Trotz before draft:
"We've got lots of picks and I'm trying like hell to get a, say, top four or five pick. But you need a dance partner; teams are not going to give it to you. So I'm trying to make them uncomfortable with a lot of offers. They know there's a franchise player in there."
Trotz after draft:
"Well, it wasn’t for a lack of trying Wednesday from his replacement as GM. Barry Trotz tried all he could to get into the top five but just couldn’t pull it off. He especially targeted the Sharks at No. 4 with a final offer that made even Trotz wonder if he was offering too much.
“When you talk about uncomfortable, it’s what you think is over-giving,” Trotz said after the first round.
“The center-ice position, especially with the first four guys, I thought the value was there,” Trotz said of his offers. “And (the offers) fill holes that they were looking for as well.”
It’s believed Trotz offered up 21-year-old goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov to San Jose and Montreal, which had the No. 5 pick, as part of bigger packages. But no go.
“Again, I will say, I was getting uncomfortable,” Trotz said.
One rumor had Askorov plus two 1st round picks...
Multiple sources indicated to Nashville Hockey Now that a proposal of Askarov plus the No. 15 and 24 overall picks still wasn’t enough for Montreal to pull the trigger on a trade back.
“I was trying like crazy (to entice a team to trade), but if you look at those four franchises up front, they were pretty (adamant on drafting a player) at the center-ice position. I think all four of those got good quality people to build around. I tried like crazy to get them uncomfortable, but obviously it wasn’t enough.”