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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on which team(s) won draft weekend.
Todd Cordell
New Jersey is the obvious answer. They drafted a franchise cornerstone in Jack Hughes and used their financial flexibility to acquire PK Subban, who has averaged 50 points per 82 games over the last three seasons, for pennies on the dollar. Even if prospects No. 2 through 11 don't pan out, this weekend is still going to be a good one for the Devils.
My other choice would be Carolina. They drafted quite a few talented players later than they should have gone (Ryan Suzuki, Patrik Puistola, Anttoni Honka, Blake Murray, etc.) and landed a 1st round pick in exchange for eating a year of Patrick Marleau's contract. Job well done.
I also mostly liked how Los Angeles, Colorado, Toronto (relative to the picks they owned) and the New York Rangers drafted.
James Tanner
The draft weekend winners are pretty obvious. Tampa wins because somehow while other teams were paying to get out of their cap problems, Jim Benning paid the league's best team to fix all their problems. Second, the Leafs because not only did they sign two players everyone thought they'd lose, they moved a contract no one thought they could. Plus, everyone seems to love the picks the made. Third is the Devils, because they found P.K Subban lost in the woods and he joined their roster basically for free. And they got Jack Hughes.
Pete Tessier
This isn't even close- New Jersey. With the first overall pick they had already assured themselves of a franchise changing player in Kakko or Hughes but to then go and pull of the trade to acquire Subban was the coup.
The buzz at the draft was that the Leafs were going to make a play for Subban and once the Marleau trade went down almost all felt this was inevitable. Ray Shero's press conference later Saturday had him saying they didn't know who else was bidding and for Subban but he went about his business to make a deal. Giving up Santini is nothing and the second round picks were hardly a price to pay either for acquiring Subban on a down year, a year when the entire Nashville team was 'down' was smart.
They used the cap space they had and will have for a bit to grab a top pair defenceman while adding an elite centre as the first overall pick. Everyone else will have to wait and see how they did form this year but The Devils- they won before it was 10 am PST on Saturday.
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