NHL Rumors: Tampa Bay Lightning made best trade offer for No. 1 pick
By Josh Hill
The NHL Draft was this weekend and we got to hear who the No.1 pick ended up going to after hearing weeks of trade speculation and rumors about who might acquire the pick. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames made runs at the No. 1 pick but came up empty in the end.
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According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Tampa Bay Lightning were actually the team who submitted the best offer to the Florida Panthers for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft this past Friday.
"Panthers GM Dale Tallon said he was close on one particular offer to trade away the No. 1 overall pick Friday night.And while Philadelphia and Vancouver made strong pitches, the club that made Tallon think the most was Tampa Bay, a source said.Imagine if the two Florida clubs had gotten together for that kind of blockbuster."
The Bolts didn’t trade up and still ended up with a pretty good draft haul. It would have been interesting to see what the Bolts have had to offer the Panthers to pull off the trade but the details of what was offered aren’t known.
Still, the Panthers were probably best off keeping the pick like they did as they walked away with the best prospect in the draft and nothing Tampa Bay could have offered would have given the Panthers the hope that they have right now after the NHL Draft.