Why Your NHL Team Can Add Nail Yakupov for Almost Nothing

October 7th, 2016 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »

Nail Yakupov was the first overall pick in the 2012 NHL entry draft. He’s only 23 years old, has 252 NHL games under his belt and, despite some injury problems, has hit double digits in goals in three of the last four seasons.

And in all likelihood, your favourite NHL team could acquire him in exchange for very little. The question is less whether he’s available and more whether he’s worth acquiring.

It’s no secret that the market for Yakupov is soft. In June, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal predicted the winger would be moved at the draft and noted there wasn’t a lot of interest at last year’s trade deadline:

We keep forgetting that the Oilers will almost surely trade Yakupov at the draft, and here’s what was proposed at the trade deadline: Yak to New Jersey for their No. 7 D-man Eric Gelinas. Gelinas was subsequently traded to Colorado for a third-round draft pick. Yak’s a good kid, works hard. Is that all he’s worth?

It isn’t hard to figure out why interest in the player is so low, either. Yakupov scored just 23 points last season and has bec ...

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