considering WPG's pick can be at the latest, 19th overall, you keep that pick. A player like Kaliyev can easily fall or you can package a nominal player to move up 2-3 places in the draft.
This pick can actually potentially be #16.
The only teams behind them in the standings that have yet to win the series is Carolina, Vegas and Dallas.
Dallas is up 3-2, Vegas should've knocked out SJ last night but are still tied 3-3, Carolina will probably lose the series but if they win tonight they can make it interesting.

At 16-18 (where the pick will likely end up) you can still get a VERY good player (players like Kaliyev, Caufield, Suzuki can still be available)

Earliest is can be is 18, and most likely 19 or 20. but yes it would be a good player available there.

The WPG pick can be anywhere between 18-22, depending on which teams win and move on to the conference finals. You are rooting for teams that have less points than WPG in the regular season to make it the furthest; that will move the WPG pick up to 18.

I doubt WPG accepts either of your Trouba trades (referring to @Spanky227's last post). I would like to think they finally give in and pay the man, but if not, I think many teams would be interested and would be willing to pay more than what you two have offered. But I could be wrong.

I am not sure it's about paying him anymore. He's a year away from having control over where he plays, and while the Jets have a great team, I really don't think he wants to play in Winnipeg. That's the vibe I've always gotten from the outset of the whole drama, but I can't speak like I am a Jet fan, perhaps they would be able to explain better.

I like the Jets pick at this point also, there could be real nice value there if one of the top 10 guys goes through one of those slides you see happen from time to time.

That being said, Trouba would check A LOT of boxes for the Rangers, as there is a serious need for a real top pair RHD on this team. Plenty of teams would say the same though, and if he's made available (I assume it would be at the draft), there will be no shortage of offers. It's going to come down to what are you willing to offer in return I guess. I don't mind a first, just not any of this or next year's 1st's.

I had a similar team drawn up that I was messing with, you may have inspired me to post lol.

there are 15 teams that didn't make the playoffs. which means the top pick for a playoff team would be 16th.
there are 6 teams below WPG in the standings:
Colorado-- advanced to round two
Columbus-- advanced to round two
St Louis-- advanced to round two
Dallas-- one game away from moving on to round two
Vegas-- one game away from moving on to round two
Carolina-- two games away from round two

So there are three teams that can end up before WPG's pick. so they could be as far as 4th from the 15th pick.. which is (1) 16, (2) 17, (3) 18, (4) 19th...

Right but Colorado Vegas Dallas and St Louis all play each other in round two. So the losers of those series will take picks 16 and 17, hence the earliest WPG can be is 18. No difference in losing in round 1 or round 2 when it comes to draft pick order. Only matters when you make conference finals.