Nichol is on my list of guys we should go after.

Gagner, Lander, and Pitlick

VV i dont include because i think he will end up being a 3-4 guy for his career so he isnt the top end guy who will be trying for the top spot.

gr8one: I really don’t want Tambi to trade next years pick, but if he does I don’t believe he will have a choice but to add role players and fill some of our gaping holes simply because, he knows full well the optics of trading away that pick will look terrible if we’re a lottery team next year and see Ryan Murray or Nail Yakupov go to some other team with our pick…I’ve been reading a bit about this Yakupov kid…some scouts are already saying he might be a generational like a Crosby or Ovechkin and he put up 40g/101p for 4th on OHL scoring on a shitty team as a 17 yr old rookie…and he’s a RW…geez, can you Imagine a top line with talents like Hall-RNH-Yakupov! lol…sorry, getting a little ahead of myself!

If our pick is lined up for those guys next year…. Tambi better be unemployed. Best way to get those kids next year is to actually build an NHL team where your players ACTUALLY have value. and then trade a few assets to acquire the prospect who has never touched NHL ice before and could be one hit from lululand in the sky if you think hes a 100 pt player… whoopdy do.
Myself? I never bet on myself losing.

chucker: I agree. Trading next year’s first would be foolish. Sorry to pee on the parade, but we could easily be a lottery team again, for sure a bottom ten team (rankings). If we trade anything it should be guys who are good trade assets that may not really fit our team, or guys we have duplicates of. Cogliano, Hemsky, Chorney, JFJ, Stortini, and some others should all be explored as part/parts of potential trade packages. Keep you own first rounder always on a rebuild.

those guys arent good trade assets. with all possible respect – you need to take the oil goggles off and you know that even hemmer is worth likely no more than a 2nd. he MIGht have been worth a bottom 1st at the deadline before another long term surgery, when there was prospect of having him for a playoff run.
To think cogs and storts are assets valued in the league is kind of laughable. Chorney? JFJ? really?
Tradeable AND touchable = gags, hemsky, smid
’tis all.

as far as packaging the crap listed above… a bag of crap is still crap no matter how full you packed it.

John: Yup I agree with doing that deal for another top 5 pick this year; this has to be the “all in” year for us in terms of drafting high. Get as many good picks/prospects out of this draft as possible then send out the word that the rebuild is over; time for molding & building what we have now & will have going into July. At that point the brass should be starting to switch over to the mentality of Free Agency pick ups & trades for missing pieces by next Trade Deadline & into next spring. We can’t afford to get caught up in that trap that Florida, NYI, etc. are in where they are still drafting high & still infinately trying to rebuild year after year! This franchise needs to start putting tires to pavement by the summer of 2012, the draft should be a much lower priority for us by then.

I am supportive of this movement to trade our top pick. if we are still a bottom 5 team next year, tambs should be fired. This hasnt been a 1 year rebuild, its been 5 years of partially rebuilding. the pieces are there. if he isnt confident in the work he has done than neither should the players be (and thus they might want to start thinking of asking for a trade). 5 years is more than enough to stock the cupboards and get an nhl team in the game.
Personally i like balls. People that dont have balls shouldnt get a job with a winning company (and normally dont).
If next year we are drafting top 5… heads must roll.
IS Renney ok with wasting years of his life? hall? eberle? Short answer NO. Plain and simple we better be competitive NOW.
That is merely the mental side of trading your top pick in 2012.

That being said;
I expect return for our 2012 1st to be in that value range of a 5-7 pick.. with a slight tax for the year delay. If someone isnt offering that return for the pick than you keep it. plain and simple. There is no way i do next years 1st plus 19 for a 5-7 spot this year. MAYBE for 2-3, and if for 4 you want a 3rd also.

Example… trade with NJ for 4. I think there are skaters they would like that we have but leaving those options out id think a fair trade for 4th would be our 2012 1st straight up and our 31st overall this year. Risk/Reward. IF that is the case you do it. I think its fair.
If its Columbus at 8th… its a swap of picks – our 2012 1st and a 4th or 3rd for the waiting for 8th. There is no way i add 19 in either deal.

POint is as long as we treat the 2012 pick with proper value i dont see any problem in shopping/trading/hanging on.
Also remember if there is an RFA out there… we have alot of “threat” leverage to sit on if we retain our top 3 picks for 2012 (TONNES of cap room)