New England decided to trade up to first overall in an admittedly weak S57 draft, giving away their S58 1st in the process (personally, I would've kept this pick as S58 looks to be a much stronger class). While it's admirable that they kept the 3 other first rounders they owned in the draft with that trade, giving up a 1st (plus another 1st and a second) for 1oa is a steep price to pay for one player, especially if the Wolfpack miss the playoffs. Yes, Jonathan Granstrom is a good player and max earner, but he's also a center, and with the team boasting 3 top line caliber centers in McShotty, Bruchevski, and van der Heijden, it's hard to see him cracking the roster until one of them is jettisoned or falls hard to regression. The team needed wing help and the Wolfpack did address this by drafting Bas O'Bigbers and Brennan Huff, but the trade up for Granstrom looms large over the Wolfpack, who will need to make big decisions in the future over their center core. New England also took potential steal of the draft Kaapo Kampainen (a center) in a pick similar to that of Leonids Balzams, who will make his SHL debut this season as a steal of a second rounder.

It's also worth noting that the haul of picks Tampa got is similar to the trade value of a 1.7 or 1.8k defenseman by itself. Fantastic asset management by Tampa in this case as the Wolfpack overpaid for their guy in Granstrom, who is indeed a promising prospect (maybe even a top one) but has to live up to the price tag of 1st overall plus was acquired for a buttload of picks. Overall while I thought my team had a good draft the TBB/NEW trade looms large, and if this fails to work out and TBB snags good players with their picks, this'll maybe be a trade NEW regrets. I sure hope that isn't the case but it could happen.