There were few surprises on the opening night of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft as far as the actual picks were concerned. However, there was excitment created by several trades that went down during the draft.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins went first overall as was expected. The biggest upward move of the evening was Winnipeg's pick of Mark Scheifele with the seventh pick when they officially unveiled the name of the team as the "Winnipeg Jets" much to the crowd's delight. Scheifele had been rated the 16th best North American skater so it was a huge jump for him to move to the top ten.
The biggest shocker was a multi-player deal involving the hometown Minnesota Wild that sent Brent Burns and a 2011 second round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Devin Setoguchi. Charlie Coyle, and the 28th pick in this year's draft.
In a move to help both teams cap situation, Brian Campbell agreed to waive his no-trade clause in order to go to the Florida Panthers who are having trouble getting to the cap floor. Former first round pick Rostislav Olesz was the player going the other way.
In another trade, much to Vancouver's delight, the Chicago Blackhawks traded Troy Brouwer to Washington for their first round pick in the 26th slot.
Earlier in the day, Colorado traded John-Michael Lyles to Toronto in exchange for Toronto's second round pick in 2012.
There were a couple of emotional moments with tributes to scout E. J. McGuire and Derek Boogaard involving family members.
On the Predators front, the main excitement beyond a couple of rumors that a trade would be done with Colorado or Boston was the first appearance on a human of the Predators new road jersey that was worn on the arena floor by the young runner.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment