5 NHL Teams That Should Trade Their 1st-Round Pick After Draft Lottery

Now that we know officially where everyone in the lottery will pick in the NHL draft, we've got mock drafts popping up all over to see who can predict the outcome most accurately.

We're going to do things differently here, though. We're going to put our GM hats on and decide who should ditch out on making their first-round picks and do something else on Day 1 of the draft. Not everyone is rebuilding, and even if some teams are, they can always be enticed to do something else.

This year's draft has one absolute elite talent at the top in Macklin Celebrini and while there will no doubt be some great players to come beyond him, there are more than a few teams that are not quite on the schedule where waiting for a year or two is in their best interests. We're here to help those teams out.

We've picked out five teams that should do something about their first-round picks ahead of the draft in late-June. Let's get ready for the draft the best way we know how and make some deals.

New Jersey Devils

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Luke Hughes and Jack Hughes

The New Jersey Devils went from being one of the top Stanley Cup contenders to picking 10th in the draft.

That's a heck of a drop, and there's no doubt general manager Tom Fitzgerald is feeling the heat. After all, he fired Lindy Ruff during the season, brought in Travis Green as the interim head coach before he became HC at Ottawa.

Hoo boy, that's a lot.

While there's no doubt the Devils have holes, they were so close to the top of the ladder a year ago that the lure of getting back there as soon as possible will be strong.

They've got Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt in their primes, rookies Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec on the rise, and with veterans like Timo Meier, Ondrej Palat and Dougie Hamilton to lead the way.

The Devils should be a playoff team and contenders in the Eastern Conference right now. It's up to Fitzgerald to fix up their goaltending and depth at the NHL level to help make that happen.

They should not be sitting around hoping they can pull the right player at No. 10 overall who can put them over the top in two or three years.

Buffalo Sabres

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Zach Benson

The Buffalo Sabres were supposed to get over the hump this season and return to the postseason for the first time since 2011. Instead, they finished seven points off their pace from a year ago and fired coach Don Granato after missing the playoffs for the 13th straight season.

The Sabres are teeming with talent and have one of the more bountiful stockpiles of prospects in the league. Their time is coming and it's going to be soon. For GM Kevyn Adams and new head coach Lindy Ruff, they have to ensure that it's next season when they break through.

The Sabres are picking 11th in a draft that's not overwhelmingly full of high-end talent. What they ought to do is find a way to package that pick in a deal to better help their NHL roster. With needs at center beyond Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens and depth in general down the lineup, moving this pick wouldn't be painful.

While the Sabres were fortunate to have Zach Benson fall in their laps at No. 13 a year ago, there are a few players who would make it worthwhile hanging onto the pick if it happened again.

If they can find a way to leverage this pick to fulfill needs at the NHL level, they should do it.

Detroit Red Wings

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Steve Yzerman

Much like the two previous teams, the Detroit Red Wings are not in position to cross their fingers and hope a draft pick can make an immediate impact at the NHL level to get them to the playoffs.

While Detroit's playoff drought is not as long as Buffalo's, its situation is similar. The Red Wings have a pile of great young players leading them in the NHL and they have a host of others on the way up to help out in the years to come.

However, they haven't gotten over the hump and back in the playoffs under general manager Steve Yzerman, and the way they crumbled down the stretch this season was particularly painful and led to critics questioning whether he is making the right moves.

Detroit is picking 15th this year and while that selection alone isn't usually enough to get needs addressed in a trade, it does make for a superb sweetener in a trade package to bring in a player or players to help them in the NHL right away.

With how ruthless the competition will be in not just the Eastern Conference but the Atlantic Division as well, Detroit can't slip up anymore. And while they've done well at drafting, a mid-first-round pick right now doesn't help them get back to the postseason unless it's getting moved to another team.

San Jose Sharks

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Mike Grier

The San Jose Sharks should absolutely trade their 2024 first-round pick this year. No, not the No. 1 pick, the No. 14 pick they're getting from the Pittsburgh Penguins. But there's another catch involved here, too.

They should use the 14th pick to trade up and acquire a better player than they might get if they stay where they're at. We've identified a couple of teams picking ahead of the Sharks already, and there are others who might want to slide back as well (e.g. Philadelphia and Minnesota) to get something else.

That's an opportunity San Jose can take advantage of.

Trading up usually runs against the common thought of how to run a draft because sacrificing other assets to pick a different player you're not 100 percent sure of is risky, but the Sharks are in a spot where a mild gamble is OK because they're set to take Macklin Celebrini first overall.

They need to build up their prospect pipeline, but with Will Smith and Quentin Musty from the 2023 first round on the way up to join Celebrini eventually, they have a very good foundation in place.

Trading up, even just a little, to add another high-end player they've got a surer feeling about is the right move.

St. Louis Blues

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Blues GM Doug Armstrong

Sort of out of nowhere, the St. Louis Blues had a really good season. They nearly snuck into the Western Conference playoffs and showed that maybe things aren't as dire as they seemed a year ago.

Amazing what happens when Jordan Binnington has a great season, right?

Considering how things broke down in the West and how on a razor's edge teams like Vegas and Los Angeles were down the stretch, the Blues aren't far off. After all, an injury or two in Vegas or L.A. or anywhere else in the West can make a world of difference.

However, that's not why the Blues should trade their first-round pick this year, instead it's how great they drafted a year ago in landing Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein in the first round in 2023 that tells us that trading down to add picks is in their best interest.

It won't become evident for another year or two how good the 2023 draft was for St. Louis, but that day will come and their scouts will be lauded.

Let those scouts continue to cook and use the No. 16 selection to deal down and add more picks to fish out more diamonds.