I realize that people’s first inclination is to say ‘no’ to this (understandably), but two things:
1) the whole point of the draft is to consistently fill the pipeline.
2) more times than not, teams are lucky to get one long term ‘core’ piece into their line-up out of the 7 picks that they draft.
So - why not just acquire good ‘sure thing’ core pieces every year, even if the opportunity cost of doing so is potentially giving up a franchise player (the other side of the coin being, that you draft a bust).
If people are searching for gold, the guy selling shovels to these guys will make more than 90% of these guys.”
Same thing - if everyone covets draft picks....esepcially around draft time when the value of draft picks are at a premium, why not sell them shovels?
Couldn’t this be a good strategy?
1) instead of attempting to fill the pipeline consistently through the draft, fill the pipeline by acquiring “good” prospects that are aged between 20-23, and then sign them to friendly long term cap hits when they become RFA’s (by the way, that’s the other thing with franchise players. Even if you draft a franchise player, these guys will have to be paid MASSIVE coin most of the time when it’s time to re-up).
2) for cheap affordable contracts, sign PTO guys instead of depending on prospects to manage the cap. PTO guys bring the experience that prospects will not.
3) when the situation calls for it, go after a franchise player via UFA.
Perhaps I’m missing some important facts/concepts here, but that’s how I see it. Fill the pipeline year in year out, but do it with ‘sure thing’ 20-23 year old prospects (using a 1st and 2nd each year), as opposed to trading 2nd and 3rds for 22-24 year old reclamation projects.