Both teams decline. Columbus needs a 1C and that is to much(considering that pick could be top 5 still)

I hope all of these trade for 1st overall stop soon, whoever wins it is never trading it!!!

If Columbus gets 1st OA Kekalainen will keep it and select Bedard.

The only way I see a team trading first overall, is if Vancouver wins 2nd overall and Bedard says he wants to play with the Canucks over whoever wins first.
And even then I am sure the trade would look kinda silly from the Canucks perspective as well. You'd be looking at like, 1st overall + this + that etc~

Let's stop this, the only way first OA gets traded is if there's a Lindros pulled by Connor. Final.

What they all said. Columbus has only drafted one star in its history (Rick Nash). They cannot take the chance of missing out on the chance that Bedard is a sliver of McDavid or Crosby.

But to be fair, I’ll answer your question. That is not enough. Actually, that’s the wrong answer to the wrong question. Enough seems to imply quantity. CBJ has had too many mid-first round caliber (tier four) players, way too many tweener picks (late first, early second) and WAY, WAY, WAY too many 50-75 overall players. They can trot out third lines for days and days on end.

Throw in a handful of high-but-not-elite picks/players and you have the Jackets. Or this package. Or both.

This upcoming draft has one franchise player. One more elite player (Fantilli). One final reliably predictable near future impact player (Carlsson). [Michkov brings the typical Russian delay questions, plus the added ones in the 2023 climate. Plus, CBJ have a bad history with top-5 Russians.] The Canadiens 2023 pick would fall outside all of those players, into a tier “Tankathon” classifies as “the rest.” At best, in a different draft, it yields a B+ player (Jiricek, Kent Johnson). This year, the cliff seems to drop after the top four.

The Panthers pick and Caufield fall in the Sillinger/Mateychuk range. You get a 2.5 line forward or 2nd pair defenseman with a deficiency somewhere in his game. You need those players on your team. But if your team is nothing BUT those players, you win just two playoff series in franchise history (one of which barely counts, as it was a bonus COVID round plus a freebie since it was against Toronto).

The rest (unless the Habs 1st ‘24 ends up like top 3) are just lottery tickets. You might get a Sebastian Aho. Or you might get the other Sebastian Aho. Not a sound way to build a franchise. A solid way to add final pieces to a contender, but not the path from last to first.

Bedard is clearly the prize, and any trade discussions are a non-starter. Unless you’re willing to include Shane Wright. Oh wait…

Habs definitely decline, Columbus probably does as well.

Teams never trade these picks for a reason. It's impossible for it to make sense. Quantity doesn't work because teams can only have so many players under the cap and stars don't work because of the cap ceiling and lack of long term control over player contracts.

The Rangers apparently asked for Brady Tkachuk to move down from #1 to #3. Lafreniere was very highly touted and one of the stronger 1st overall picks, but be was nowhere near Bedard, and the dropoff from him to Stutzle or Byfield wasn't huge. Both Stutzle and Byfield were considered lower end 1st overall type talents. (That was a stacked draft...)

The only way a team like Columbus considers this is if Montreal's pick is #2. In which case, Montreal doesn't do this.

Disagree.

So long as the Canadiens pick isn't #2, they would do this in a second. As it stands now, it would be #5, #18, #37, a first next year, and two prospects to upgrade Caulfield to a possible generational face of the league type player.

That's a lot of quantity to give up, but Caufield is the only real guaranteed big star in that group. Anything can happen in trades with lots of pieces, but Columbus would probably want less quantity and more cost certainty. They probably would want Slafkovski instead of Hutson. There is no guarantee Hutson signs with CBJ since he can play out his college career and go the UFA route, and CBJ traditionally is not a desirable signing location.

Hate that the desirability of Columbus still comes up, but that is a perception. Has been an issue for established FAs weighing a confluence of factors, but save for the occasional Russian (as it has been most everywhere), not a prospect issue that I can recall. Hutson was born just a state away and would join a handful of Michiganders with CBJ.

That said, yeah, CBJ likely would see more upside in the #1 overall pick than the #62 overall pick.