Biggest Winners, Losers Of the NHL Draft

The 2021 NHL Draft has officially come and gone in a flash. There was a total of 223 players selected throughout the weekend with a ton of trades being made along the way. With all of these NHL teams desperately trying everything they can to improve their rosters before the upcoming season officially starts, we take a look at some of the biggest winners along with the biggest losers from this recent draft.

Winners

The Arizona Coyotes had themselves quite the weekend. They were able to get themselves free of the contract with Oliver Ekman-Larrson, a deal that was starting to become more harmful than good for the organization. They traded Conor Garland as well and took on a couple of terrible contracts but ended up better out in the long run. They snagged the number nine overall pick and were essentially given Shayne Gostisbehere without giving up too much at all. For a team that is desperately looking to kickstart their rebuild, it seems like they were able to do just that already.

The Buffalo Sabres should be considered winners as well. Even though they were awful last season, they now have some hope for the future. While it is very likely that they are going to struggle in 2021, the team grabbed Owen Power in the first round. Power is openly debating going back to Michigan for another season but that gives the Sabres some time to continue their rebuild. Not to mention the fact that they were able to get nice hauls out of players who didn’t want to be on the roster anymore such as Rasmus Ristolainen and Sam Reinhart.  

Losers

The Montreal Canadiens was completely torn apart by a couple of analysts after their draft was complete. They opted to select Logan Mailloux with their first-round pick, a decision that had people scratching their heads as to why they just did that. First off, Mailloux asked to be completely excluded from the draft entirely, something that the Canadiens clearly didn’t pay attention too. He also had some pretty bad issues in Sweden just a year ago, when he was fined after sharing an explicit photo of a woman without her consent. Overall, this was a terrible look for the organization and the NHL as a whole, don’t really know what was going through their heads with this choice at all.

The New York Rangers were another team with a disappointing draft weekend. The team knew that they couldn’t afford the price tag that Pavel Buchnevich was going to demand, so they traded him. However, the return of Sammy Blais and a second-round draft pick didn’t seem to match what they were giving away. Blais is a solid and physical player but has consistently struggle to stay healthy throughout his career. Then they chose to draft Brennan Othmann in the first round, a physical wing player when the team desperately needed to upgrade the center position. To make matters worse, they didn’t do much of anything during free agency when a lot of people expected a splash to be made.