It will take years to fully evaluate the 210 selections made at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday and Saturday. Few of those players will make the leap directly into the NHL. Most will need years of continued development in the junior, college and minor-league ranks before making an impact with the big club.
But there is more that goes into a draft than just those seven rounds of picks. It's annually one of the biggest weekends of trades each year, as well as a time for other important news to be made across the league. So there are some immediate judgments that can be made after a weekend of watching the 30 NHL clubs try to build for the future, and here is a sampling of some of the early winners and losers of this year's draft festivities: