Yeah it'd be hard to lose that 1st for sure.
But what do we gain? A bonafide NHL young Dman who with some of his production might make that 1st even less valuable.
One thing to always consider/remember in all of these proposals is that drafting is by no means a guarantee.
Except for the ELC cap relief and bridge deal scenarios which literally buy time, its still a major gamble that you'll even have a talent that you can develop into an NHL player.
When you're getting a guy at 23 who can already participate at the level Chychrun has shown, I think the 1st is valid.
The big question is do we need him?
From my perspective, if QH or OEL goes down, we are F'd. There is no one else who can guarantee offense from the backend.
I want a team that is balanced, that can push through the inevitable injury plague and keep relative pace in the standings.
We are almost always 1 or 2 injuries away from being in serious trouble. As well, if QH hits a slump, again, we are in deep doo doo.
We have some cheap young talent in the F group that just need more time to develop.
In that span, we really should focus on giving this D as much of an overhaul as we can and create a real solid group instead of some patchwork crap we have seen for a few seasons now.