This week, I will go back to 2015 and look at Western teams and see if they dealt their first or second-round pick and if the pick was worth more than the roster player or picks they got back.

The point is that teams try to add that last piece of the puzzle to help them in the playoffs, but rarely end up winning the Stanley Cup or making it to the Conference Finals. Some of these picks turn out to be very good players.

We will look at each year from 2015 forward and break down each significant trade. Admittedly, we will only include trades where the first or second-round pick turned into a notable player down the road.

2015 Entry Draft Picks Traded

Vancouver Canucks send their 2^nd round pick (53^rd overall) to the Calgary Flames for Sven Baertschi.

The 53^rd pick ended up being Rasmus Andersson, who was the right-shot defender that the Canucks were in search of and didn't find until perhaps Filip Hronek at the end of 2022-23. Andersson is a top-pairing defenseman on the Flames who has 200 points in 455 NHL games.

Baertschi was the 13^th overall pick in 2011 and the Canucks were hoping he just needed a fresh start. He played 222 games for Vancouver and had 108 points but had to retire after 2022-23 because of concussion issues.

Dallas Stars send Erik Cole and a 3^rd round pick (#73 overall Vili Saarijarvi) to Detroit Red Wings for Mattias Backman, signing rights to Mattias Janmark and a 2^nd round pick (#40 overall Roope Hintz)

Erik Cole played 11 games for Detroit with six points and didn't play in the playoffs where the Red Wings were knocked out in the first round.

Dallas signed Janmark who played 297 games over four years in Dallas, where and had 119 points. The Stars won the Stanley Cup in his last year there in 2019-20.

Hintz has played 392 games with Dallas and has 310 points. He has had three years in a row of 30 goals or more. He won the Stanley Cup with them in 2019-20. Hintz is a star.

Edmonton Oilers send a 1^st round pick (#16 overall Mathew Barzal) and a 2^nd round pick (#33 overall Mitchell Stephens) to the NY Islanders for Griffin Reinhart

Reinhart was the 4^th overall pick in 2012 and the older brother of Sam Reinhart. He played just 29 games in Edmonton and 37 in the NHL with two points. He had one playoff point in one game with the Oilers.

The Islanders picked Barzal and he has played 500 games for them and had 442 points. He has led the Islanders in scoring six of his seven seasons.

Stephens has played 95 NHL games with 16 points, split between Tampa Bay, Detroit and Montreal.

Edmonton Oilers send David Perron to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Rob Klinkhammer and a 1^st round pick (#16 Matthew Barzal)

To be fair to Edmonton, they did receive the 16^th overall pick from the Penguins for Perron who the Penguins were hoping would help them in their playoff push (Pittsburgh was knocked out in the 1^st round).

Klinkhammer did play 54 games with Edmonton and had two goals and two assists over two seasons.

Nashville Predators send a 1^st round pick (#24 overall Travis Konecny) with Olli Jokinen to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli

Franson played just 23 regular season games for the Predators and played five games in the playoffs in his second go-round in Nashville.

Santorelli played 22 regular season games with four points and had one point in four playoff games. Nashville was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.

Konecny ended up in Philadelphia where he has played eight seasons and 564 games with 400 points.

Jokinen retired at the end of the 2014-15 season after playing 1,231 games with 750 points.

Los Angeles Kings send Martin Jones, Colin Miller and a 1^st round pick (#13 overall Jakub Zboril) to the Boston Bruins for Milan Lucic (Boston retained 50% of his salary for one year at $2.75 million)

Lucic played one year with the Kings and had 20 goals and 35 assists in 81 games and three points in five playoff games. The Kings were knocked out in the first round.

Jones has gone on to play for San Jose, Philadelphia, Seattle and Toronto and has 236 NHL wins in 466 games.

Miller has played 512 games over nine seasons with 166 points.

The 13^th overall pick turned into Zboril, but it could have been Jake DeBrusk, Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser or Travis Konecny.

2016 Entry Draft Picks Traded

Chicago Blackhawks traded Andrew Shaw to the Montreal Canadiens for two 2nd round picks (#39 overall Alex DeBrincat) and (#45 overall Chad Krys)

Shaw played three seasons in Montreal and dressed in 182 games where he had 96 points.

DeBrincat played five seasons in Chicago and played in 368 games with 160 goals and 307 points. He scored 41 goals twice.

DeBrincat was then parlayed into a 1st and 2nd round pick in 2022 and a 3rd round pick in 2024.

St. Louis Blues traded Brian Elliott for a 2nd round pick (#35 overall Jordan Kyrou)

Elliott played one year in Calgary and went 26-18-3 in 49 games with a 91.0 save percentage. The Flames were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs that year.

Kyrou has played 334 games with the Blues and has 114 goals and 262 points. He has been consistent over the past three years with at least 27 goals and 67 points.

Boston Bruins traded Martin Jones to the San Jose Sharks for Sean Kuraly and a 1st round pick (#29 overall Trent Frederic)

Jones took off in San Jose, winning 30 games or more in his first four seasons there and making it to the Stanley Cup finals once. He played 327 regular season games with the Sharks, winning 170 games.

Kuraly played 270 regular season games for the Bruins with 68 points and added 19 points in 57 playoff games.

Frederic had a slow build-up to a regular role with the Bruins but is now established as a solid 2nd or 3rd line winger. He has played 280 NHL games with Boston and has 94 points. He has had 31 and 40-point seasons the past two.

2017 Entry Draft Picks Traded

Anaheim Ducks traded a 1st round pick (#29 overall Henri Jokiharju) to the Dallas Stars for Patrick Eaves

Eaves played 20 games with the Ducks and scored 11 goals in the regular season before playing seven playoff games and putting up four points. The Ducks made it to the Conference Finals but lost.

Dallas turned the #29 pick and the #70th overall pick into the #26th overall pick from the Chicago Blackhawks, which they used on Jake Oettinger. The trade comes out as Oettinger for Eaves, which is a pretty great return for the Stars.

St. Louis Blues traded Pheonix Copley and Kevin Shattenkirk (retained 39%, $1.657 million) to the Washington Capitals for Brad Malone, Zach Sanford, a 1st round pick (#27 overall Morgan Frost)

Shattenkirk was a rental to the Capitals and put up 14 points in 19 regular season games before posting six points in 13 playoff games. The Capitals were eliminated in the 2nd round.

Copley played parts of two seasons in Washington where he dressed 29 games and had 16 wins.

Malone never played a game with the Blues and left as a free agent. Sanford played 183 games over four seasons in St. Louis and had 88 points.

Frost was traded in the summer of 2017 to Philadelphia which included a 1st rounder from 2018 as well. We will review that with the 2018 trades.

Vegas gave Columbus Blue Jackets expansion draft considerations for David Clarkson, a 1st round pick (#24 overall Kristian Vesalainen) and a 2nd round pick in 2019 (#50 Samuel Fagemo)

Vegas traded the #24 overall pick (Vesalainen) to the Winnipeg Jets for a 1st-round pick (#13 overall Nick Suzuki) and a 3rd-round pick in 2019 (#82 overall Michael Vukojevic)

At the end of the day, Vegas got Nick Suzuki, the 50th overall pick and the 82nd overall pick in 2019 to take on David Clarkson from Columbus.

Suzuki was later traded to Montreal along with the 50th overall pick from above for Max Pacioretty in 2018.

Minnesota Wild traded Grayson Downing, a 1st round pick (#23 overall Pierre-Olivier Joseph), a 2nd round pick in 2018 (#55 overall Kevin Bahl) and a 4th round pick in 2019 (#104th overall Eric Hjorth) for Martin Hanzal ($1.55 million retained), Ryan White and a 4th round pick in 2017 (#97 overall Mason Shaw)

The Wild were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Hanzal played 20 regular season games with Minnesota and had 13 points but only had one point in five playoff games.

White played 19 regular season games with the Wild and had three points, but no points in three playoff games.

Joseph was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Bahl to the New Jersey Devils in 2019.

Mason Shaw has played 82 games with the Wild over three seasons and has 20 points.

Vegas Golden Knights received from the NY Islanders Mikhail Grabovski, Jake Bischoff, a 1st round pick (#15 overall Erik Brannstrom) and a 2nd round pick in 2019 (#54 overall Robert Mastrosimone) for expansion draft considerations

Vegas took on Grabovski's salary from the Islanders for one year at $5 million. They received a bounty with Bischoff (who played one NHL game), Brannstrom (who was traded to Ottawa) and the second-round pick. I think a lot of teams would rethink their approach to what they gave Vegas in hindsight.

Arizona Coyotes traded Anthony DeAngelo and a 1st round pick (#7 overall Lias Andersson) to the NY Rangers for Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta

The Coyotes dealt DeAngelo, who was the 19th overall pick in 2014 and 21 years old at the time. He ended up playing 167 games with the Rangers and had 92 points. The 7th overall pick in 2017 could have been Casey Mittelstadt, Owen Tippett, Gabriel Vilardi, Martin Necas, Nick Suzuki, Robert Thomas or Jake Oettinger. It was a lot to give up at the time.

Stepan was a good all-around center who put up 50-55 points per year fairly consistently in his first seven years with the Rangers and did have 56 points in his first season with Arizona. He ended up playing three years in the desert and played 224 games with 119 points. They were able to trade Stepan to Ottawa in 2020 for a second-round pick.

Raanta was excellent in his first year with the Coyotes playing 47 games and winning 21 with a 93.0 save percentage. He played four years with Arizona and dressed for 104 games, winning 46 of them.

The Coyotes made it to the second round of the playoffs in 2019-20 perhaps partially due to the contributions of Stepan and Raanta but this was a fairly short-sighted move for an average team at the time.

2018 Entry Draft Picks Traded

San Jose Sharks traded Raffi Torres, a 2017 2nd round pick (#50 Maxime Comtois) and a 2018 2nd round pick (#52 overall Sean Durzi) to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Roman Polak and Nick Spaling

This deal is hard to criticize as the Sharks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016 and lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.

Polak played all 24 games in those playoffs with no points and was signed as a free agent by Toronto again that summer.

Spaling played all 24 playoff games as well and put up one assist. He signed in Switzerland the next year.

Durzi has established himself as an NHL player and has played 212 games with 106 points over three years split between Los Angeles and Arizona.

Montreal Canadiens traded Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise (retained $307k) to the Chicago Blackhawks for Phillip Danault and a 2nd round pick in 2018 (#38 overall Alexander Romanov)

Fleischmann played 19 regular season games for Chicago and had five points. He dressed for four playoff games in 2015-16 but went pointless. He never played another professional hockey game. The Blackhawks lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Weise played 15 games for the Blackhawks after the trade and had one point. He played four playoff games and had one goal. He signed with Philadelphia that summer as a free agent.

Danault was the 26th overall pick in 2011 and was 22 years old at the time of the trade. He went on to play 360 games for Montreal and put up 194 points.

Romanov played 133 games with Montreal and had 19 points before being traded to the NY Islanders for a 1st round pick in 2022, which ironically ended up bringing Frank Nazar to Chicago.

Winnipeg Jets traded a 1st round pick in 2018 (#29 overall Rasmus Sandin) and rights to Erik Foley to the St. Louis Blues for Paul Stastny (retained $3.5 million)

The Jets went to the third round and Stastny was a big part of that with 15 points in 17 games.

Erik Foley never played a game of pro hockey while Sandin ended up in Toronto where he played 140 games and had 48 points. He then went to Washington, where he played 87 games and posted 38 points. I don't think there is much regret for the Jets on this one.

The St. Louis Blues traded a 2018 1st round pick (#14 overall Joel Farabee) and a 2017 1st round pick (#27 overall Morgan Frost) to the Philadelphia Flyers for Brayden Schenn

Schenn has played 507 games with the Blues and has 387 points. He won the Stanley Cup with them in 2018-19. Schenn had just 46 points this past year and his career could be on the decline.

Farabee had a career-high of 22 goals and 50 points in 2023-24 and has now played 334 games for the Flyers and put up 182 points. He is a rising player.

Morgan Frost has solidified himself as an NHL regular and has now played 229 games with 110 points.

For what Schenn has given the Blues, this deal will have been worth it.

Calgary Flames traded a 2018 1st round pick (#12 overall Noah Dobson), a 2018 2nd round pick (#43 overall Ruslan Iskhakov) and a 2019 2nd round pick (#57 overall Samuel Bolduc) to the New York Islanders for Travis Hamonic and a 4th round pick in 2019 (#116 overall Lucas Feuk)

Hamonic only played 193 games with the Flames over three seasons and put up 42 points. He had some good moments but had his struggles as well. He wasn't the player that the Flames were hoping for.

Dobson would be the top defender on 15-20 teams in the NHL and is coming off a 70-point season in 2023-24. He has now played 317 for the Islanders and has 191 points.

Iskhakov got into one NHL game in the regular season and had an assist and also dressed for one game in the playoffs. He's had back-to-back 50-point years in the AHL and could battle for an NHL job next year.

Bolduc has played 51 games for the Islanders and put up eight points over the past two years. He's a sixth or seventh defender in the NHL.

This has turned out to be one of the more lopsided trades in this article.

Next week, we will pick up with the 2019 Entry Draft.

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Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.