There are two aims that every team should have in the NHL Draft. The first one is pretty obvious: Make your team better in the future. There’s a whole crop of 18-year-olds heading into the league, and it’s a general manager’s job to acquire the players who will be a part of their team’s future.
The second is to make your team better in the here-and-now. The flurry of trades that was supposed to come at the pre-expansion trade freeze arrived on draft weekend. Stars like Artemi Panarin, Brandon Saad, and Jordan Eberle got moved.