DANIEL:
This is a pretty opinionated piece that has not been reviewed by the editor. With the 22nd selection the Ducks chose to trade down to the end of the draft, giving the pick to Toronto for the 30th and 39th picks. I think this is an awful move. Burke continues to fleece Bob Murray. I guess Murray wants a player he's sure will be available then, or he doesn't care who he gets. Murray left a few quality picks on the table; some of them probably won't be available when he picks 30. Maybe someone will fall to the Ducks; John Gibson might still be there. I really hope we fire Murray soon.
ARTHUR:
As Daniel noted, I didn't review this. My counter would simply be that Madden and company run the draft board. They do the scouting from the day after the Draft until the next Draft. They sell Murray (and each other) on their list. Last year's first round was probably a no-brainer for all involved, but Madden has come up with some gems in the later rounds of his limited time running the Ducks boards, so if I were Murray, I'd give Madden some serious consideration if he says we can trade down.
Now, I don't know if that's what happened here. Eric Stephens' tweet that the Ducks had their eyes as high as the top half of the first round seems to intimate that they missed their guy or this is a really weak class (and, indeed, many GM's seemed to go off the board in the bottom third). I don't know if Anaheim could have gotten better for their money at 22, or if the Ducks STILL missed their backup pick in the intervening picks before 30, but the decision to deal with Burke again should probably be the center of the critique here.
And that would be my problem. Some nice deals have gone down, but Murray couldn't get any players involved once he knew he'd have to trade down. His buddy Wilson was moving Devin Setoguchi, but he ends up at Burke's knee again. As far as the decision to move down, I don't mind laying that at one foot (or both feet) of the Amateur Scouting department, but what trading down actually looks like is completely up to Murray.