St Kilda Chief Operating Officer Ameet Bains has vowed to keep an open mind during the trade period, despite enticing draft prospects.

Speaking to Trade Radio this morning, Bains discussed the club’s envious position heading into the National Draft, currently holding picks seven and eight.

“The thing that we’re most comfortable with is the strong and flexible position we have, particularly holding those two top ten picks… The prospect of using two top ten picks is really enticing for us,” Bains said.

“It’s a really strong and even top lot in the draft. Tony Elshaug and the rest of our recruiting guys have done a power of work on the draft and they’re really excited at the prospect of bringing in two elite young players.

“We’ve had a number of clubs speak to us about potential pick swaps and players that they’d be willing to discuss, even open invitations to say have a look at our list and outside these guys we’re open to having a chat, which does a couple of things.

“The initial point I made of having a flexible hand going into the draft remains true, but it also re-enforces to us that it is quite a strong draft and actually using those picks is quite a good outcome as well.”

Excitement about the draft aside, Bains said the Saints will be keeping an open mind when it comes to potentially using the picks as a trading chip over the next few weeks.

“That [keeping the two draft picks] is certainly a strong consideration, but as with all years we will be really open with what we do,” Bains said.

“Put it this way, if using seven and eight is our worst-case position, we think that is a very good position to be in. However, if we’re able to improve that by bringing players into our club or improving our draft position in moving up the order, we’d certainly be open in doing that as well.”

Bains also clarified rumours surrounding Greater Western Sydney GIANT Devon Smith, who had been linked to the Saints, among other clubs, in recent weeks.

“Our interest in Devon has been preliminary interest,” Bains said.

“When a player of his quality indicates they’re keen to come back to Victoria and leave their current club, obviously you have to get into the conversation, but our interest certainly has only been preliminary…. Our interest hasn’t been pursued to the same level [as other clubs].

“We have been very active in the last few years in terms of bringing other players to our club from other clubs. A number of those guys are regular starting 18 in our team now.

“We also expect the vast majority of improvement to come from within our young group, but are obviously trying to be really active in this period.”

Trade period officially commences on Monday 10 October and concludes Friday 20 October.