FanHouse Henrik Lundqvist

FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 10 is New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

There were 21 goalies selected in the 2000 NHL draft before the New York Rangers picked Henrik Lundqvist with the No. 205 pick. None of them, including Rick Dipietro, the No. 1 pick that year, have had more success than the now-27-year-old Swedish product, as he's blossomed into one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL.

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The New York Rangers continued their free agency spending on Thursday by signing 30-year-old forward Ales Kotalik to a three-year, $9 million deal. It's a move that could signal the end of restricted free agent Nikolai Zherdev's tenure in New York after one, uninspiring season.

As for Kotalik, he spent the 2008-09 season with Buffalo and Edmonton, while he's scored at least 20 goals in three of the past four seasons. He's also one of the best shootout specialists in the league. General manager Glen Sather, however, continues to sign checks with a stamp. Or so it seems.

The Montreal Canadiens, host team for this year's NHL draft, made the final pick on Saturday afternoon, selecting Finnish goalie Petteri Simila 211th overall, bringing the first part of the offseason to a close. The second day may not have the appeal or star-power of the first round, but there's always the possibility of finding the next Henrik Zetterberg, Henrik Lundqvist or Luc Robitaille at the bottom of the pile.

While Chris Pronger and Jay Bouwmeester have new homes, Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier, Tomas Kaberle and Ryane Clowe are in the same cities they were during the season (for now). After the jump, a recap of the trades that did happen, as well as some of the noteworthy picks in rounds two through seven.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Atlantic Division.

It will be an interesting summer for the five teams in the Atlantic. Four teams made the playoffs, including the eventual Stanley Cup champion, and the one team that didn't make it -- the New York Islanders -- holds the first pick in Friday's draft, which isn't a bad consolation prize. All around it was a pretty successful season for these five teams.

If Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury and Carolina's Cam Ward can repeat their Game 1 performances, when the two youngsters matched each other save-for-save in the Penguins 3-2 win, this series likely won't be decided until a seventh game.

Ward, 25, and Fleury, 24, have already helped lead teams to the Stanley Cup Final, while Ward not only won the whole thing as a rookie in 2005-06, he also took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

So, are these two guys considered elite, franchise goaltenders?

Before the Rangers made a whole host of changes to their team in March -- the additions of Sean Avery, Derek Morris, Nik Antropov and a coaching switch -- they had a few problems; their high paid stars weren't producing, they played with no emotion many nights and they couldn't score at all, depending on Henrik Lundqvist to win games.

During last night's loss to the Capitals and in their other three losses during the series, the Rangers fell prey to these same faults. Blame coach John Tortorella's distractions and GM Glen Sather's letter all you want, but this was still the same that struggled mightily before the bandaids were applied.

WASHINGTON -- As the Washington Capitals left the ice at the end of a scoreless second period Tuesday with the team tied 1-1 with the New York Rangers in Game 7 of their first round playoff series, the team should have counted itself lucky.

Though the game was tied and the shot count close, the Caps, who had climbed back from 2-0 and 3-1 series deficits to tie the series 3-3 and force a Game 7 at home, had been thoroughly outplayed by the visitors.

How? The Rangers just seemed to want it more. All series long, New York coach John Tortorella had said that he wanted his team to work the puck down low deep in the Caps defensive zone. And on shift after shift during the second period, the Rangers took up residence in Wayne Gretzky's office, continually throwing the puck out front to wingers cutting to the front of the net. If it hadn't been for some otherworldly goaltending by Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov, the Caps could very well have been left for dead.

But in one moment in the third period, an old veteran proved he had something left in the tank, and 11 years of playoff frustration evaporated in a flash.

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There were plenty of distractions entering Sunday's Game 6 between the Capitals and Rangers. New York head coach John Tortorella was suspended and watching from a sky box; winger Sean Avery, who was a healthy scratch for Game 5, was back on the ice; and Rangers GM Glen Sather was doing his best to provide the press with another distraction, as he issued an open letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman chastising the Capitals organization for failing to provide adequate security behind the visiting bench during Game 5.

But with all the static in the air, the Washington Capitals stayed focused, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first period, never looking back on their way to a 5-3 win to force a Game 7 in Washington on Tuesday night. That early lead came thanks to offense from an unlikely source: a trio of defensemen who seemed to have figured something out about Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

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After taking a series of potentially costly penalties late in the third period of Game 4, the New York Rangers have apparently seen enough of Sean Avery, as the super-pest is a healthy scratch for Game 5 against the Washington Captals.

According to ESPN.com's Pierre Lebrun, head coach John Tortorella wasn't in any mood to talk about potential lineup changes earlier in the day.

After a dominating 4-0 win over the New York Rangers in Game Three of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal playoff series, it seemed as if the Washington Capitals had finally found a winning blueprint after dropping the first two games: recommit to the basics of playoff hockey by blocking shots, winning loose pucks, battling along the boards and using their size advantage to create traffic in front of the net.

But while that blueprint worked to perfection on Monday night in New York, it was short-circuited on Wednesday night by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Seemingly in response to Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov's shutout earlier in the week, the perennial Vezina candidate produced a 38-save gem of his own that's got the second seed in the Eastern Conference on the verge of playoff elimination.