Trading a top five pick

As shown here:

Trading in the top 10 of the draft is rare, while trading in the top five is very rare. There have been 12 players drafted in the past 26 years by someone other than the original pick holder in the top 5. Fewer still are trades that were made when the pick number was known, i.e. between the lottery and the draft.

Listed are all the moves (note that trades are simplified here, in some cases several other picks including later first-rounders were involved).

2000 - the Kevin Weekes trade to the Lightning, which was made in full knowledge of the pick value. The Islanders selected Raffi Torres fifth overall.

2001 - the Alexei Yashin trade to the Islanders, made in full knowledge of the value. The Senators selected Jason Spezza second overall.

2002 - three picks changed hands, the most in any year. The Panthers, who had the first overall, swapped picks with the Blue Jackets, who had the third overall. Columbus took Rick Nash and Florida Jay Bouwmeester. The only other element to this trade was an option to swap picks in 2003 given to the Panthers. Florida had the first overall again, and they did not exercise the option to swap.

The other pick traded that year was the Ruslan Fedotenko trade to the Lightning for the fourth overall. The Flyers selected Joni Pitkanen with that pick. All trades were at the draft.

2003 - two picks changed hands in an echo of the 2002 trade. Florida traded their first-round pick, the first overall, to the Penguins for their third overall. Unlike the prior year, the Panthers extracted some more value with the inclusion of Mikael Samuelsson and a second-round pick going to Florida and a third-round pick going to Pittsburgh. The Penguins took Marc-André Fleury and the Panthers took Nathan Horton.

2004 - the Blue Jackets traded their fourth overall to the Hurricanes for the eighth overall and a second round pick. Carolina took Andrew Ladd and the Blue Jackets selected Alexandre Picard.

The count from the pre-lockout flurry of trades is eight picks moved, all of them made in full knowledge of the pick values. Five of the picks were in pick swap deals and three were trades for players. Two of trades were motivated by the desire for a starting goaltender. And I think the trade for the pick to take Fleury could be said to have led them to a Stanley Cup.

2008 - There were actually two trades in 2008 in the top five. One was a trade that had been done the prior year by Atlanta to get back their first-rounder they had previously traded in the big Keith Tkachuk deal. The other was the Maple Leafs trading up from seventh overall with the Islanders. There were some other picks involved, as well. The Islanders traded the Leafs pick to Nashville who took Colin Wilson. The Leafs took Luke Schenn fifth overall.

That year was full of first-round pick trades and other swaps, almost all of them at the draft itself. Something in the water?

2010 - The Bruins used the Maple Leafs pick, the second overall, that they had acquired the prior year in the Phil Kessel trade to take Tyler Seguin. The pick was not lottery protected.

2019 - The Avalanche drafted Bowen Byram with the fourth overall they got from Ottawa years earlier in the Matt Duchene trade. This was a top-10 protected pick, but the Senators used the protection to retain the 2018 pick, this pick was the alternate.

2020 - The Senators drafted Tim Stützle with the third overall they got from the Sharks years earlier in the Erik Karlsson trade. This pick was unprotected.

Those are the 12 picks in 26 years that changed hands, and the final breakdown is

Six top-five picks moved in four pick swap deals at the draft
Three trades for players that involved three top-five picks as payment with full knowledge of the pick value
Three trades for players that moved three top-five picks only one of which was protected, all done before the pick value was known

NHL Draft