Congrats to seadawg for winning the 2010 DobberHockey Draft Contest! He finished with a score of 40 points. He correctly predicted the picks of Hall, Seguin, Gudbranson, Connolly, Campbell, Bennett, Howden, and Kuznetzov.

Dobber here – just letting you know that I’m on the Draft Chat now – link below. (5:30pm ET)

For those of you fed up with NHL.com’s inability to update the picks, follow Matt Bugg on twitter!

DobberHockey Draft Chat Round 2 is a go! Check it out here.

Make sure to check back throughout the day – I'll be updating the ramblings throughout rounds two through seven. Hopefully a trade or two are mixed in to give me some writing material.

I am beyond sick of hearing Tomas Kaberle-related rumours. Pull the trigger, Burkie!

It is extremely premature to pick winners and losers of the draft yesterday, but Anaheim has to be thrilled with getting both Cam Fowler and Emerson Etem in the first round. Fowler is the best fantasy defenseman in the 2010 draft by a decent margin.

The Canucks were targeting Jarred Tinordi and Beau Bennett with their 25^th overall pick. Once they saw that both were gone, they pulled the trigger on the Ballard deal. I expect the Canucks to land one of Martin/Hamhuis/Michalek during free agency, and one of those combined with Ballard/Ehrhoff/Edler is a fantastic top four both now and in the future.

I was glad to see Jeff Skinner go 7^th overall. I saw a few mock drafts that had him out of the top 10 – absolutely ridiculous. He is going to be an elite goal scorer at the NHL level. If I am picking for a fantasy league, he would be my third selection after Hall and Seguin. The 'Canes are building quite a nice group of young talent – McBain, Tlusty, Bowman, Boychuk, Skinner, Sutter, etc.

Justin Goldman is THE goalie expert to listen to. From yesterday: “Goldie here – up early and pumped for the Draft. What’s one of many reasons Dallas might be thinking Jack Campbell? They lost out on two legit prospects (Rynnas, Gustavsson) … third time is a charm and they’d get the last laugh. Just a hunch.”

Sticking with impressive young players on one team, Phoenix is stacked on the blueline. Goncharov, Yandle, Ekman-Larsson, and now Gormley.

I found the Rundblad-to-Ottawa trade very interesting. It is rare that teams give up on first round picks so quickly. Obviously the Blues really wanted Tarasenko, and I don't blame them. Rundblad is going to spend another year in Sweden before coming over to North America. Rundblad had a terrible WJC last winter, but he has upside as an offensive puck mover. His defensive game is very inconsistent right now. If Tarasenko's name was John Smith, he would have been a consensus top 10 pick.

The Flyers are apparently trying to secure the rights to Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov won't get the same money he made this past season ($6 million), and the Flyers know that. His continually underwhelming postseason play is the main reason why San Jose is parting ways, but he would be an upgrade on Leighton/Boucher. Nabokov's fantasy value would obviously be considerably higher in Philadelphia as opposed to somewhere like Tampa Bay.

Ballard had a limited no trade clause with his contract, and Vancouver was one of seven teams he would accept a trade to. He was golfing with Paul Martin when he found out about the trade. Those two would be quite the pairing…

The Oilers and Panthers had apparently agreed upon a deal that would have seen Andrew Cogliano go to Florida in exchange for the 15^th overall selection. The Oilers wanted defenseman Dylan McIlrath, who was picked 10^th by the Rangers. Florida lucked out that the trade fell through. Cogliano is a one-trick pony (speed) and has shown little else at the NHL level. I have no idea why he is owned in many keeper leagues – unless your league is extremely deep (and doesn't differentiate between centers and wingers), I wouldn't even have him on my radar.

I hope all of you got to enjoy the DobberHockey chat yesterday. I think we will set up something similar for Free Agent Frenzy on July 1^st. It was great to hear from Matt Bugg, who was at the Staples Center for the first round yesterday. I was only able to stay and chat for the first 10 picks or so, but had a great time.

Alessandro Seren Rosso has been a great addition to the crew here as well – his insights on Russian players has been nothing short of fantastic! Here is his article on Tarasenko from a few weeks ago, in case you missed it.

If the Penguins find a way to sign Dan Hamhuis, his fantasy value goes up big time. Only Goligoski and Letang would be ahead of him from an offensive standpoint, as it looks like Sergei Gonchar is headed for the open market.

Don't be surprised to see Jordan Schroeder make the Canucks this fall. They love his upside and feel he is very close to being NHL ready. Moving Grabner doesn't necessarily open up a spot for him, but it will provide him a bit more of an opportunity to earn a spot in the top nine.

Chicago has five picks in today's second round. A few teams (obviously) have zero. I expect lots of activity in terms of picks moving around.

CBC's Jeff Marek weighs in with his thoughts on the first round.

Keith Ballard lays out new teammate Henrik Sedin last season: