I'm going to keep this brief, because it's late and I'm broadcasting Day Two very soon (Saturday morning, 11 a.m. with Corey Griswold), but some first day winners and losers:

+ The Kings traded a younger Daniel Briere (Mike Cammalleri), and in return ended up with two Top-13 picks, using both on defense. With Lubomir Visnovsky, Jack Johnson and Tom Preissing in the fold, Drew Doughty and Colten Teubert could immediately help a young d-corps, assuming both sign pro contracts. Losing Cammalleri will hurt, but Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are forwards worth building around.

+ Columbus and Montreal are both easy winners. If someone told you your first round pick could be R.J. Umberger or Alex Tanguay, would you take it? Easily. In Columbus' case, they still had the sixth overall pick in their back pocket, and wound up taking one of the best talents available in Nikita Filatov, provided they can get the youngster into the United States from Russia. The Tanguay addition makes Montreal the favorite in the East should Carey Price adjust to a full-season workload.

+ Those who read my column or listened to our draft night coverage know how I feel about Kyle Beach, and the nastiness that is headed Chicago's way. Here's a rough-around-the-edges renegade who will help protect Pat Kane and Jonathan Toews. The 'Hawks are a healthy Martin Havlat away from a playoff spot.

— Phoenix gave up too much for Olli Jokinen, sacrificing Keith Ballard, Nick Boynton and a mid-second rounder. It's a move made to help your team win now, and sacrificing two of your top-six defensemen doesn't make sense, especially with an aging Ed Jovanovski and Derek Morris. Their two first rounders of left wings Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov didn't impress me either.

+ Florida, on the other hand, now boasts this as an opening night defense:
Jay Bouwmeester (restricted)
Keith Ballard
Karlis Skrastins
Bryan Allen
Nick Boynton
+1

Very nice.

+ Nashville's two first-rounders are both exceptional talents. Forward Colin Wilson was the best player with college experience on the board, and the Boston University product will be much better for his year spent in Massachusetts. Plus, he's a big Johnny Cash fan. Chet Pickard was rated better than local product Thomas McCollum on a few boards.

± To Detroit, for selecting McCollum, who was a steal at the last pick of the first round (Darcy Regier said the Sabres were looking to trade up for him in the second round), but an odd choice considering the Red Wings have young stud Jimmy Howard in the pipeline.

— Ottawa, who moved up three spots to take a defenseman who almost certainly would've been there at No. 18. Maybe they heard Boston was aching for Erik Karlsson at No. 16? Doubtful.

As for Buffalo, I think they made out pretty well. As much as I wanted Beach, 6'7" Tyler Myers is supposed to have the reach of Zdeno Chara with a little better agility, and more polish than Chara had as a rookie. The second Tyler they picked up, Tyler Ennis, is another squirt (yeah, like 5'8" is so much shorter than me), but put up 90 points last year in close to 70 games. Experts say the only reason he was rated as a second-rounder was because of his height, and here's hoping it's another gutsy decision by Regier in regards to stature.

Hope to hear from you at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Email: nick@wgr550.com