Isles trade up again, go off board

June 26, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Just call it the New York Islander Draft. Now, they have again used their picks to trade up to No.12 with the Wild and draft defenseman Calvin DeHaan out of Oshawa.

Even more amazing, he was off the board stunning the TSN panel who figured it’d be one of Jordan Schroeder, Chris Kreider or even Zach Kassian.

But instead, Garth Snow got his man sacrificing No.’s 16, 77 and another pick in the 100′s. Yikes. That seems like an awful lot to give up for a guy who wasn’t projected until No.25 for Boston by mad scientist Pierre McGuire. But he didn’t rip the move instead talking about how DeHaan has emerged from nowhere after being only a third round pick by Oshawa. He looks to be a steady presence on the blueline which was an area the Isles needed to address.

Maybe Snow panicked after Ryan Ellis was scooped up by Nashville. Whatever the reason, this is it basically. Tavares and DeHaan.

While the first move was the no-brainer for the best finisher in a deep Draft, the jury’s out on DeHaan. Guess only time shall tell if this was a slick move or overpayment.

We’ll have more on No’s 13-20 with Buffalo now up.