Trades, Trades everwhere a trade...

Things are heating up! There was one pre-draft trade and several more during draft day. See the majority of the trades listed beloow...

June 24th - Pre-draft
The Florida Panthers trade G Roberto Luongo, D Lukas Krajicek, and a 2006 6th Round Pick to Vancouver in exchange for F Todd Bertuzzi, F Bryan Allen, and G Alex Auld
Analysis: If Luongo does not agree to a long term contract then Iron Mike kills and cleans up in this deal regardless of how good or bad Bertuzzi plays.

Draft Day
The Dallas Stars trade C Niko Kapanen and a 2006 7th Round Pick to Atlanta in exchange for C Patrick Stefan and D Jaroslav Modry.

The Calgary Flames trade LW Alex Tanguay to Calgary in exchange for D Jordan Leopold, a 2006 2nd Round Pick, and a conditional pick in either 2007 or 2008.

The Toronto Maple Leafs trade G Tuukka Rask to Boston in exchange for G Andrew Raycroft.

The Florida Panthers trade a 2008 6th Round Pick to Chicago in exchange for G Craig Anderson.

The Los Angeles Kings trade C Pavol Demitra to Minnesota in exchange for C Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2006 1st Round Pick.


June 26th - Post draft
The Phoenix Coyotes trade D Paul Mara and a 3rd Round Pick in either 2007 or 2008 to Boston in exchange for D Nick Boynton and a 2007 4th Round Pick.

Draft Day 2006

It was the first draft day of the new NHL and it did not disappoint. In a bit of a surprise there were no trrades in the first 15 picks, despite a ton of speculation of teams trading up. The 1st 15 picks I have listed below...

1 St. Louis D - Eric Johnson US National 2 Pittsburgh C - Jordan Staal Peterborough (OHL) 3 Chicago F - Jonathan Toews North Dakota (WCHA) 4 Washington C - Nicklas Backstrom Brynas (SWE) 5 Boston C - Phil Kessel Minnesota (WCHA) 6 Columbus C - Derick Brassard Drummondville (Q) 7 NY Islanders RW - Kyle Okposo Des Moines (USHL) 8 Phoenix C - Peter Mueller Everett (WHL)
9 Minnesota C - James Sheppard Cape Breton (QMJHL) 10 Florida C - Michael Frolik Kladno (CZE)
11 Los Angeles G - Jonathan Bernier Lewiston (QMJHL) 12 Atlanta C - Bryan Little Barrie (OHL)
13 Toronto F - Jiri Tlusty Kladno (CZE) 14 Vancouver RW - Mikel Grabner Spokane (WHL) 15 Tampa Bay G - Riku Helenius Ilves Jr. (FIN)

** Prediction: Besides the top 5 picks, who should all be solid players, the dark horse in the draft I think was Mikel Grabner from Austria. In the new NHL he could be a scoring machine!