We just found out what Kent Hughes needs to trade in order to acquire the 3rd overall pick in 2023

But what exactly is the price to move up in the draft? In 2011, Michael E. Schuckers published a study on the general value of draft picks based on the trades that took place between the NHL drafts from 1988 to 1997.

In June 2022, Marco d'Amico from the site MTLHockeyNow took up Schuckers' approach, but with transactions made during the drafts from 2012 to 2021. Here is the result of their excellent work:

Based on this table, if Hughes wants to acquire, for example, the Columbus Blue Jackets' pick (3rd overall), he will have to give a value equivalent to it, which is 120 points. So he would need to give the 5th overall pick (90 points), the Panthers' pick (31st or 32nd) which is worth around 22 points + his 2nd round pick (the 37th overall pick) which is worth 17.5 points.

Conversely, the CH could decide to move back in the draft by accepting a trade with, for example, the Capitals so that they could select Matvei Michkov. According to the table, Montreal could receive the 8th (75 points) and 40th (16 points) overall picks of the draft.

However, we remind you that these are only data, the emotional aspect and the negotiation aspect, which we do not know, also need to be added to the balance. This exercise does, however, help to get a good idea of the basis of the upcoming transactions during the next draft.

Thank you to our friends fromHF for having found this exercise!