#4 Nashville Predators Trade 1st-Rd Pick for Draft Picks
This one may catch you off guard, because one may say, how is trading one draft pick for two draft picks a bad decision? Let’s take a look at what those draft picks entailed.
Nashville traded a first-round pick on June 20, 2008, in return for a later first round pick in that draft and a third-round pick in the following draft.
With Nashville’s two picks they drafted Chet Pickard and Taylor Beck. Pickard ended up never playing in the NHL and Beck played three seasons with the Nashville Predators.
Over the course of three seasons, Beck played in 85 regular season games and had 11 goals and 12 assists. Beck hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2016-17 season.
So what did Nashville lose in that draft? The pick that Nashville traded away is the pick that the Ottawa Senators used to draft none other than Erik Karlsson.
Karlsson is an elite defenseman in the league today and is on pace to win the Norris Trophy this season.
While it is unknown if the Predators would have been able to keep him due to salary cap issues, could you imagine if it would have worked out and this team had Roman Josi and Karlsson as a top pairing on the blue line?