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Last week's NHL trade deadline saw a number of draft picks change hands as part of New York Islanders trades. Combined with a couple of trades earlier this season (Peter Regin and Pierre-Marc Bouchard to Chicago for a fourth-round pick) and last summer (Mark Streit to Philadelphia for a fourth-round pick), that changes how their draft board looks.
Based on the latest info available -- do correct me or question in comments -- here's an overview of what they have in the 2014 and 2015 drafts, followed by some notes on the when and how:
| 2014 | 2015 | |
| 1st | NYI* | BUF* (NYI-Vanek) |
| 2nd | NYI | BUF (NYI-Vanek) |
| NYI** (MTL-Vanek) | NYI (PHI-MacDonald) | |
| 3rd | NYI | NYI |
| NYI (PHI-MacDonald) | ||
| 4th | NYI | NYI |
| NYI*** (CHI-Regin/Bouchard) | ||
| NYI (PHI-Streit) | ||
| 5th | MON** (NYI-Vanek) | NYI |
| 6th | NYI | NYI |
| 7th | NYI | NYI |
*Assuming their 2014 pick is in the top 10, the Isles have the option to send the 2015 1st-round pick to Buffalo instead as part of the trade to acquire Thomas Vanek.
**The exchange of Montreal's second-round pick for the Islanders' fifth-round pick as part of the Vanek trade is conditional on the Canadiens making the playoffs.
***According to ProSportsTransactions (a nice but unofficial resource), Chicago owns multiple fourth-round picks from prior trades, and It's unclear which pick they will transfer to the Islanders as compensation for Peter Regin and Pierre-Marc Bouchard trade.
Strategy Implications
We all tend to assume the Isles will not give up their first-round pick this summer, since they seem headed toward a top five or so draft slot. But it's worth noting they currently have seven picks in the following three rounds. That creates the possibility of some jockeying, probably what GM Garth Snow was referencing when he said the recent trades gave the Isles "some chips to play with" at the draft.
In contrast, if they give their 2015 first-round pick to Buffalo, that will mean they wouldn't pick in the 2015 draft until Philadelphia's slot in the second round.
We'll see what they do. The conventional wisdom at present is that 2015 is a better draft than 2014, but that's a rather murky science and it tends to be heavily influenced by the number of potential stars at the top of a given draft year (2015 has an absolute stud).