The New Jersey Devils have decided not to declare their 29th overall 2012 pick, the first round pick that they have to cancel as penalty for circumventing the cap with Ilya Kovalchuk. The choices left are 2013 & 2014. People don't seem to understand why they have not chosen this year as the only way to have a worst pick is to win the Cup. I believe i have found the reason why and Lou is a genius. My explanation after the jump.

The reason they have not choosen this year is because it's too low.

Let's say that next year the Devils fall at the same spot as this year, except they don't go to the eastern finals. So they have the 22nd pick. They then trade that pick to the Stanley Cup winner (30th pick) + 60th pick. They can then declare the 30th pick as the cancelled one.

Stanley cup winner: 30th + 60th = 22nd.

Devils: 22nd = 30th + 60th

This is even better is they have the 1st overall pick. Imagine if they had the Yakopov pick. 29 teams would jump at them to trade down. They could even trade down several times.