Confirmed with Link: Jiricek, 2025 5th to Minnesota for Hunt, conditional 2025 1st, 2026 3rd, 2027 2nd and 4th

[Dead Coyote]

I'm actually pretty happy with this. I think it's pretty good. Hunt is 6 months older than Jiricek and has accomplished more and projects better currently to be better.

I have not been impressed with Jiricek at all in the AHL or NHL. If he puts it together great, but Ive never been a fan of going hard on guys who need to learn how to skate.

 

[Cheddarcheese]

I'm actually pretty happy with this. I think it's pretty good. Hunt is 6 months older than Jiricek and has accomplished more and projects better currently to be better.

I have not been impressed with Jiricek at all in the AHL or NHL. If he puts it together great, but Ive never been a fan of going hard on guys who need to learn how to skate.

Well said! It’s a fast game you gotta be able to skate all the star defensive man can skate!

 

[majormajor]

I've never been a Waddell guy. But Waddell has no pretense of being a scout, he had offers from half the league for our scouts to go through and this is the return they liked the most. That might say a lot about Hunt. Our amateur scouts knew him well from Moose Jaw.



So I'm not going to complain about Waddell passing on the best offer, they obviously went with their favorite. The one thing under Waddell's control is the timing - did he wait too long to make a trade? Did he go too soon? You can make an argument for either one if you want to.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

I've never been a Waddell guy. But Waddell has no pretense of being a scout, he had offers from half the league for our scouts to go through and this is the return they liked the most. That might say a lot about Hunt. Our amateur scouts knew him well from Moose Jaw.



So I'm not going to complain about Waddell passing on the best offer, they obviously went with their favorite. The one thing under Waddell's control is the timing - did he wait too long to make a trade? Did he go too soon? You can make an argument for either one if you want to.

The two 1sts may have been Philadelphia offering Colorado's and Edmonton's picks. It's not obvious that that's a better offer.

 

[majormajor]

The two 1sts may have been Philadelphia offering Colorado's and Edmonton's picks. It's not obvious that that's a better offer.

I'm saying it's not the better offer if they preferred Hunt to another late 1st. The Wild 1st is likely also late so the comparison is between Hunt and another late 1st. I might prefer Hunt there too. It's not looking like a good draft.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

I'm saying it's not the better offer if they preferred Hunt to another late 1st. The Wild 1st is likely also late so the comparison is between Hunt and another late 1st. I might prefer Hunt there too. It's not looking like a good draft.

Gotcha.

The most interesting part of this to me is the added draft capital. Assuming Columbus get another 1st from the inevitable Provorov trade, what should be done with what would then be three 1st round draft picks? I'd assume they're going to be looking for some kind of quantity-for-quality type of deal. But what exactly? Try to trade up? Try to get a young star?

The usual suspects mentioned, usually with a healthy degree of wishful thinking, are Brady Tkachuk, Noah Dobson and Evan Bouchard. But are there others? Are there any realistic trades to be made?

Furthermore, there are some interesting UFAs this off-season, with Rantanen and Marner possibly available.