The second day of the NHL Draft was expected to be a busy day on the trade front.
Players such as St. Louis Blues defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk and Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop were consistently linked in trade rumours, but outside of the Buffalo Sabres’ acquisition of defenceman Dmitry Kulikov, it was a relatively quiet day other than teams taking fliers on highly-touted prospects that fell out of favour with their previous clubs.
During Day 2 of the 2015 draft, for example, there were nine trades in total (see screen shots of the Sportsnet Trade Tracker below) which included a handful of goalies switching teams, including Cam Talbot and Antti Niemi.
As of this writing, there were only six trades in total on Saturday, none of which included a high-profile player, which surprised some given the looming expansion draft and how close we are to the opening of free agency on July 1.
Sportsnet’s John Shannon acknowledged the lack of trades on Saturday’s broadcast of the NHL Draft and explained why there hasn’t been a ton of movement over the weekend.
“Everyone is a little afraid of how this expansion draft is going to work so they’re keeping all their entry-level contracts. And the [salary] cap didn’t go up as much as they thought so the entry-level contracts are worth more,” Shannon told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
“I was told don’t be surprised if it starts to heat up Monday or Tuesday… For example, I fully expect Edmonton to be in play for one of their top forwards in order to improve their defence.”
