Canes select Boychuk

With the 14th overall pick, the Hurricanes selected centerman Zach Boychuk. The first preference was defenseman Colton Teubert, but he had just been selected with the 13th pick by the Kings.

Boychuk brings a ton of explosive speed and a moderate amount of offensive output. With his diminutive 5'9" frame and those traits, that sounds a lot like Ray Whitney. We should be so lucky. The TSN scouts have compared him to Jason Blake.

There has been some speculation, and it was perpetuated by the Versus draft coverage, that Carolina and Vancouver are talking about the possibility of swapping a forward (read: Erik Cole) for defenseman Kevin Bieksa. As far as salary is concerned, those two players would be a wash. With the likely addition of last year's first round pick Brandon Sutter and the probable re-signings of Chad LaRose and Tuomo Ruutu, Carolina will have a glut of forwards. I would be sad to see Cole go, but it's no secret that Carolina is in desperate need of some help on the back end.

There have already been a large number of transactions on draft day, and there should be some more on Saturday.

More on Boychuk and the possible trades later