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12:37 am ET

The 2008 draft was certainly an eventful one. 

Here’s a complete list of the first round:

1. Steven Stamkos - Tampa Bay 
2. Drew Doughty - Los Angeles 
3. Zach Bogosian - Atlanta 
4. Alex Pietrangelo - St. Louis 
5. Luke Schenn - Toronto (from NY Islanders) 
6. Nikita Filatov - Columbus 
7. Colin Wilson - Nashville (from Toronto via NY Islanders) 
8. Mikkel Boedker - Phoenix 
9. Joshua Bailey - NY Islanders (from Florida via Nashville) 
10. Cody Hodgson - Vancouver 
11. Kyle Beach - Chicago 
12. Tyler Myers - Buffalo (from Edmonton via Anaheim, Los Angeles) 
13. Colten Teubert - Los Angeles (from Buffalo) 
14. Zach Boychuk - Carolina 
15. Erik Karlsson - Ottawa (from Nashville) 
16. Joe Colborne - Boston 
17. Jake Gardiner - Anaheim (from Calgary via Los Angeles) 
18. Chet Pickard - Nashville (from Ottawa) 
19. Luca Sbisa - Philadelphia (from Colorado via Columbus) 
20. Michael Del Zotto - NY Rangers 
21. Anton Gustafsson - Washington (from New Jersey) 
22. Jordan Eberle - Edmonton (from Anaheim) 
23. Tyler Cuma - Minnesota (from Washington via New Jersey) 
24. Mattias Tedenby - New Jersey (from Minnesota) 
25. Greg Nemisz - Calgary (from Montreal) 
26. Tyler Ennis - Buffalo (from San Jose) 
27. John Carlson - Washington (from Philadelphia) 
28. Viktor Tikhonov - Phoenix (from Dallas via Los Angeles, Anaheim) 
29. Daultan Leveille - Atlanta (from Pittsburgh) 
30. Thomas McCollum - Detroit

The Leafs get their man in Kelowna Rockets defenceman Luke Schenn.  Schenn is a rugged, hard hitting defenceman who should patrol the blueline for the Blue & White for many years to come.  He’s not very flasy, but he is by all accounts the best defensive defenceman in this draft.  Many have compared him to long time Colorado Avalanche blueliner Adam Foote,  a player that the Leafs have been without for many years.  Schenn plays the body the way Foote does, but he’s also very efficient and smooth with the puck.  He won’t put up a ton of points, but he won’t hurt the team when it comes to playing with the puck in his own end.  At this point, it’s unclear whether Schenn will make the big club next season but as Cliff Fletcher is quick to point out, this team is building for the future. 

As for the rest of the draft, there weren’t any real surprise picks this time around.  The LA Kings didn’t go way off the board as they did last year when selecting Thomas Hickey 4th overall.

Maybe the most puzzling team throughout the night was the New York Islanders.  They traded down twice without receiving any active players.  They received second and third round picks in return and then took Josh Bailey earlier than expected.  It’s unclear what they didn’t like about Nikita Filatov, Luke Schenn and Colin Wilson but they seem to value the later picks more than the 5th overall spot. 

Maybe the biggest mover and shaker of the day was the Phoenix Coyotes.  Though they gave up two quality defenceman in Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton, they acquired a premier centre in Olli Jokinen.  Phoenix needs a strong, goal scoring centreman that emphasizes the team’s strength on the forecheck, which is exactly what they get in Jokinen. They selected Mikkel Boedker with the 8th overall pick and someday he will line up with Jokinen, team captain Shane Doan and emerging star Peter Mueller (another 8th overall pick from Phoenix). 

With two picks in the first round, the Nashville Predators addressed two needs by taking an excellent two-way forward in Colin Wilson and the top goaltending prospect in this year’s draft in Chet Pickard.  Wilson isn’t a flashy player, but he is an excellent leader and does all of the little things well.  After dealing Chris Mason to the Blues, signing Dan Ellis to a contract extension and drafting Chet Pickard, the Predators have solidified their goaltending situation. 

We may not know who the true winners and losers are from this year’s NHL draft for about a decade, but we can begin to question and speculate right away.  Steven Stamkos will be in the NHL next year and should be considered the Calder Cup favourite, but it always seems like there are a few first round picks that make an unexpected jump to the NHL right out of the draft.  Who will that player be?  We’ll have to wait and see.  The 2008-09 season is only 3 months away.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 12:46 am and is filed under NHL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.