Winners and losers from Round 1 of the NHL Draft

Auston Matthews is indeed in blue, and Patrik Laine a darker shade, but what followed the first two picks in the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday night in Buffalo, N.Y. was completely unpredictable.

Here are the winners and losers for the first round of the NHL draft.

Winner: Red Wings

Moving Pavel Datsyuk's contract opens up a world of possibilities for the Red Wings this summer. His hands no longer tied, Ken Holland can now target a No. 1 center, (there's a pretty decent one now free to negotiate, by the way), instead of paying the price to have one play elsewhere.

This single transaction, and one that really didn't come at a significant cost, could be the difference in not just extending one of the more remarkable streaks in sport for one season, but for many more to come.

Loser: Bruins

Don Sweeney's made five picks during the first round in just two drafts in charge of the Bruins - and he's infuriated fans with each and every one.

Winner: John Chayka

The Arizona Coyotes rookie GM's first foray into the NHL playground was a successful one.

Chayka made his intentions known with the seventh overall pick, surprising some with a lottery selection spent on Clayton Keller - a slight, exceedingly dynamic and inventive forward. Keller now joins what could be the greatest assembly of attacking prospects in the game. But it wasn't until a few picks later that Chayka made his biggest statement. He, of course, volunteered to house Datsyuk's contract on his payroll to slot another big-name prospect under the Arizona banner in Jakob Chychrun.

Loser: Jakob Chychrun

Not a single player was displaced more than Chychrun, who required Chayka to step in at No. 16 to stop a slide that began when he was ranked second among North American prospects at the start of the season.

Winner: Calgary

The acquisition of Brian Elliott could be the difference in fielding a competitive or a non-competitive roster next season, and the Flames are not yet locked into a long-term commitment. But adding this player, maintaining the No. 6 pick, and having Matthew Tkachuk fall into that slot, makes for a favorable night.

Loser: Senators

Logan Brown could very well turn out to be the class of the 2016 NHL Draft, but there's no need to flatter him right now. New Jersey's willingness to move down one spot really should've been all the intel Pierre Dorion required.

Winner: St. Louis

There were a record 12 American-born players taken in the first-round of the NHL Draft, most of which were outsourced from an unlikely hockey hotbed in the Midwest.

Five Missouri-bred prospects were chosen in the first round, including four in the front half of the round.

Loser: Blues

It's not that the Blues traded one of the NHL's best statistical goaltenders from a season ago - and truly one of the best values at all positions in terms of production on the dollar - in Elliott. It's that they ceded far too easily to a team quickly becoming desperate for a capable body in net for such a ho-hum return.

Winner: Oilers

And c'mon, it wouldn't be a draft without a little fortune for Oil Country. Jesse Puljujarvi is an absolute coup, and a prospect that makes Edmonton's top six (or is it now nine?) laughably talented.

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