draft

The first round of the 2016 NHL Draft is upon us, and it’s already been interesting. Before today, the Rangers traded Keith Yandle’s rights to the Florida Panthers for a 6th round pick this year and a 4th round pick next year. The Panthers then promptly signed him to a massive seven-year deal. The Rangers are also apparently looking to deal both Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, but nothing is imminent.

Around the league, Frederik Anderssen went from Anaheim to Toronto for the 30th overall this year and a 2nd rounder next year. He then signed in Toronto to a five year deal. Alex Goligoski’s rights were traded to Arizona, with Dallas receiving a 5th round pick. Goligoski also signed with his acquiring team.

  • Apparently Kevin Shattenkirk really wants to be a Ranger, but take this with a grain of salt.

  • Auston Matthews is the first overall pick to Toronto, no surprise there.
  • Montreal trades Lars Eller to Washington for 2nd round picks in 2017 and 2018.
  • Chicago trades Andrew Shaw to Montreal for Montreal’s 2 2nd round picks in 2016 (#39, #45).
  • Patrik Laine goes second overall, no surprise.
  • Columbus surprises people, going with Pierre-Luc Dubois third overall. Jesse Puljujavri was the consensus third best skater, but Columbus didn’t like him, apparently.
  • Puljujavri goes fourth to Edmonton, who for some reason forgot that they had the first overall and slept through to the fourth pick this year. Also, Edmonton will have 12 first line forwards in their lineup, with no one playing defense. Poor Cam Talbot.
  • Olli Juolevi goes to Vancouver at fifth overall.
  • Matt Tkachuk goes to Calgary. Son of Keith, who was always headed to the Rangers at some point in his career.
  • Arizona selects Clayton Keller seventh overall. Very skilled. Arizona is loaded up front.
  • Alex Nylander goes to Buffalo in the shortest draft announcement yet. Buffalo is efficient.
  • Brian Elliott goes to Calgary. St. Louis gets the 35th overall pick and a conditional 3rd in 2018.
  • Mikhail Sergachev goes ninth overall. Josh profiled him here.
  • Tyson Jost to Colorado at tenth overall. Another team that has Barney the Dinosaur playing defense.
  • The Devils trade down from #11 with the Senators for picks #12 and #80. Ottawa selects Logan Brown with the #11 pick.
  • With their pick, the Devils get Michael McLeod. Getting into the territory where the Rangers might make a move, if they do.
  • Jake Bean goes to Carolina, who is really stocking up on the blue line. Wonder if the Rangers can grab one of them. Would be super.
  • Charlie McAvoy goes to Boston at #14. Guess they are trying to replace Dougie Hamilton.
  • Luke Kunin goes to Minnesota at #15. There goes the Stepan-to-Minnesota rumor.
  • Detroit trades Pavel Datsyuk’s contract and the #16 pick to Arizona for Joe Vitale and picks #20 and #53. The #20 pick was originally the Rangers’ pick, acquired in the Keith Yandle deal. Arizona uses the #16 on Jakob Chychrun. Oh hey, the Rangers were involved!
  • Dante Fabbro goes to Nashville at #17.
  • The Flyers have traded the #18 pick and the #79 pick to Winnipeg for picks #22 and #36. Winnipeg takes Logan Stanley with the pick.
  • The Islanders take Kieffer Bellows with the #19 pick. Son of Brian Bellows.
  • Detroit selects Dennis Cholowski with the #20 pick. Lots of good defensemen off the board. Wonder if they can keep up with the Rangers blue line, though.
  • Carolina, picking again this draft –I wonder what that’s like, two first round picks. Hmm. Someone?– take Julien Gauthier at #21. This pick was from LA for Andrej Sekera.
  • Philly takes German Rubtsov at #22. Josh also profiled him here.
  • At #23, the Florida Simbas Panthers take Henrik Borgstrom. This is an off the board pick, but the Panthers are huge on draft analytics, and once you get to this stage in the draft, we will see things start to shake up a bit.
  • Max Jones goes to Anaheim at #24. Cam Fowler is still with them for now. Maybe they weren’t so keen on a Fowler/McIlrath swap after all.
  • Buffalo gave Lindy Ruff a nice ovation. Probably the highlight of the night for me. Woohoo.
  • Riley Tufte to Dallas at #25. So much for Staal for Nichuskin. I tried. I am not good with The Force. I have no Jedi mind trick powers.
  • Washington trades down with St. Louis, getting picks #28 and #87 for pick #28. St. Louis takes Tage Thompson from UConn. He will be teammates with Adam Huska.
  • Tampa Bay gets Brett Howden at #27.
  • Washington selects Ryan Johansen’s little brother Lucas at #28, received from St. Louis from trading down.
  • Bruins take Trent Frederic at #29. Another off the board pick. Boston hasn’t really figured out this drafting thing, have they?
  • Anaheim wraps up the first round with Sam Steel.

The Rangers did nothing, but that’s not unexpected, despite the snarkiness. Today was a huge day for American hockey. It was the first time in history there were more Americans taken in the first round than Canadians. It’s the first time we’ve beaten them at something hockey related since the 1996 World Cup.

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