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Down Goes Brown's Weekend Review: The Biggest Winners, Losers, and Surprises of the NHL Draft

The Flames had a good weekend. Canucks GM Jim Benning did not. We take a look at everything that went down at the NHL draft.
Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

(Editor's note: Sean McIndoe looks back at recent play in the NHL and the league's biggest storylines in his weekend review. You can follow him on Twitter.)

Faceoff: Draft day(s)

The NHL's annual entry draft is somewhat unique in the world of pro sports. Instead of various teams scattered across the continent sending in picks for a commissioner to read, everyone gathers in one building, with all 30 teams squished together at massive tables on an arena floor to make the picks themselves. It's a system that has its plusses (more trades, at least in theory) and minuses (seriously, guys, shut up with the preamble and just make the pick), but it's rarely boring, and this weekend was no exception.

The biggest star of the opening round was, as expected, top prospect Auston Matthews. He'd been the presumptive top pick all season long, and despite a small measure of intrigue thanks to a late push by Finnish winger Patrik Laine, the top of the draft played out as expected, with Matthews going to the Toronto Maple Leafs and their vaguely insane fan base. The second pick also followed the script, with Laine going to the Jets. That's when things started to go off the rails a bit, and we'll get to that down below.

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In the end, the draft may be remembered as much for what didn't happen—remember when P.K. Subban was getting traded?—as for what did. And it may be overshadowed quickly, as we count down the days to Friday's opening of the free agency signing period. More than a few teams headed into the weekend looking to free up cap space for this year's auction; not all succeeded, at least not yet, which could set the stage for an interesting next few days.

READ MORE: Mark Hunter Is the Maple Leafs' Silent Assassin

One way or another, the league is going to look a lot different a week from today than it does right now. But for today, let's take a look back at the winners, losers and surprises from draft weekend.

Top Five

Celebrating those who've had the best week.

5. Tyson Jost's grandpa—Jost went tenth overall to the Avalanche. It was a nice moment, given the often-difficult path he and his family had followed to get here. Then his grandfather reacted like this, and suddenly everyone's allergies were acting up:

Tyson Jost's grandpa gets emotional after Tyson goes 10th overall — Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett)June 25, 2016

4. 'Merica—Matthews became the seventh American to be taken first overall, joining the likes of Patrick Kane and Mike Modano (and also Rick DiPietro and Brian Lawton, but let's keep it positive). Two more Americans went in the top seven, and by the end of the round a total of 12 had been picked, equaling the number of Canadians taken and establishing a new US record. Perhaps even more encouraging, the picks weren't limited to the country's usual hockey hot spots, with picks used on players from Arizona and (especially) Missouri.

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The U.S. was well represented in the first round of the NHL draft, highlighted by No. 1 overall pick Auston Matthews. Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

3. The Alberta teams—The Flames and Oilers are both coming off tough years and facing long climbs back to contender status, but both took big steps over the weekend.

The Flames came away with two major wins. First, they addressed their biggest roster issue by acquiring Brian Elliott from the Blues for a second-round pick, a more-than-reasonable price for a consistently good goaltender coming off a year in which he led the NHL in save percentage for the second time in his career. Compared to what the Maple Leafs gave up for Frederik Andersen and the reportedly significant asking price for Ben Bishop, the Elliott deal looks like a bargain. And then the Flames headed out to the draft floor and saw Matthew Tkachuk fall to them at No. 6; in the lead up to the draft, Tkachuk had been viewed as a likely fourth overall pick who could even go as high as third.

The Oilers' weekend wasn't quite the decisive win that the Flames enjoyed. The Oilers once again failed to make the sort of major deal that everyone seems to agree they need to shake up their core and address the holes on their blueline. They were apparently in on P.K. Subban and others, but those deals either fell through or Peter Chiarelli found the price too high. And there are even reports that the team is losing its nerve when it comes to smaller deals.

But Edmonton fans getting nervous over the possibility of yet another timid offseason could still come away from the weekend feeling positive, after seeing Jesse Puljujarvi drop into their laps with the fourth pick. The third member of what had long been assumed to be the draft's Big Three, Puljujarvi fell to the Oilers after the Blue Jackets made the surprising decision to use the third pick on Pierre-Luc Dubois. That made Edmonton's choice an easy one (and may have scuttled any plans to move the pick), and leaves the team with yet another blue-chip forward.

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If anything, lucking into Puljujarvi at least gives the team some added flexibility in pursuing a major move somewhere else on the roster—assuming they ever get around to making one.

2. Ken Holland—Pavel Datsyuk's departure had left the Red Wings holding a $7.5 million cap hit, one that many fans and media were convinced would be difficult if not impossible to unload without attaching major assets to the deal. Even the Red Wings' GM himself got in on the act. But it was an act, and not an especially tough one to see through, as certain wise observers could have told you.

On Friday, Holland sent Datsyuk's contract and the 16th overall pick to the Coyotes for the 20th pick, a second rounder, and injured forward Joe Vitale. That's not just cheap—you could make an argument that the swap of picks actually favored Detroit, even without unloading Datsyuk's cap hit in the deal.

It's a trade that makes sense for the Coyotes, who moved up to No. 16 to take Jakob Chychrun, a player most lists had ranked higher. And Datsyuk's deal—which, remember, doesn't cost them anything in terms of real dollars—will help them reach the cap floor. So you can understand where Arizona is coming from.

But for the Wings, it's a huge win, an almost laughably good deal that gives them plenty of cap space to pursue free agents, including the guy we're going to talk about in the next section. And it puts Holland among the weekend's biggest winners, even if we all should have seen it coming.

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1. The Steven Stamkos Watch—He actually made it. Almost one year after he became eligible to sign an extension, and well over a year after we all assumed that that extension was all but a sure-thing, Stamkos has reached unrestricted free agency without a deal in place.

Well, he hasn't quite reached it, at least not technically. He won't gain true UFA status until this Friday, when the new league year begins and he becomes free to sign with any team in the NHL. But by making it to Saturday, Stamkos reached the five-day window in which he can talk to other teams. After months of wondering what teams would be after him and how much they'd offer, Stamkos now knows. We don't, but he does. And he probably has a very good sense of where he's going to wind up.

Photo by Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

It's hard to overstate how big a story this is; it's a virtually unprecedented development in the salary cap era. When the new CBA made it possible for players to hit UFA status as early as 25, we thought it would open up the market, with superstars like Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf or Jonathan Toews being available to the highest bidder while they were still in their prime. Instead, it resulted in teams locking everyone up to long-term deals. (Zdeno Chara is probably the closest to being an exception, and he was already 29 when he reached free agency a full decade ago.)

In the cap world, star players in their peak years just don't make it to the open market. Until now.

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So where does he wind up? The Maple Leafs have been the consensus favorite all along, largely due to Stamkos being from Toronto, but there are questions over whether that really makes sense given where they are in their rebuild. The Sabres have made it clear that they're interested, and have money and cap space to make it happen. The Red Wings will be big players, too, thanks to that Datsyuk deal. The Lightning still can't be ruled out, and there have even been whispers about the Panthers being a dark horse. And that's just the Atlantic Division. Remember, there are always a few dark-horse candidates who come out of nowhere when free agency hits.

It's going to make for a fascinating few days leading up to an announcement that could come as early as Friday (or could drag on for days or weeks after). When it does, fans in one city will celebrate the biggest UFA signing in modern history, while those everywhere else will rationalize that they never wanted him in the first place.

Bottom Five

A look at the week's underachievers.

5. Jim Benning—It's fair to say that Benning's work as the Canucks' GM over the last two years has received mixed reviews. The longtime scout is still considered to have a sharp eye for young talent, but his trade record has been spotty and his apparent insistence that the Canucks are still contenders has frustrated a segment of Vancouver fans who are anxious for a rebuild.

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Over the weekend, Benning waded into the Subban and Stamkos rumor mill—too far, as it turns out. In a radio interview on Thursday, Benning expressed interest in both players, while acknowledging that the Canadiens' asking price for Subban was high. That sort of talk shouldn't be all that controversial—most GMs are probably interested in one or both players—but it's a problem in the NHL, where mentioning the name of a player under another team's control is a no-no.

Jim Benning is finding new ways to screw the Canucks. Photo by Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin didn't appreciate having details of his trade talks go public, and filed a complaint with the league. The Canucks are now facing a fine or even the loss of draft picks; a decision is expected in a few days. And Benning's reputation takes another hit.

4. Efficiency—During Friday's opening round, each team was given three minutes to make their pick. They had a little clock to count them down and everything. Then everyone ignored it, and it took four hours to get the round done.

In one sense, that's fine. This is important stuff, after all, and there's no need to rush it. Nobody wants to see an NHL team going all Vikings on us. If a team needs an extra minute or two to get their pick right, they should have it.

But from watching Friday's broadcast, it was clear that that wasn't what was happening. Instead, the teams appeared to have been told to just stall as long as possible so that… well, nobody's quite sure. But we got lots of footage of teams that were on the clock just sitting at their table, staring off into the distance while the clock ticked down. The Leafs did it with the first overall pick, even though they've known they were taking Matthews for weeks. The Senators did it right after trading up, as if they'd just surrendered up a pick to move up but weren't sure who they were taking. Pretty much everyone did it.

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We know these guys can go faster. On Saturday, as always, everyone powered through the remaining six rounds at lightning speed, with picks coming so quickly that the broadcasters could barely keep up with the action. Here's hoping that next year teams take all the time that they need—but not more, no matter what the league tells them.

3. Bruins first rounder Charlie McAvoy's old tweets—Whoops.

2. Jarmo Kekalainen and the Blue Jackets—The Columbus GM went into the weekend with his work cut out for him. For a bad team, the Jackets are saddled with a frighteningly ugly payroll, one loaded with long-term deals to mediocre (or worse) players. With franchise cornerstone Seth Jones about to hit restricted free agency and the Jackets' cap situation making them a vulnerable offer sheet target, Kekalainen was reportedly looking to unload some of those bad contracts. He came up empty.

That's understandable—unlike Datsyuk, the Blue Jackets' bad deals come with actual dollars attached to them, and expecting Kekalainen to work miracles was probably unrealistic. But the spotlight on the Blue Jackets' front office will only get brighter after they passed on Puljujarvi to take Dubois. It was the biggest surprise of Friday night's opening round; even if the Jackets had decided they like the big Canadian center better, you'd think they could have found a way to trade down a spot or two to get him.

READ MORE: The Best Late-Round Draft Steals in NHL History

Kekalainen apparently tried, given how active he was on the draft floor in the moments leading up to the opening picks, but he came up empty. And now he's left facing plenty of questions over the pick. That's not to say that Dubois can't turn out to be the better player—Kekalainen has been running drafts for a long time, and he's made some off-the-board picks that worked out beautifully. There's something to be said about being willing to take some heat to make the pick you want instead of opting for the consensus. But, man, he better turn out to be right, for the sake of both the Blue Jackets' future and his own.

1. The trade market—Heading into round one, we'd enjoyed a solid week of the rumor mill spitting out speculation of blockbuster moves. The Blue Jackets were said to be up to something with the third pick. The Canucks and Flames were looking to move at five and six, respectively. And surely the Oilers would trade the No. 4 to acquire some immediate help in an effort to finally move up the standings, rather than drafting yet another long-term prospect. Then there was Subban sweepstakes, with names like Ben Bishop, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kevin Shattenkirk on the undercard. With all that smoke, there just had to be some fire, especially after teams watched the Penguins trade their way to a championship just months before.

P.K. Subban was a hot name this weekend. Photo by Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

And then came Friday, and we got… well, just about nothing. None of the top ten picks moved, and while you could have seen that coming based on history, we'd hoped that this year might be different. We did get several pick-shuffling trades as the night went on, starting with the Senators' strange decision to give up a third-round pick just to move up a single spot. But we only got three trades involving players, and only one of those (the Elliott deal) could be considered major.

So what happened? One explanation, according to Kevin Cheveldayoff, the same pending expansion draft that was supposed to loosen the market ended up having the opposite effect. Or maybe a league full of risk-adverse GMs just found another excuse to sit on their hands.

Either way, it feels like the weekend was just a case of delaying the inevitable. With Friday's free agency deadline looming, something has to give, and soon. We'll see who manages to get the job done, and who's left making excuses.