Every pick, trade and grades for every team from 2024 NHL Draft

To wrap up our 2024 NHL Draft coverage, here’s a ranking of the top 13 prospects who passed through this year’s draft (five from my draft board and eight others from my honorable mentions).

These are players I’d either consider for development camp invites/contracts or keep a close eye on next season.

By buying out Skinner, the Sabres need to pay him two thirds of his remaining salary spread out over the next six seasons. The way that breaks down is the Sabres will have a cap hit of $1.44 million in 2024-25, $4.44 million in 2025-26, $6.44 million in 2026-27 and $2.4 million in 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-30. The final three seasons of that will be a net loss, but the Sabres will have a net savings of $7.55 million this season, followed by $4.55 million in 2025-26 and $2.55 million in 2026-27. The Sabres will also get cash savings by only needing to pay two thirds of Skinner’s salary. But the Sabres haven’t yet been able to add another top-six forward, so trading Skinner creates another hole in the lineup. Adams now has a lot of work to do in the next week to rebuild this forward group in Ruff’s image.

Skinner’s contract included a full no-movement clause, so he would have needed to approve of any trade. Adams said this week that Skinner was unwilling to waive his no-movement clause. His $9 million cap hit made him difficult to trade anyway. Even if the Sabres retained half of Skinner’s salary, a $4.5 million salary still might have been difficult to trade without attaching an additional asset to the deal.

Now that he’s a free agent and can sign for a more reasonable salary, Skinner should be a more attractive option for teams who are looking for scoring help. He’s not a consistent forechecker and has never been a strong contributor in the defensive zone, but he’s still capable of producing points when surrounded by the right linemates.

Brad Treliving finally got his man. Well, sort of. The Leafs attempted to acquire the rugged blue liner before he was dealt to Dallas last season and have now jumped the queue to try and sign Tanev before he hits the open market.

Multiple teams rate him highly and were poised to bid for his services.

Even though Tanev is 34 years old, it's believed the Leafs will attempt to sign him to a long-term contract.

GM Brad Treliving entered this summer looking to add at least two defensemen.

The Sabres are buying out Jeff Skinner, GM Kevyn Adams said. They started the process today.

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Chris Tanev in exchange for the expiring contract of Max Ellis and Toronto's 2026 seventh-round draft pick.

Toronto Maple Leafs cap a fabulous day of moves, by acquiring the negotiating rights to Chris Tanev before everything wraps up. Presumably, the expectation is that the Leafs can get Tanev signed ahead of free agency.

Remember, of course, that Toronto general manager Brad Treliving originally signed Chris Tanev as a free agent when Treliving was running Calgary. Treliving also tried to trade for Tanev at the deadline, but lost out to the Dallas Stars in a bidding war. Assuming the Leafs know what it will cost to sign Tanev, there should be a deal coming.

My sense is that the Tanev camp was more concerned about term than dollars, given that he's going to turn 35 later this year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired defenseman Chris Tanev's rights from the Dallas Stars.

LAS VEGAS – Logan Thompson woke up to the sound of his phone ringing early Saturday morning in his Las Vegas home.

The call was from Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon, informing the goalie that he was being traded to the Washington Capitals for two third-round draft picks before the start of the second day of the NHL Draft.

“I knew it was going to be an interesting day,” Thompson said.

That’s because not only was Thompson, a member of Vegas’ Stanley Cup-winning team in 2023, traded for the first time in his four-year career, but he also previously agreed to sign autographs for fans at the draft inside the Sphere at 10 a.m., and he kept his commitment despite the announcement of the trade coming less than a half-hour earlier.

“I was still going to come down for the fans,” said Thompson, who sat at a desk on the concourse of the venue and signed autographs for an hour. “It was cool to come down, sign some stuff and say hi to people — and bye. So it was an easy (choice) to come down.”

Golden Knights fans said their goodbyes. A few Washington Capitals fans also greeted their new goalie, even before he spoke with members of the Capitals organization. It was an awkward scene at the draft, but Thompson enjoyed it, as did the gracious fans.

Cassidy Wagner and her son Payson were among the Vegas fans in the crowd. As soon as they heard the trade announcement, they headed for the line. It was an opportunity for Payson, a goalie for the Henderson Jr. Silver Knights youth team, to say goodbye to his favorite player.

Thompson had worked with the team — and Payson — over the years, so their connection ran a little deeper than with some of the other autograph-seekers. After they walked away from the table, Payson had tears in his eyes.

“It’s been a hard morning,” Cassidy Wagner said. “(Thompson) has done so much here and been such a good role model for young goalies.”

Another fan who wanted to say goodbye didn’t bother getting in line, catching Thompson’s attention from about 15 feet away. “You’ll be a Golden Knight forever,” the man screamed.

“It means a lot,” Thompson said. “The fans here are amazing, so I’m definitely going to miss them, and I’m thankful for my time here in Vegas.”

Aatos Koivu was at his family home in Turku, Finland, watching the draft with his friends and family. He and his father, Montreal Canadiens legend Saku Koivu, and his agent made the decision not to travel to Las Vegas to the draft so he could continue his offseason training, which meant the biggest moment of his hockey life happened at home.

And Aatos basically missed it.

“Everyone saw that Montreal was the next pick and everyone was kind of quiet. I actually was kind of looking down and was kind of quiet with my eyes closed,” Koivu said in a zoom call from Finland on Saturday. “I didn’t even hear my name really from the TV but my mom started to yell, she jumped and was like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ and I was like what are you talking about? Then I saw my name on the TV, then my dad jumped as well and was super happy. My whole family, my friends, everyone was super happy.”

Hanna and Saku Koivu lived in Montreal for 14 years, but Aatos was not even 3 years old when Saku’s time with the Canadiens came to an end.

Trevor Zegras is still part of the Anaheim Ducks. So is John Gibson.

The two most talked about Ducks when it comes to being trade candidates have not been moved by general manager Pat Verbeek and there isn’t a sense that any deal is impending or even on the front burner.

Verbeek had nothing to report when asked where things stood with either Zegras or Gibson as to discussions of them moving or staying put. As to the amount of calls his way about either player, he said, “An OK amount. I wouldn’t say it’s off the charts.”

The sense that I get is it’s still more about listening on offers for Zegras and attempts being made to move Gibson. He doesn’t have to trade Zegras, who is signed for two more seasons at a $5.75 million cap number. But with Gibson it may be more he can’t trade him – at least for now. His goalie’s contract remains an obstacle. Gibson is carrying a $6.4 million cap hit for three more seasons and the Ducks don’t have an appetite to retain any portion of his salary.

A five-minute timeout requested as their selection arrived early in the sixth round Saturday piqued the possibility of a deal being done but it was merely a rare trade with the rival Los Angeles Kings, which moved up in the round and threw a seventh-round pick Anaheim’s way.

After being thrilled with selecting high-upside winger Beckett Sennecke and hard-hitting defenseman Stian Solberg, Verbeek said he didn’t have a sense of being close on any deal of a roster player or for one. But he didn’t rule out being active in the trade market at some point.

Here’s the thing getting lost in all the speculation: Anaheim, with tons of cap space, can easily keep both players as it heads into the 2024-25 season.

“You never know,” he said. “After free agency and people start looking at their board after July 1 or whatever, things can change. We’ll see.”

So Vegas created a hole in their goaltending pipeline by trading away Logan Thompson to Washington and immediately filled it with one of the up-and-comers in the Devils system — Akira Schmid. Schmid wasn't ready for prime time last year — why New Jersey will turn to Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen next year. But he's close and should be better protected behind that glittery Vegas defense corps. But really, for the Golden Knights, this is about landing Alexander Holtz, who played all 82 games for the Devils last year and was originally thought to be heading to Calgary in the Markstrom trade.

Instead, Calgary opted for Kevin Bahl. But Holtz’s draft pedigree is impressive — seventh in the 2020 entry draft — and is still a work in progress. Vegas has traded away most of the players they've drafted high in their history. This is a chance to reverse that course a little. Holtz probably wasn’t a top-six player going forward in New Jersey, but he could see an enhanced role with the Golden Knights. The price that Vegas paid — of Paul Cotter, a useful bottom-half-of-the-lineup player, plus a third rounder next year — seems like great value for the Golden Knights.

The New Jersey Devils acquired Paul Cotter and Vegas' third-round pick in 2025 for Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid.

Logan Thompson found out about the trade this morning - the phone woke him up at about 9 a.m.

So he came to the Sphere knowing he’d have the world’s weirdest autograph session.

The Bruins have traded Jakub Lauko and the No. 122 pick to the Wild for Vinni Lettieri and the No. 110 selection. Lauko, 24, was a high-energy left-shot wing who had a down year in 2023-24 (2-8—10 in 60 games while averaging 9:49 of ice time per appearance).

Lauko is signed for one more season at $787,500 annually.