What happens when...

[jeh-see]

This is a question I have always wondered about. What happens to traded draft picks if one of the teams in the trade folds before the draft takes place? For example, say the Chicago Bulls trade their 2015 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets. Well, let's say for the sake of the conversation, the Hornets don't make it past a season and just close down shop. What happens to the pick? There is no team in existence to use the traded pick. Does it just go back to the Bulls and they get the best of both worlds in getting the player they wanted from Charlotte PLUS the return of the pick they traded to get that player? Does the entire draft get conducted without Charlotte in it and any of their picks just aren't available and the selection order is just shifted up by one? And, likewise, had Charlotte, in turn had swapped picks with Chicago instead of a player, does Chicago get to keep the pick that THEY got or do they just have to forfeit it? I hope this all makes sense, I have always wondered that, and in all the history of sports, especially when teams folded and relocated mid-season like the WHA used to, this has had to have happened at some point. Thanks guys!

UniJ

[BBTV]

Hell, this scenario could happen in the NHL within the next couple of years. If there's any justice, the Coyote-less draft would be held at the jobberdome... or on a stage erected at the parking lot it became.

There's plenty of rules in place for accidents - like a team's plane goes down, or x number of players are killed or something like that. I would imagine there's rules about this as well. Logic would dictate that the folded team's picks just disappear, and a dispersal draft would be held with their players. Logic would also dictate that the union would push for rosters to be expanded so that no dues-paying members lose their jobs because a team folded.

[cmm]

Accoriding to our good friends at Wikipedia, something like this happened after the Cleveland Barons were merged with the North Stars prior to the 1978 draft:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NHL_Entry_Draft

The Washington Capitals chose to take an extra pick in the first round instead of participating in the Dispersal Draft (Tim Coulis), and were allowed to pick in Cleveland's position in the second round to complete the Bob Girard/Walt McKechnie trade.^[1] The New York Islanders had traded their fourth round selection to Cleveland, so that pick was forfeited.^[2]