With the 2016 NHL Draft officially in the books, there are clear-cut winners and losers right off the bat. Much of this is sound and fury, of course, and everybody will know who the real “winners and losers” of the draft are five years from now when enough development time has elapsed with these players.

But that doesn’t stop the opinions about certain draft picks, and some clearly quality draft classes put together by NHL organizations after the hard work had been done scouting and evaluating each of the players.

It’s easy to put the Arizona Coyotes, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers as big winners in last weekend’s draft as they all came away with quality talent that could make a big impact as soon as next season. Other teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings didn’t make much of a dent at draft weekend, but then again the object of the NHL isn’t to be the anointed “winner” of the NHL draft.

Those winners at the draft sometimes tend to be the same teams there year after year collecting high picks that don’t always translate into winning hockey. With that being said, here are our grades for each of the 30 NHL teams based on what they came away with at NHL Draft weekend in Buffalo: 

Grade: B

Max Jones is an Anaheim Ducks kind of player with his power forward offensive game, and the threat of nastiness always lurking around the corner within him. He also has a real problem showing consistent discipline, a trait that’s dogged many power forwards at the NHL level as well. That was a good pick with good value at the 24th spot for a player that could someday be a real physical presence as a top-6 winger. Steel is a good two-way center prospect to round out the first round, and Tyler Soy was a good risk in the final round as a productive player that could be worth the gamble. If Jones turns into a Milan Lucic-type left wing for the Ducks then the rest of this draft will just be gravy. 

Grade: A

The Coyotes showed how it’s done by rewarding true offensive brilliance with the choice of the electric, playmaking Clayton Keller at the 7th spot, and then took advantage of a falling potentially elite player in Jakub Chychrun to select him with the 16th pick. Keller will be a great addition to Arizona’s talented stable of forwards when he’s done with Boston University within a couple of years, and to my eyes Chychrun was the closest D in the entire draft class to being NHL-ready. He just needs the mental part of his game to catch up to the physical at this point, and really needs to work on managing the puck with care and creativity. Beyond that John Chayka did a nice job of stockpiling defenseman with the final three picks in the entire draft, and a nice selection of Cam Dineen on Day Two. 

Grade: B-

McAvoy is exactly what the Bruins need after putting together a strong freshman season at BU, and was the right pick at the right point in the draft at No. 14. His puck-moving abilities and skating game are well above average, and he projects to be the kind of player that could soak up big minutes at the NHL level. Frederic was a reach at the 29th pick when more talented forwards like Alex DeBrincat and Pascal Laberge were still on the board, and now the Bruins have to hope he develops into a David Backes type. One gets the sense that the Bruins were trying to trade down after both Tage Thompson and Max Jones came off the board, and instead used a pick on Frederic that should have been a second rounder. Both the Ryan Lindgren pick and the sixth round choice of speedy, skilled Swede Oskar Steen could be very good ones for the Bruins in the long term, and Cameron Clarke is an intriguing choice. All in all a solid draft for the Bruins aside from the Frederic hiccup. 

Grade: B+

Alex Nylander was the right choice for a skilled offensive forward at the top of the first round, and second round center Rasmus Asplund was viewed as a first round talent by most scouts. The speedy Cliff Pu is a third round pick that could really have some upside for the Sabres, and the trade for Dmitry Kulikov must also be factored into the haul received by the Sabres. Buffalo truly looks like they might be ready to challenge for the playoffs next season, and they did nothing to derail those hopes last weekend. Tim Murray did a really nice job even if he didn’t say more than four words at the podium during the Sabres pick with Buffalo as the draft’s host city. 

Grade: A-

The Flames lucked into Matthew Tkachuk, who is a perfect fit for a Brian Burke-led hockey team with his ample amounts of power and truculence. But luck is certainly part of the draft, and a big power forward is exactly what the Flames needed to balance out skilled, undersized forwards like Johnny Gaudreau, Sam Bennett and Sean Monahan. Goalie Tyler Parsons might have been a bit of a reach, but getting talented D-man Adam Fox in the third round was good value for a Flames team that’s filled with young talent. 

Grade: B-

Jake Bean could end up being the most talented offensive D-man in the entire draft class, and Gauthier is a big, strong workout fiend taken in the first round. Both have plenty of talent, and should be good NHL players for a Hurricanes team that might be playing somewhere else by the time they hit the big time. Carolina went with size with a few more of the forward picks on the second day of the draft, and time will tell if any of those players develop. The feeling is the Hurricanes hit on both of their first round picks, and that’s really important these days. Bean and Gauthier could both be solid NHL players with long careers, particularly if Bean can continue getting bigger and stronger given his rail-thin frame. 

Grade: C+

The lack of a first round pick hurts the Blackhawks overall grade in terms of high end talent acquired, but shifty, skilled Alex DeBrincat could be a steal for Chicago at the top of the second round after the Bruins, and others, bypassed him toward the end of the first. The 5-foot-7 offensive sparkplug never seems to tire of attacking, and one could imagine him really doing some damage with Pat Kane and Artemi Panarin at the Madhouse on Madison in a couple of years. Chad Krys is a solid, speedy defenseman prospect headed to BU, but was a bit of a reach in the second round given his size and lack of game development over the last couple of years.

Grade: C+

The Jost pick could be a very good one for the Avalanche given the compliments thrown his way, and the leadership, speed, production and high character characteristics bode well for his NHL future. So he’s the best pick of the draft for the Avalanche, who might have reached a bit for Cam Morrison and Josh Anderson in the second and third rounds. Both are a bit offensively challenged, and have scouts very mixed about their projected ceiling in the professional ranks. All in all, the Avalanche could have done better but most won’t care in the long run if Jost becomes the Jonathan Toews-like frontline center and team leader most think he will be. 

Grade: B

The Blue Jackets threw the draft into turmoil when they skipped Jesse Puljujarvi with the No. 3 overall pick, and instead went with big, strong center Pierre-Luc Dubois to give them a presence in the middle that couple replace Ryan Johansen. It was eyebrow-raising to watch the Finnish GM and Finnish head of scouting bypass a Finnish player with superstar potential. Andrew Peeke is a good-sized, puck-moving defenseman, and Vitaly Abramov is an explosive 5-foot-9 offensive playmaker that lit things up for Gatineau this season. The grade is good for now, but will move radically up or down over the next five years depending on what Dubois turns into compared to the Finnish player everybody had going to Columbus with the No. 3 pick.

Grade: D

The Stars made a high risk pick on a high school hockey player in 6-foot-5 winger Riley Tufte, who could be high reward if he turns into the next great power forward to come out of the Minnesota High School hockey ranks. The Stars selected players like Rhett Gardner and Nicholas Caamano on Day 2, hard workers and high effort players with a bit of a limited offensive ceiling. The Stars also had the rare player drafted out of the Central Canada Hockey League ranks in goaltender Colton Point, so they’ve got that going for them. 

Grade: C-

Dennis Cholowski was a defenseman that really gained steam at the end of the season in the BCHL, and he clearly has some offensive upside. But he’s small and a bit of a liability in the defensive zone, and probably would have been a better pick in the second round when there were still some very good prospects on the board. Givani Smith could be interesting as a physically tough left wing with some offensive skills, but a number of European picks make it difficult to forecast exactly how the lower rounds of Detroit’s draft will ultimately pan out. 

Grade: A

Some of this is by happenstance with an impact player dropping to them at the fourth spot with Jesse Puljujarvi, and some of it is about getting strapping Finnish defenseman Markus Niemelainen in the third round. Tyler Benson has first round talent as a playmaker on the wing, but was hampered big time by back and lower body issues throughout all of last season. This could be an excellent draft for the Oilers when we look back in five years, and it all starts with a potential star-in-the-making in Puljujarvi at the top of the draft class. The only way this could have been better had been if Peter Chiarelli could have pulled off a trade for a needed defenseman, but that didn’t happen during the draft.

Grade: B-

Borgstrom was a bit of a reach at the 23rd pick as a raw center out of the Finnish junior leagues that’s headed for the University of Denver, but could turn into a player given his size and skill level. Adam Mascherin has a good reputation as an offensive player, and Jonathan Ang brings some skating speed to the draft class with a couple of slower guys in Borgstrom and Mascherin at the top. Part of the B grade also was unloading Dmitry Kulikov to the Buffalo Sabres, and getting a younger D-man into the system in Florida that will allow them to sign some of their other young star players like Aaron Ekblad.  

Grade: D

While Kale Clague was a good value pick toward the end of the second round after he’d previously been mentioned as a first round talent, the Kings didn’t have much chance to make this a good grade with one pick in the first three rounds. The speed and the effort are there for Clague, but he’s going to have to prove the rest after something of an average draft year season. Look at it as payment for all of those past years of success, but they’d better hope to hit big time with a two-way defenseman prospect like Clague if this is going to be anything but a waste of a draft. 

Grade: C+

Luke Kunin projects as an intense, skilled center that could play in the NHL for 10 plus years, and dominated during his freshman season at the University of Wisconsin. He was an excellent pick at the 15th spot for the Wild, and Dmitri Sokolov could be a steal in the seventh round as a skilled power forward that lost interest from many teams because of conditioning concerns. Once again, though, a team that only makes four draft picks – and only one in the first 100 players taken in the draft – is going to have a tough time squeezing a lot of young, affordable talent out of this draft class of players. That’s something that lowers the overall grade despite Kunin’s presence at the top. 

Grade: B-

Sergachev is arguably the closest defenseman to be ready to play in the NHL in this draft, and has plenty of fans that watched him nightly and loved his all-around game in the OHL last season. It doesn’t change the fact that Montreal skipped on picking potential No. 1 centers like Tyson Jost and Logan Brown that would have fit a much bigger area of need for the Habs rather than another Russian defenseman. They did address the center situation with Will Bitten in the third round, but his game sounds more like that of a third or fourth line center rather than the frontline guy that Montreal desperately needs down the middle. 

Grade: B+

The Predators continue to put a premium on cranking out defensemen while taking D-men with four of their first five picks, and spending their first round pick on Dante Fabbro at the 17th spot. He was an excellent two-way defenseman in the BCHL last season, and “smooth” is the word you hear used to describe his game on the ice moving the puck. He’s also smart, hard-working and has some of the best hockey instincts of any of the D-men in this draft class. He should be another excellent blueliner for the Predators a few years down the line. Guys like Girard, Pitlick and Harper have some talent, but size might prevent all three of them from developing into NHL talent. All in all, a good draft with a solid pick at the very top that’s right in line with the organizational philosophy. 

Grade: B-

The jury is very much divided on Michael McLeod, who has great skating ability and 6-foot-2 size to go along with his excellent season with Mississauga. It seems like some scouts don’t quite believe his skill set and overall package is going to translate into the same thing at the NHL level a few years down the road, but there’s no denying the skating game and the size. So the Devils are betting those two important traits will get him to New Jersey within a couple of years. Joey Anderson played with Clayton Keller and Kieffer Bellows with the US Development Program, and wasn’t overshadowed by the two first round talents. That says something about him as a player, and as a competitor. It’s interesting that the Devils picked the third wheel on talented lines with the choices of both Anderson and Nathan Bastian in this draft class. 

Grade: C

Kieffer Bellows could be a great pick for the Islanders as a natural born scorer with an NHL caliber shot and release, and the obviously good hockey bloodlines as the son of Brian Bellows. He’s a power winger with the ability to finish, and there is no arguing with his goal-scoring results over the last couple of seasons with the USHL and the US Development Program. But there’s also some question as to whether his skating is going to keep improving to the point where he can make use of his elite shot and release, and his sturdy frame at the NHL level. The 5-foot-8 Anatoli Golyshev is a gifted scorer as well, and scored the fourth most goals in the KHL last season as a 20-year-old winger. That’s impressive, but it might also make it difficult for Garth Snow to extract him from Russia. This could be a boom-or-bust draft for the Islanders with some real high reward if things pan out for Bellows and Golyshev. 

Grade: C

It’s tough to have a solid draft class when you don’t make a selection until the 81st pick, but the Blueshirts gambled with their third rounder in selecting talented defenseman Sean Day. He’s got all the tools to be an excellent-skating defenseman, but his puck management and hockey IQ have come into major question over the last couple of years. But if Day puts it all together, the Rangers will have a first round-level talent out of the third round, and will erase the memories of not picking until the end of the third. Tim Gettinger could be an interesting bottom-6 possibility given his size and work ethic, and it always seems like Rangers GM Jeff Gorton finds hidden talent gems in the lower rounds of drafts. 

Grade: C+

Much of this will depend on 6-foot-6 center Logan Brown, who the Senators dealt a third round pick to New Jersey for just so they could insure he’d be there when they selected in the first. Brown is a dominant offensive player with the size and skill to take over games, but has been oft-criticized for being a little on the shy side when it comes to physical play. Brown seemed to step up his game this season in that regard, but it remains to be seen if that continues to be the case as he moves up the hockey ladder in his career. Jonathan Dahlen could be an effective player in Ottawa down the line if he can continue improving his skating to complement his offensive arsenal. 

Grade: A

Credit to the Flyers for making some very strong picks. The German Rubstov pick is a bit of a gamble given that he’s a Russian junior hockey player, but anybody would stand up and take notice when Pavel Datsyuk comparisons come rolling in. The Flyers got first round talent in the second round with two-way center Pascal Laberge, and might have a really good Broad Street Bully candidate in Wade Allison at the end of the second round. This is what you can do when you value draft picks as assets rather than waste them in frivolous trades. Carter Hart could be one of the few NHL goalies to come out of this draft class when it’s all said and done. 

Grade: F

It’s a good thing they won the Stanley Cup because I’m not sure I know what the Penguins were doing here. First off, they didn’t have a first round pick. Filip Gustavsson might be a potential NHL starter someday, but the Penguins are already loaded the goaltending position with young talent even if they deal away Marc-Andre Fleury. Kasper Bjorkqvist was a reach in the third round as a fairly non-descript bottom-six type, and Connor Hall is the kind of gritty, gutty defenseman you can easily find if you go the undrafted college hockey free agent route. I feel like the Penguins will look back at this month and always think about winning the Cup, of course, and then forgetting the draft class that happened right afterward. 

Grade: C

Average draft given the constraints that San Jose had to work with. Dylan Cambrell had an excellent season at Denver as a playmaking center, and the skilled Noah Gregor was good value for San Jose in the fourth round. But it’s hard to make much of a dent when you don’t pick until the end of the second round after a successful season. The Sharks would gladly pay the bounty again, however, for the services of Martin Jones, who got them all the way to the Stanley Cup Final at the cost of the 29th overall pick in the draft. 

Grade: B

Tage Thompson was good value at the end of the first round as a 6-foot-5 center with good offensive skills, and a player that was deadly on the power play for the UConn Huskies. The selection of Connor Bleackley in the fifth round is a fascinating one after he was a former Colorado first round pick that didn’t get signed by the Avs, and didn’t make many strides in his game over the last couple of seasons in Red Deer. That’s certainly worth a fifth round shot in the dark for the Blues if he still has that first round flash within him somewhere. Jordan Kryou is an excellent upside pick in the second round given his top end skating speed, and game-breaking offensive abilities.

Grade: A-

The Lightning didn’t land anybody that’s going to take your breath away, but they came away with a lot of organizational depth for a team already teeming with breathtaking talent. Brett Howden and Boris Katchouk are hustle and grit players that could bring something to the table in Tampa with the already massive amount of skill and offensive talent at work on the NHL level. The picks of Libor Hajek, Kathcouk and power forward Taylor Raddysh in the second round all have decent chances of playing in the NHL someday.

Grade: A

Landing Auston Matthews was the hard work reward at the end of a long year of losses, struggle and strife in Toronto, and he should be their franchise center for the next decade. It will be interesting to see how the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Arizona reacts to being the savior in Toronto, and dealing with all of the media attention and pressure that goes along with it. I keep thinking Jumbo Joe Thornton when scouts describe his game, and that wouldn’t be such a bad thing at all for the Leafs. The well-rounded Carl Grundstrom was first round talent at the end of the second round for the Leafs, and both Yegor Korshkov and James Greenway are massive hockey bodies that could develop into real forces at the NHL level. This was a good draft all-around for a Maple Leafs team that needs a few of them.   

Grade: B+

One thing Jim Benning knows backwards and forward is NHL draft prospects, and how to fill an organization with good, young players. The pick of Olli Juolevi at No. 5 after his guy Pierre-Luc Dubois was off the board was a good one, and provides the Canucks with the kind of top-pairing defenseman prospect that they desperately needed. His skating and puck-moving are elite, and he was a dominant force at the World Junior tournament. Will Lockwood is a great value pick in the third round as an offensive talent, and Cole Candella would have been higher than a fifth round pick if injuries hadn’t dogged him last season. All in all a very good draft class for the Canucks, who now must simply find ways to keep improving the NHL club. 

Grade: C-

Lucas Johansen has the bloodlines as the younger brother of Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen, but it’s not unanimous among the scouts that he’s a first round talent as a defenseman. At least he could be a useful NHL player down the line given the hockey IQ, size and puck-moving ability. Most of the rest of the Washington picks are hard-working types that won’t blow you away with their skills outside of perhaps Garret Pilon. You didn’t see many other teams pounding the table in frustration feeling like the Capitals stole their pick out from under them, but once again this an organization loaded with talent at the NHL level. 

Grade: A-

The Jets get an A grade simply by finding a way to the No. 2 spot where they get Finnish power forward Patrik Laine, who should be a building block left wing in Winnipeg for years to come at 6-foot-4, 206-pounds. The Jets probably reached a little for 6-foot-7 Logan Stanley given questions about his skating and lack of real high end offensive skills as a big slab of humanity, but he could really pan out if he becomes a massive intimidator in the D-zone for the Jets. Stanley is also deceptively decent at both skating and in the puck-moving department despite a clear stay-at-home defenseman’s kind of body, but that will get more and more difficult to maintain at the higher levels. The lower round picks all have attractive qualities as well that could turn them into legit NHL prospects, including Russian goaltender Mikhail Berdin.