Conditional pick in Nyquist trade determined following Sharks playoff exit

Tuesday night, the St. Louis Blues eliminated the San Jose Sharks in 6 games to advance to their first Stanley Cup Final in 49 years.

So how does this affect the Leafs Red Wings?

Well, at the trade deadline the Red Wings shipped off long time forward Gustav Nyquist to the bay area for a pair of draft picks. The draft picks included a 2019 2nd round pick and a 2020 conditional 3rd round pick. Since the Sharks were eliminated in the conference finals the 2019 pick will be 60th overall (Carolina picks 59th because they had fewer points in the regular season.)

But what really had Red Wings fans on the Sharks bandwagon was the conditional 2020 pick. If San Jose made it to the Stanley Cup Final the 3rd round pick would have been upgraded to a 2nd round pick. The difference is only 31 slots but considering how good the 2020 draft currently looks, this is a loss on Detroit’s part.

There is an asterisk next to that claim. If Nyquist re-signs with the Sharks this offseason Detroit will still receive the upgraded pick. However that seems very unlikely, as Nyquist struggled to produce during the playoffs, and with how cap-crunched the Sharks are right now it would make the most sense to cut ties. I would be shocked if they retain Nyquist.

Shifting a little more towards the draft, the Sharks exit now officially settles all of the Red Wings 2019 draft picks. Here is each of their draft slots: