a spinal contusion.

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