The NHL Draft gets underway on Friday night, and the Chicago Blackhawks will be among many teams looking to make a splash at the United Center.
9:36 p.m. The first round ends as the Nashville Predators take Eeli Tolvanen, and the St. Louis Blues, who acquired the 31st pick in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, take Klim Kostin to end the first round.
8:52 p.m. The Chicago Blackhawks make the 29th pick, selecting defenseman Henri Jokiharju from the Portland Winterhawks.
The 6-foot-0 defenseman scored nine goals and 39 assists with the Winterhawks in 71 games during the 2016-17 season.
8:47 p.m. Morgan Frost goes to the Flyers with the 27th pick after they acquired the selection from the Blues, and the Ottawa Senators take Shane Bowers from the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL.
Bowers scored 22 goals in 60 games for the Blackhawks in the 2016-17 campaign.
8:38 p.m. The St. Louis Blues send the 27th overall pick, Jorl Lehtera, and a conditional first round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Brayden Schenn.
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8:33 p.m. The Chicago Blackhawks were on the clock, but they have traded the 26th overall pick to the Dallas Stars in exchange for the 29th pick and a third round pick in this year's draft.
The Stars used the pick to take Jake Oettinger, a goaltender. The 6-foot-4 Oettinger had a 2.11 goals against average and a .927 save percentage last season.
8:29 p.m. The Montreal Canadiens use the 25th pick in the draft to take Ryan Roehling.
The St. Cloud State product scored seven goals and dished out six assists in 35 games played during the 2016-17 season.
8:27 p.m. Kristian Vesalainen gets taken 24th overall by the Winnipeg Jets. He scored one goal and had five assists during the 2016-17 season.
Pierre-Olivier Joseph was taken with the 23rd pick by the Arizona Coyotes, who acquired the pick from the Minnesota Wild in the Martin Hanzal trade earlier this year.
8:13 p.m. The Edmonton Oilers use the 22nd pick to take Kailer Yamamoto from the Spokane Chiefs.
At just 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, Yamamoto is one of the smallest players in the draft, but he scored 99 points in 65 games with the Chiefs. He scored 42 goals for the club and racked up 46 penalty minutes.
8:06 p.m. The New York Rangers keep the 21st pick in the draft, selecting Filip Chytil out of the Czech Republic.
The center scored four goals and had four assists in 38 games last season.
8:01 p.m. Robert Thomas (the hockey player, not the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty) is taken with the 20th overall pick by the St. Louis Blues. He was appropriately described as a "Smooth" skater by USA Today, and at 6-foot-0 and 184 pounds, no one is likely to "Push" him around.
7:56 p.m. With the 19th pick, the San Jose Sharks have grabbed Joshua Norris. A product of the National Team Development Program, Norris had a strong season in 2016-17, with 23 goals and 28 assists.
7:51 p.m. Urho Vaakanainen, a defenseman from Finland, is the 18th overall pick, as he'll be selected by the Boston Bruins.
The 6-foot-1 blue liner scored two goals and had four assists in 41 games in Finland last season.
7:45 p.m. Timothy Liljegren is the 17th overall pick, as he'll head to the young and exciting Toronto Maple Leafs.
He scored one goal and had four assists in 19 games in the Swedish League last season.
7:39 p.m. The Calgary Flames keep the 16th pick and they take defenseman Juuso Valimaki out of Tri-City in the WHL.
Valimaki scored 19 goals and dished out 42 assists off the blue line in the 2016-17 season, and although he's a bit on the slim side, he still could fill out and make an impact at both ends of the ice.
7:36 p.m. Erik Brannstrom from Sweden goes to the Golden Knights, as they make their third selection of the first round and the 15th pick overall.
Brannstrom scored one goal and five assists for the HV 71 Junior team last season, and although he's somewhat undersized, he has some solid offensive upside on the blue line.
7:32 p.m. Cal Foote goes to the Tampa Bay Lightning with the 14th pick, as the Bolts pick up a sizable defenseman with some good offensive upside in the middle portion of the draft.
7:24 p.m. The Golden Knights hold onto their second pick in the first round, taking Nick Suzuki out of Owen Sound.
Suzuki racked up 96 points in the 2016-17 season, with 45 goals and just 10 penalty minutes in 65 games.
7:18 p.m. The draft continues to roll along, as Czech center Martin Necas goes to the Carolina Hurricanes. A strong passer, Necas didn't put up great numbers, with just seven goals and eight assists, but scouts insist that he has a ton of potential as a playmaker.
7:14 p.m. Gabriel Vilardi is the 11th overall pick, as he heads to the Los Angeles Kings.
Vilardi, who played for the Windsor Spitfires as they captured the Memorial Cup title, scoring 29 goals and dished out 32 assists in 49 games during the 2016-17 season.
7:08 p.m. Dale Tallon gets some nice cheers as Florida makes the 10th overall pick, and they snag Owen Tippett.
Out of Mississauga, he scored 44 goals during the 2016-17 season, and has been ranked as the best pure scorer in the draft by man outlets.
6:58 p.m. Hearty boos rained down on Gary Bettman as he announced that the Detroit Red Wings were on the clock, and a "Detroit Sucks" chant also breaks out at the United Center.
Michael Rasmussen, a 6-foot-6 center, is the pick in the number nine slot. From Tr-City in the WHL, Rasmussen scored 32 goals and had 23 assists in 50 games played in the junior season.
6:55 p.m. No new trades have been made to this point so far, and the Buffalo Sabres continued that trend as they took Casey Mittelstadt out of Eden Prairie High School.
The 6-foot-1 center won Mr. Hockey in Minnesota, scoring 21 goals in his senior season at the school.
6:50 p.m. The New York Rangers, using the pick they acquired from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Antti Raanta and Derek Stepan, take Lias Andersson with the seventh selection.
The Swedish product weighs 201 pounds and stands just 5-foot-11, and he scored nine goals and 10 assists in 42 games last season for HV 71 in the Swedish Elite League.
6:44 p.m. The Vegas Golden Knights snag Cody Glass with their first ever draft pick. He scored 32 goals and racked up 62 assists for the Portland Winterhawks during the 2016-17 season.
Glass also appeared for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships, scoring twice in three games.
6:38 p.m. The Vancouver Canucks draft center Elias Pettersson out of Sweden with the fifth pick.
Pettersson will need to gain some weight, as he only tips the scale at 168 pounds despite standing 6-foot-1, but he has a wicked shot and should become a solid center with some work on building muscle.
6:35 p.m. The first round of the draft is rolling along, as the Colorado Avalanche take Cale Makar, a defenseman from Calgary.
Makar, who is committed to UMass Amherst this fall, scored 24 goals and racked up 51 assists in 54 games with the Brooks Bandits of the AJHL last season.
USA Today ranked him as the number 10 overaall prospect in this season's draft class.
6:28 p.m. The Dallas Stars go with a defenseman with the third pick, taking Miro Heiskanen out of Finland.
The two-way defenseman scored five goals and dished out five assists in 37 games with HIFK of the Finnish Liiga in the 2016-17 season.
6:23 p.m. The Philadelphia Flyers promised that they would take either Nolan Patrick or Nico Hischier with the second pick in the draft, and they followed through on that vow as they took Patrick with the pick.
Patrick, ranked as the top prospect by several outlets, is a big-bodied center that plays a strong game up the middle, and he wears the number 19 jersey in honor of Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews.
6:14 p.m. The New Jersey Devils have made the first selection in the draft, snagging Nico Hischier, a center from the Halifax Mooseheads.
Hischier racked up 57 goals in the 2016-17 season with the Mooseheads, and he highlights a deep group of centers that will be looking to make an impact on the NHL this season.
The Blackhawks have already made a splash on Friday, acquiring Connor Murphy in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes and Brandon Saad from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
In exchange, the Blackhawks sent Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Coyotes, and they sent Artemi Panarin to the Blue Jackets on a monumental morning in the Windy City.
Now, the Blackhawks will be looking to make even more splashes as they enter the NHL Entry Draft field. They currently hold the 26th pick in the first round, and they'll potentially look to move up as they try to make some noise in their home building.
