The Sharks have moved up three spots in tomorrow’s first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, acquiring the 11th overall pick from the Sabres, per a team announcement. They’re sending the 14th overall pick back to Buffalo, which they originally acquired from the Penguins in last year’s Erik Karlsson trade, along with the 42nd overall pick, which was previously acquired from the Devils as part of the return for Timo Meier in February 2023.
San Jose general manager Mike Grier now holds a slightly higher pick that should give him a chance to draft a slightly more impactful talent to develop alongside Boston University standout center Macklin Celebrini, who they’ll be taking with the first overall selection in just over 24 hours. It comes at the expense of a decently positioned second-round choice, although they do still have their own second-rounder in addition to the Lightning’s (No. 53). They picked it up via the Red Wings yesterday, along with defenseman Jake Walman.
Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, meanwhile, had the 11th pick on the block as far back as early this month. Most assumed he’d be leveraging it for some win-now help, which today’s move may actually benefit. The difference in value between No. 11 and No. 14 isn’t terribly large in this year’s deep draft class, and he now owns an additional second-round pick to toss into a trade for a top-six forward. Hurricanes pending RFA Martin Nečas and the Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers remain attractive options available for acquisition.
Buffalo also still has a deep prospect pool of their own, especially at forward. That made the selection expendable in the eyes of many. Just in the past two years, they’ve used first-round picks on left winger Zach Benson (2023, 13th overall), center Jiri Kulich (2022, 28th overall), center Noah Östlund (2022, 16th overall) and center Matthew Savoie (2022, ninth overall).
There is such a thing as too many prospects, especially with all of them on relatively similar timelines. Roster spots won’t exist for all of them, so it was always a sensical choice for the Sabres to leverage this year’s top selection for other assets.
Nobody wants to play in Buffalo & those that are here can’t wait until they can leave.
This is a tired trope that is not supported by the facts. Eat it!
Stop with the BS rhetoric.
Cozens, Power, Dahlin & Tage have all signed long term.
Signing players that are already in your organization is a lot different than getting players to waive their no trade clause to go to Buffalo.
Players with NMC are not players healthy teams usually trade for especially if the deal has a few more years left.
Really??? Look at the attendance. They don’t even care if you move down anymore,
Sort of a curious trade, I feel like a 2nd is an overpayment to move up 3 spots… But I ponder if Grier has his eyes on someone like Eisermann with high upside that could fall to 11th, but not to 14th.
Will be very interesting to see. If they whiff on this pick, it’s gonna look a lot worse in hindsight.
I bet they go for eiserman if he is still available
Yeah that’s why I’m thinking they did this trade. They probably have 11-12 guys they see as peak prospects, and their list drops off in projected quality by 14. If the guy at 11 is a Top 6 F or Top 2 D, and the guy at 14 is a marginal player… This trade looks godly.
Nice objective analysis.
I think they are likely trying to get into the mix of the 6-8 quality dmen this draft. SJS D prospect pool is very thin after Muk. One of those decent players will drop out of the top 10.
Odd that SJ moves up, pays a steep price, even before knowing who goes ahead of it. Seems they’ve got a good guess on how the top 10 goes.
The Sharks had 3 second round picks. Seems like a worthwhile gamble.
There’s the Dman I predicted. Good pick positionally. I prefer Buium but Dickinson is solid as.