Would you trade your entire roster + 2023 picks + prospect pool for the 2023 WHL draft class

[95snipes]

Every player/prospect in your organization would become a free agent and you would not be able to sign them. You would forfeit all of your 2023 picks. In return you would receive:

Notable Forwards
Connor Bedard, potential #1 center, likely #1 pick
Zach Benson, potential first line winger, likely top 10 pick
Brayden Yager, potential top 6 center, potential top 10 pick
Nate Danielson, potential top 6 center, likely top 20 pick
Andrew Cristall, potential top 6 winger, likely top 20 pick
Riley Heidt, potential top 6 forward, likely top 30 pick
Samuel Honzek, potential top 6 forward, likely top 30 pick
Yegor Sidorov, potential top 6 forward, potential top 50 pick
Koehn Ziemmer, potential middle 6 forward, potential top 50 pick
Kalan Lind, potental middle 6 forward, potential top 50 pick

Notable Defenseman
Lukas Dragicevic, potential Top 4 defenseman, likely top 30 pick
Tanner Molendyk, potential Top 4 defenseman, likely top 50 pick
Caden Price, potential Top 4 defenseman, likely top 50 pick
Luca Cognoni, potential NHL defenseman, potential top 50 pick

Notable Goaltenders
Carson Bjarnason, potential NHL goaltender, potential top 50 pick
Scott Ratzlaff, potential NHL goaltender, potential top 50 pick
Thomas Milic, potential NHL goaltender

Assume you could sign AHL/SHL/KHL/etc players to fill your roster for the rest of the year.

Click to read more...

 

[Karl Eriksson]

No

 

[treple13]

I would for the Flames. This roster would be terrible next year. I'd probably dangle a few of these guys to get some of our guys back. You need some vets. You could also take on as many cap dumps as possible (3 years or less) and get more picks. Sign UFAs to really high amounts with the promise to deal them at the deadline to a contender. You're likely getting high picks in 2024 and 2025 as well, but then you could potentially be a strong contender shortly after.

I don't think tanking is a super effective strategy, but partly because there is no guarantee that you get a Bedard out of it. But in this case, absolutely

 

[Regal]

Sure, why not? I’m tired of seeing the useless bums on the team now

 

[NoShowWilly]

Yup. A complete reset of our entire cap + bedard + a bunch more potential for hughes and pettersson.

 

[Hisch13r]

No.

 

[LeProspector]

You’d be dumb not to.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

You’d be dumb not to.

Yeah who'd want a chance at a cup when you can get a group of teenagers.

I'm not trading Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, L Hughes, Mercer, Nemec, Casey, Marino etc for a buch of maybes. I'm sure Boston and Canes fans would agree.

 

[QJL]

I wouldn’t even trade Fox, Zibanejad, and Shesty for this package.

 

[Ignite111]

Lol what?

 

[EdJovanovski]

Yes as long as I can keep Kravtsov

 

[Gecklund]

Hell yeah I would. Get out of these long term contracts. Not like the Sharks have much worth keeping anyway.

 

[GreeningOil]

Good young teams say no. Mediocre teams say yes

 

[wetcoast]

Sure, why not? I’m tired of seeing the useless bums on the team now

This was my feeling as well seeing the thread title but as for the OP do I only get those 4 WHL Dmen for next season?

Even so the concentration of elite talent along with being a lottery team for at least 2 more years means in 3 or 4 years the WHL team would no doubt be better than my current Canucks right?

 

[Bouboumaster]

Loosing Suzuki and Caufield would hurt but yeah

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Delete.

 

[GOALOFSSON]

Sounds kind of dumb, but I think back to if somebody made that offer before the 2015 draft class. Would've been dumb not to.

This is specifically the WHL players

 

[Sinistril]

I'd do it just for Bedard tbh

 

[95snipes]

This was my feeling as well seeing the thread title but as for the OP do I only get those 4 WHL Dmen for next season?

Even so the concentration of elite talent along with being a lottery team for at least 2 more years means in 3 or 4 years the WHL team would no doubt be better than my current Canucks right?

It's doubtful any of those defenseman would be NHL ready next season, so you would basically be icing an AHL defense short of any free agent signings or taking on cap dumps. So basically guaranteed to be a lottery team for '24 and probably '25, but at that point, you would almost assuredly have the best prospect pool ever assembled.

I'm somewhat surprised by the poll results. I think at minimum 10 NHL teams should say yes to this offer. Your getting the number 1 pick this year (and best prospect of at least conservatively the past 3 years), likely 3 top 10 picks, 5 top 20 picks, and potentially 10+ top 50 picks. You would also have extreme cap flexibility to take on cap dumps and acquire more assets and your core would all be the same age to grow together.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

This is specifically the WHL players

Oops. Skipped over that part.

 

[centipede2233]

Philly couldnt say yes fast enough!

 

[smoneil]

It would be too mean to Gallant to make this kind of move. If all of the players are young and promising, how is he supposed to know whom to bench when things go wrong?

 

[Regal]

This was my feeling as well seeing the thread title but as for the OP do I only get those 4 WHL Dmen for next season?

Even so the concentration of elite talent along with being a lottery team for at least 2 more years means in 3 or 4 years the WHL team would no doubt be better than my current Canucks right?

I’m assuming the idea would be to fill out the rest of the roster with UFAs/trades, which would further make it likely to be a better team in a few years. It would also be needed to reach the floor. That can be dangerous though because you run the risk of getting into cap situations in the future as the WHL guys mature, though I’d consider trying to sign UFAs to an overpay per year but on deals for only 3-4 years, so there’s cap room available as the ELCs of the WHL players expire. Along with taking on bad deals that expire in 3 years for sweeteners, and built out the prospect pool further.

 

[95snipes]

Oops. Skipped over that part.

If it was the entire draft, it would be a no brainer to do that.

Some of the WHL guys will bust, but a comparable group of talent was the 2015 OHL class. You would have ended up with:

Crouse-McDavid-Marner
Mangiapane-Cirelli-Konecny
Zacha-Strome-
--

Dunn-Andersson
Dermott-
-

Blackwood

Not a bad start to a team. You would have then been a lottery team for 2016 and 2017 so it's likely to end up with 1 (or 2) of Matthews/Laine/Dubois/Hischier/Heiskanen/Makar/Petterson plus whoever else you were able to draft/acquire along the way.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Has there been a year and a league where this would have made more sense? 2019 USHL maybe?