The NHL's 30 franchises actually selected a large quantity of players Friday night at the outset of the 2015 NHL Draft, and did so again on Saturday with the commencement of the second round, but the biggest and most exciting news seemed to come in the form of trades.
First, new Bruins GM Don Sweeney altered the future of the Boston organization for good when he shipped out one-time "foundational" pieces in Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. Then, the Colorado Avalanche finally found a deal they liked for disgruntled forward Ryan O'Reilly and pulled the trigger on a trade to send him to Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres, who now add O'Reilly to a forward corps that includes Jack Eichel and Evander Kane.
The New York Islanders then made a splash, surprising the entire hockey world by giving up on young defenseman Griffin Reinhart, the former fourth-overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, for the 16th and 33rd picks in the 2015 NHL Draft. Reinhart is still just 21, but the Isles already have a strong defensive core led by Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic, not to mention youngsters expected to compete for roster sports in Ryan Pulock and Scotty Mayfield.
The New Jersey Devils then picked up forward Kyle Palmieri from the Anaheim Ducks for the 41st pick in 2015 and a third-round pick in 2016. It was a surprising decision for Ducks GM Bob Murray, considering the team is expected to lose Matt Beleskey in free agency, but the Devils certainly benefited.
Devils new head coach John Hynes needed options at forward and Palmieri has versatility.
Murray continued his overall shortly into Day Two, shipping defenseman James Wisniewski to the Hurricanes in exchange for 29-year-old netminder Anton Khudobin. TSN's Aaron Ward and Pierre LeBrun reported and confirmed the move, respectively. With the deals, Murray has opened up significant cap space for the Ducks - Wisniewski is set to count $5.5 million against the cap in 2015-16.
For the Canes, Khudobin had an 8-17-6 record, with a 2.72 GAA and a .900 save percentage in 32 starts last season.
The Vancouver Canucks finally pulled the trigger on an Eddie Lack trade, shipping the still-young netminder to the Hurricanes for a third-round pick in 2015 and a 2016 seventh-rounder. Lack was 8-13-14 with a 2.45 GAA and .921 save percentage this season in place of an injured Ryan Miller.
The Canucks were reportedly fielding calls on both Lack and Jakob Markstrom, but Lack seemed to draw the most interest and likely yielded the best return for Jim Benning.
