Quoting: PinkWhitney
There's nothing "win now" about picking up a very good #2 young LD. Especially at that cost. Who says he will demand 6M+? I don't get the feeling that he is a greedy player that's going to demand more than what he is worth right now. There's no guarentee the 35OA pick will ever make the NHL and if you can acquire a kid like Sergachev for that cost and decline the offer you should be fired. I can't believe that's even something to think about for you.
Btw, the Kings are rumored to be considering trading up for a late 1st round pick this draft.
Evolving Hockey lists the highest probability contract that Sergachev will get at 8 years, $6.5M AAV (32%).
There's are no guarantees related to anything in hockey. The best chance you have at getting an NHL caliber prospect is to have more high-quality prospects. Yannetti said at the draft last year when talking about the #33 pick that they used to draft Kaliyev that it's one of the best picks in the draft. You get all the GMs that are afraid to use their top pick on someone that a bunch of teams have passed on, so you get high quality guys that fall out of the 1st round, leaving those at the top of the 2nd round with some easy choices. That's not a pick you want to trade, especially for LHD. If it was for a high-quality 22-year old LW, then I'd be more willing to consider it.
If the Kings can move up into the first round, that's great, but that's not really something that can happen until draft day. GMs will see who falls and who rises, and will make moves accordingly. If Blake sees a guy that they have ranked around 15 still on the board in the low 20s, then I can see Blake pulling the trigger on a trade to move up. However, any rumor saying the Kings will pull the trigger to move up prior to the draft is BS. If they're suggesting that the Kings might look to move up on draft day, then that's hardly a revelation.