In the NHL, like most professional sports, draft picks are highly valued assets. They represent a team’s future. Each is a wrapped present full of potential and promise of success to come. Smart teams stockpile them. “Draft and develop” is the chorus you’ll hear among smart hockey people with regard to team building.
In some ways, that’s true. Acquiring top tier talent in the NHL without high draft picks is exceedingly difficult. That’s at least partially due to the restricted free agency system that allows teams to retain a player’s rights in most cases through age 27 heavily tilting the scales in favor of teams’ ability to keep their best players.