Flames can't afford that

Even with 50% retention I don't think the gap between healthy Monahan and Toews is a 1st right now

Devils decline quite easily.

If they trade that pick, it would not have anything attached to it and it would be for a different type of player.

I disagree, I think the 2OA is just a starting point, it isn’t enough for debrincat alone.

Based on what? When was the last time a top-2 pick was traded for a player? This may be true if it were pick #22, but not for #2.

If you look at all the chatter online, that’s what theyre saying. Look at the past #2 overall picks and how many of them turned out to be better than debrincat? Last time it happened was for seguin. the leafs traded 2nd overall, the following year’s 1st rounder, and a second round pick for Phil Kessel. Seems like kessel at the time is rather similar to debrincat currently. Kessel didn’t have a single 40 goal season to his resume while Cat has 2 + another shortened season where he was scoring at a 50 goal pace over 82 games. It’s going to take an overpay for the Hawks to sell off debrincat, he’s still an RFA and can still be a 30-40 goal scorer by the time the Hawks rebuild is complete.

Lordy.

1. Ignore the chatter online

2. Better than DeBrincat: Malkin, Barkov, Doughty, Eichel, Hedman, probably Svechnikov and Landeskog, and guys like Seguin, Reinhart, Laine I’d say they are close enough where the difference is not Holtz (and $8 million in cap space). Too early tell with Beniers, Byfield and Kakko. Only real busts are Murray and Patrick. And if including non-active players, Dionne, Shanahan, Pronger, Staal, Heatley, etc. Full list of #2s here.

3. The Kessel trade was before the 2009-10 season, nobody knew where the pick would be. So they did not trade a #2 pick. They traded a pick that became #2. (It’s valued like a derivative, not at full price)

(The answer to that question BTW is 2001 and the NYI/OTT Yashin trade…a mistake that GMs haven’t made since).

I think i’ll trust what the people who are plugged into the league are saying over your opinion. The only reason the Devils are in the conversation as the front runner is because of that pick. The blackhawks aren’t actively shopping debrincat. It is going to be another Hagel situation where an offer is gonna have to blow them away to trade him.

The Devils aren’t actively shopping their #2 pick, nor are they actively shopping for a scoring winger. Debrincat-to-NJ is pure speculation and goes against everything our GM has said about his plans for the off-season.

There is very little news coming out these days since SCF is about to start. And GM’s aren’t going to leak stories now, that will come when playoffs are over. But writers and observers need stuff to talk about. They need clicks and eyeballs. So they make these kind of links. But trust me, it’s total speculation at this point.

Legit stories will start to roll out about 5 days before draft.

That's a totally fair point! If I was a Devils fan I would be very excited for everything that is about to go down! The future is very bright in NJ with a lot of nice young bucks rounding into form!