The New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to a purely picks based trade ahead of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft the clubs announced Friday.
Chicago will receive the 18th and 50th overall selections from the New York Islanders in exchange for picks number 20, 54, and 61 this summer.
Chicago will now feature both the 2nd and 18th overall selections in the first round, and will hope to use those picks to surround Connor Bedard with an influx of talent to their rebuilding roster. The Blackhawks finished the season with a 23-53-6 record, which put them behind all but San Jose in the standings for 2023-24.
On the other side of the spectrum, New York finished 3rd in the Metropolitan Division with a 39-27-16 record, but were bounced from the postseason in 5 games by Carolina. By moving back 2 spots in the 1st round, and 4 in the 2nd, the club acquires an additional 2nd rounder to use next month.
The first round of this year’s draft will take place on June 28th at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Rounds 2-7 will take place the following day.
Photo: Hendrik Seis. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.