Winners and Losers from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft

It was every bit as unpredictable as we thought it might be going into the proceedings. We knew which players were going to be a part of the first eight picks, but everything after that was a mystery right to the final selection. There were risers, fallers, stunning picks, and everything in between. 

Some teams did better than others, and they're going to reap the rewards of their diligence two, three, four years down the road, and then some. This draft may seem short on top-of-the-lineup talent at first glance, but there are doubtless valuable contributors sprinkled throughout.

We're going to take stock of which teams have positioned themselves to get the most NHL talent out of this year's class, and which teams didn't fare so well. Obviously, this story is going to be several years in the making, but we can make some educated guesses about how things might shake out based on our pre-draft evaluations. Let's get to it.