Day two doesn’t have the same build up as day one, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see more trades today.

And just like that the Day starts with a bang. And it is a piss in your cornflakes day for Oiler fans.

The Flames have acquired the rights to Jay Bouwmeester for Jordan Leopold and a 3rd pick. When the Flames sign him, they will have to trade some big contract away, and that would seem to be either Regehr or Phaneuf. We will watch with interest.

Six minutes in and we already have seven picks, it’s amazing how much faster it goes. Landon Ferraro goes 32nd to the Detroit Red Wings, a big relief after sitting here for four hours yesterday without hearing his name called.

With the 40th pick the Oilers take another Swede, Anton Lander a 6’0″ 194 pounder. Here is the scouting report on him.

“Great two-way player, plays as both a center and left wing, has decent faceoff skills as a center. A gifted playmaker, but also with some ability to score, will be known more for his passing skills however. Good gritty and physical player in the J20 in Sweden, battles well in the corners. Plays with great emotion and comes to play day in and day out, however this competitiveness has led to him taking unnecessary penalties at times. Hasn’t adjusted to playing with men in the Elitserien yet, but they may happen over the course of the 08-09 season.”

There is lots of talk on the floor about what this Flames deal means. Early speculation is that Dion Phaneuf could be dealt. The Flames don’t have the cap space to keep Bouwmeester, Phaneuf and Regehr so one of them will move.

The St. Louis Blues take Beaumont boy Brett Ponich, a 6’7″ 210 pound giant. He is tough and physical D-man playing for the Portland Winterhawks. His stock kept rising all year and he is projected to be a solid D-man in a few years, as long as he improves his foot speed.

Darryl Sutter is now working the phones. You wonder how long he will wait to make a deal, because everyone knows he can’t keep all three D-men. If the Human Rake can get you two players, and two first rounders, what do you think Phaneuf will attract?

Round two is already over. This will be over quickly.

More on Lander. He played with MPS in Timra, and was his centreman. He’s been the captain of the under 18 national team, and is very competitive. He admits he needs to improve his skating to play in the NHL, but like MPS, he will play in Timra again this coming season before heading over to North America.

Not a lot on the Heatley front right now. but the fact that Calgary took J-Bo has everyone talking. This muddies the waters, because it mean another big name, either Phaneuf or Regehr, is now on the block.

With the speed of the picks today, you don’t see managment leaving their tables as often as yesterday.

I just had a brief talk with an eastern conference asst. GM and he said the interest level in one of the Flames D-men will be intense. He said Phaneuf might fetch more than the Human Rake. We will see.

With their third pick, 71st overall the Oilers took high schooler Troy Hesketh. He wasn’t ranked anywhere by Central Scouting, in fact, he didn’t even have a name card to slide in right away. They had two other name bars in below him, before they finally got a name plate for him on the big draft board.

He is going to Wisconsin next season. He is 6’2″  and 185 pounds and is an offensive d-man. He had seven goals and 21 points in 25 games for the Minnetonka Skippers and was an impressive +23.

A quick  recap of yesterday’s trades in case you missed them.

Ducks traded the Human Rake and prospect Ryan Dingle to the Flyers for Lupul, Sbisa, the 21st pick yesterday, a 1st rounder in 2010 and a conditional pick in 2010 or 2011.

Columbus traded picks #16 and #77 to the Islanders for #26, #37, #62 and #92

Minnesota traded #12 pick  to Islanders for #16, #77 and #182.

Calgary traded pick #20 to New Jersey for #23 adn #84.

Anaheim traded #21 to Columbus for #26 and #37.

Detroit traded #29 to to Tampa for #32 and #75.

The Oilers take from Everett in the WHL Cameron  Abney.  He is a tough as nails but the scouting report is he needs to improve a lot as a player.

Round three is over, and both Oiler picks weren’t rated in Central scouting.

Abney is 6’4″ 195 pounds who is tough as nails, but won’t bring much offence. He had 1 goals and 4 points in 48 games with Everett this past year.  He is a great fighter, but hasn’t shown an ability to do much else.

This is a pick to toughen up the minor system down the road.

Now we start to see the GM’s interacting. Most GM’s don’t know any of the players past the 3rd round and can now move a bit more freely to discuss possible moves.  I don’t see Sutter on the floor right now. He has been receiving a lot of calls, and now some are speculating that he will try to keep his big three for one run, before the cap goes down. But Even if they get Jay Bo signed to a $6 million cap hit that puts them around $53.4 million with six D-men, two goalies and nine forwards signed. They would need to sign four more players just to get to 21. It will be interesting to see if he can balance the books to keep the big three on the backend.

Computer crashes…WTF…

The Oilers dealt Brodziak for the 99th pick and swamped late picks with Minnesota. The Oilers then took Kyle Bigos a 6’5″ 230 pound, 20 year-old D-man who played in the BCHL for Vernon.

Brodziak’s departure opens the door for Gilbert Brule to slide into his 4th line centre spot. The Oilers wanted Brodziak to be grittier and got tired of waiting it seems.

Then with the 101st pick the Oilers took talented finnish forward Toni Rajala. He was ranked 11th amongst European players. He broke Ovechkin’s record at the under 18 championships, when he scored ten goals, and had 19 points in six games. He is small at 5’10” 165 pounds but he loads of skill. He was ranked the 2nd best play maker behind Duchene and third best puck handler behind Duchene and Glennie according to Central Scouting.

Oil Kings prospect Tomas Vincour goes 129th to the Dallas Stars. They butchered his name, but he could be a sleeper for them. He was rated way higher to start the year, but slipped due to injury. If he can stay healthy he might turn out to be a decent mid round pick.

The Oilers pick Olivier Roy. The netminder was ranked 2nd amongst north american goalies by central scouting. ISS had him ranked second amongst every goalie in the draft. The crowd gave the pick a huge ovation, since he played in the QMJHL.

Just spoke with Ken Holland. He and Rich Winter, Hossa’s agent, are talking to see if they can find a cap number that fits into Detroit’s plans.  Hossa isn’t completely out of their plans but he’ll have to take a pay cut to stay there. I’d bet he needs something around $5.5 cap hit to fit in.

It’s been almost three hours since the Bouwmeester deal to Calgary and the rumours are wide ranging. Some think Phaneuf is gone for sure, while others think Sutter wants to make one great run, and then when the cap goes down next year he will move one or two big tickets.  Early speculation is that Jay Bo will sign a long term deal to get a lower cap hit, some where around $6.3 to $6.7.

The Flames just traded Jim Vandermeer to the Coyotes for Brandon Prust. That opens a spot on the backend and brings in another NHL forward. That just saved them 1.75 in cap space. Vandermeer was making $2.3 while Prust is a .525 cap hit.

The seventh round is under way. There are 25 picks left and it is painful to watch the handful of kids that are still sitting in the stands waiting for their name to be called. I have no idea what parents are thinking when they agree to let their son come here, unless he is rated in the top 60. Those guys do drop, but normally not all the way out of the draft. If you son is rated in the 4th or 5th round, don’t bring him.

You can see the frustration, sadness and humiliation in their body with ever pick that passes them by.

There is no need for them to be here and I think it is on the shoulder of the parents and agents to convince them not to come.  Some might be motivated by it, but many never recover from not getting the call.

The Oilers just traded their 7th pick for a pick next year.

Many have asked how many contracts the Oilers have now that Brodziak has been traded.

Starting July 1st they will have 33 contracts, but I’d expect Hrabel to go back to Europe, or they buy him out and they will be down to 32. Three of those include Eberle, Plante and Kytnar, so if they go back to junior they don’t count. I’d guess Plante might go to the minors so lets say they are at 30.

The Oilers will add Smid, Grebeshkov and Brule for sure so that puts them at 33. They have room to move, but moving Brodziak was for a few reasons. They had too many forwards under contract, and they like Brule’s grit better.

The Nashville Predators use the first time out of the day…ohhh…and after the break they choose Cameron Reid from Westside in the BCHL….we”ll see if that time out pans out in a few years. Remember the name Cameron Reid, that timeout might have been the best 30 seconds the Predators took…or maybe not.

“We do need to change our line up a bit. We have too many bodies at forward. We are willing to give some people a chance that haven’t had a chance before.”

Is Brule that guy?

“He’ll get a very good look this year, there is no question about it. But I’m not sure if that’s exactly what’s going to happen with that position.”

How aggressive do you expect to be on July 1st and what areas do you need to upgrade?

“I think most teams, regardless of what they are looking for will be aggressive. A lot of the times it is first what you have to MOVE in order to bring something in. And that’s very difficult right now and that’s why there is a lot of hesitation in the market. There are great players out there, but it is difficult at times to move contracts. I think that aggressiveness will depend on what happens prior to July 1st.”

Do you feel pressure to keep pace with the Flames after they added Bouwmeester?

“Every day you try to make your own team better, you can’t  control what other teams do. They’re in a different situation than we are with our roster. We are a little bit younger than they are, but they have a good hockey club and we know that, but I have to do what is best for our team.”

Tambellini made it clear that some people will get a bigger chance this season. Brule and Pouliot will be the two that battle for Brodziak’s opening, they also want to give Jacques a legit shot on the wing. He also hinted that he’ll make another move before July 1st to free up some space and a body. They still have too many forwards, so don’t be surprised to see another one moved soon.

That wraps up the 2009 Draft and the first OILERSNATION live blog from the draft. It was a great experience and I’m looking forward to hitting the town this afternoon. Thanks again to all of your donations and for following the blog from Montreal. Next year’s location hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll be there and we will find a way to make it even better.

Now we can turn our focus towards free agency.