Trading down advice

[joeb323]

Normally I’m interested in trading up and not down, but I’m wondering if it makes sense for me to trade down this year - looking at the pool of free agents, and opportunity to get slightly better depth?

League 1 in sig. here’s what I have for higher round picks right now:
- 1st round (6th)
- 1st round (8th)
- 3rd round (38th)
- 4th round (59th)

One of the GMs/potential trade partner has four 2nd round picks (17th, 22nd, 27th, 28th).

I was thinking about a trade of my 8th overall pick in exchange for 17th and ideally 22nd (but perhaps 27th or 28th if he doesn’t want to give up 22)

Here’s some projections on the roughly top 30 free agents (not including prospects/recent 2021 draft class) based on our scoring categories:

1. Petry
2. Weegar
3. E. Kane
4. Marchessault
5. Bennett
6. R. Strome
7. Seguin
8. Girard
9. Rust
10. Tofolli
11. Ekholm
12. Perron
13. Pulock
14. Verhaeghe
15. Garland
16. Buchnevich
17. Couturier
18. Reinhart
19. Lee
20. Hronek
21. Grzelyck
22. Toews
23. Anderson
24. Vrana
25. Hertl
26. Hoffman
27. Hyman
28. Karlsson
29. Ellis
30. Benn

I’m targeting a dman with my first pick at 6. Then I’d back 9 spots in the draft, but get an extra 2nd rounder out of it. Thoughts?

[mdratch]

I wouldn't be trading those top picks looking at who is available... You only need to fill one more forward starting position and 2 more at D. Give me the best possible pick to fill at least two of those spots and then the best D available at 38th pick. I personally wouldn't risk missing out on top available players just to build depth in a keep 8 start 6, 4, 1.

I'm guessing someone is going to draft a top prospect/draft class in the top 10 in hopes of improving there keepers, which could put you in position to get some good players with 6th and 8th. You have a good team and if you get two more great players, I'd suspect your starting lineup will give you a great chance to win.

Anyways, that's my two cents, I'm keeping the picks.

[joeb323]

Thanks I appreciate your comments! Yeah I’m in win-now mode and am hoping some of the new class gets drafted early so I can focus on established players this year.

The reason I was thinking of doing the move is to add a little to that ready-now depth, as it doesn’t seem like there’s a massive drop off in quality from the top 10 to top 25ish. I agree it would be safer to just keep both 1st round picks and not risk it

[random-d]

I don't know if I'd be targeting a dman with that 1st pick. The options further down (other than Petry) look just as good. I think you would be fine making that move, getting the best forward at 6 (Forwards get more points for goals?) and then grabbing two solid d options from amongst the remaining options. I just don't see a big enough difference in quality from the top to the bottom of that list in regards to the defensemen available.