It’s shaping up to be a crazy day around the NHL. The Rangers don’t have first- or second-round picks thanks to trades for Rick Nash and Ryane Clowe, but they do hold three picks in the third round (#65, #75 and #80 overall). It’s quite possible that New York will attempt to package a couple of those picks to move up into the second round, but don’t hold your breath on the Blueshirts getting into the first.
The rumor mill is really churning today, too. Already New York has dealt Benn Ferriero and a 2014 sixth-round pick to Minnesota for D Justin Falk, but there could be more moves ahead. Given New York’s cap issues, don’t expect them to be in on the big fish. But there sure are a lot of big names being discussed, including: Tyler Seguin, Cory Schneider, Evander Kane, Alex Edler, Tyler Myers, Kris Letang, Tomas Fleischmann, David Perron, Dave Bolland, Braydon Coburn, Cal Clutterbuck and seemingly dozens of others.
Teams have three minutes to make each selection and also have five, five-minute timeouts throughout the day. Unless the Rangers move up, they probably won’t be picking until late this evening, but we’ll be with you every step of the way.
Join us after the jump for updates.
3:01 – The Penguins have traded LW Tyler Kennedy to San Jose for the 50th overall pick.
3:02 – Good detective work by The NY Rangers Blog translating Sweden’s Expressen that states Ulf Samuelsson will join the Rangers as an assistant coach and handle the defense and penalty kill. Earlier today, Renaud Lavoie reiterated that Benoit Allaire will remain with the Rangers as goalie coach.
3:08 – The draft is officially underway and commissioner Gary Bettman is really hearing it from the crowd at the Prudential Center.
3:09 – The Avalanche kick things off by selecting F Nathan MacKinnon. The Avalanche said they would pass on D Seth Jones repeatedly over the last two weeks, but I don’t understand it. Jones has the potential to be a Hall of Famer, was raised in Denver and has unlimited marketing potential. Plus, Colorado has a host of good young forwards and basically nothing on defense. Head scratching start to the Joe Sakic/Patrick Roy regime in Colorado.
3:17 – Florida passes on Jones as well and takes Finnish C Alexander Barkov.
3:21 – Jones’ drop continues as Tampa Bay selects MacKinnon’s teammate, F Jonathan Drouin.
3:27 – Nashville GM David Poile does cartwheels up to the podium and selects Jones, another stud defenseman to pair with Shea Weber.
3:33 – Carolina drafts Swedish C Elias Lindholm.
3:38 – With the first of their three first-round picks, Calgary takes C Sean Monahan.
3:44 – The Islanders have traded forward prospect Nino Niederreiter to Minnesota for physical winger Cal Clutterbuck.
3:45 – Edmonton selects D Darnell Nurse.
3:51 – Buffalo takes D Rasmus Ristolainen.
3:58 – Wow, here’s the first big deal of the day. The Devils traded the ninth pick to Vancouver for G Cory Schneider. So New Jersey gets Brodeur’s heir – who is clearly better than Brodeur now, and John Tortorella is stuck with Roberto Luongo.
4:02 – Vancouver takes C Bo Horvat.
4:09 – Dallas takes Russian RW Valeri Nichushkin.
4:14 – Philadelphia picks D Samuel Morin. Hulking D-man, perfect Flyers pick.
4:21 – Phoenix drafts LW Max Domi, Tie Domi’s son. Interestingly that’s the third year in a row the Coyotes have used their first pick on the son of a former NHL player.
4:27 – Winnipeg goes with D Josh Morrissey.
4:34 – Columbus grabs C Alexander Wennberg.
4:40 – The Islanders snag D Ryan Polock, a hard shooter from the WHL.
4:45 – Buffalo uses the first-round pick acquired from Minnesota for Jason Pominville on huge D-man Nikita Zadorov.
4:52 – The Senators, already loaded with young talent, take Michael St. Croix’s teammate, C/RW Curtis Lazar.
4:58 – San Jose trades with Detroit and moves up to select D Mirco Mueller.
5:02 – With the first-round pick the Rangers sent to Columbus for Rick Nash, the Blue Jackets take Windsor LW Kerby Rychel.
5:07 – Detroit nabs QMJHL 50-goal scorer Anthony Mantha.
5:11 – Toronto takes defensive C Frederik Gauthier.
5:16 – Calgary uses its second first-round pick on LW Emile Poirier. Quite a reach.
5:23 – Washington selects Swedish scorer Andre Burakovsky.
5:29 – Vancouver ends LW Hunter Shinkaruk’s fall with its second first-round pick.
5:33 – Montreal scoops up huge USNTDP winger Mike McCarron.
5:40 – Anaheim goes off the board to take Seattle D Shea Theodore.
5:46 – With their third and final first-round pick, Columbus reaches for F Marko Dano.
5:52 – Now Calgary uses its final first-round pick on LW Morgan Klimchuk.
5:56 – Dallas uses the pick it got from Boston for Jaromir Jagr on RW Jason Dickinson.
6:01 – With the final pick of the first round, the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks pick C Ryan Hartman.
OK, that’ll be it for the pick by pick updates. We’ll be posting trades and Ranger activity going forward.
6:20 – Carolina trades D Jamie McBain and its second-round pick to Buffalo for D Andrej Sekera.
6:41 – Chicago deals C Dave Bolland to Toronto for the 51st and 117th picks, plus a fourth-rounder next year.
6:49 – With the second-round pick the Rangers sent to San Jose for Ryane Clowe, the Sharks take Gabryel Boudreau.
7:17 – The Blackhawks send winger Michael Frolik to Winnipeg for picks #74 and #134.
7:25 – The third round is about to begin and we’ll finally see some Rangers action.
7:33 – The Rangers have drafted C Adam Tambellini with the 65th pick. Tambellini has NHL bloodlines and projects as a solid two-way forward.
7:46 – With their second third-round pick, the Rangers take Russian LW Pavel Buchnevich. Buchnevich is a very high-skill guy that might have fallen due to ongoing concern by NHL teams about getting KHL players overseas.
7:52 – With their final third-round pick, the Rangers select LW Anthony Duclair. Duclair is one of the best skaters in the draft and dominated as a 16-year-old. He was projected to go a little higher, but injuries this season might have hurt his stock.
8:03 – After clearing cap space earlier today, the Blackhawks have re-signed Bryan Bickell to a four-year, $16 million contract.
8:17 – With their fourth-round pick, #110 overall, the Rangers draft 6-4, 220 lb. D Ryan Graves.
8:25 – According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Rangers have told teams they’re willing to trade the rights to UFA-to be Ryane Clowe.
9:17 – With their sixth round pick, #170 overall, the Rangers select G Mackenzie Skapski.
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