ESPN Lacrosse

Although the headline from the draft will read "Jordan Hall taken first overall," the real story of the day was the number of trades, many involving the Boston expansion team.

Boston kicked things off by dealing the No. 1 pick to the New York Titans, in exchange for the No. 3 overall selection and fourth-year defenseman Matt Alrich. New York, of course, took the consensus first pick, transition player Jordan Hall, with the selection -- the second Delaware Blue Hen to ever be taken first overall (the other was John Grant Jr., taken by Rochester in 2000).

"Going No. 1 overall, it's something you dream about," said Hall. "Hopefully the fans bring that New York edge, because I'm really excited to go to [Madison Square Garden] -- it's so historic."

From there, the draft continued on its trading spree. A total of 18 moves were made, four of which involved first- and second-round picks, or equivalent top-level talent, exchanged by Boston, for countless current players and several picks in future drafts.

"The future of our team is we want it to be as New England[-influenced] as possible, but it's going to take a little time to do that," said Tom Ryan, head coach and GM of Boston, which doesn't yet have a nickname. "We want to be competitive this year, so we're bringing in guys that can step in right away."

Another notable team (in addition to Boston, New York, Rochester and Minnesota) to cash in on trades was San Jose. In order to land Frank Resetarits at No. 5, the Stealth gave up their No. 12 pick and their 2008 second-round selection to Chicago, to go along with Callum Crawford and Andrew Burkholder. San Jose also received defenseman Zach Heffner in the deal.

"I wanted to spend the winter in California," Resetarits said, joking. "I'm from Buffalo, and I've been smashing snow my whole life. San Jose is just a great situation and has a lot of great players."

San Jose also looked like a winner after moving up to the 31st selection to take Syracuse's Steve Panarelli, after offering New York its No. 36 and No. 50 overall choices.

Overall, Merrick Thomson, one of Philadelphia's newest members, summed up the NLL events best, saying he was pleased with this weekend's outcome and that he was happy just to relax after his name was taken off the board early in the draft.

"With my situation in grad school, Philadelphia is really a great spot for me," said Thomson. "I know they need a left-handed crease guy and hopefully I can fulfill that role."

In all, 84 players were drafted in six rounds. Each team had five minutes to make a first-round selection, and two minutes for each choice in rounds two through six, with the exception of two five-minute time extensions that could be used at any time.

Here's a list of other important selections, and how each team fared:

Arizona: Due to trades that took place before the draft, the Sting's first pick didn't come until the third round, when they drafted Wingate University product and defenseman Bryan Safarik. After the loss of top forward Craig Conn to injury this summer, why Arizona didn't move up to find a replacement is a bit questionable.

Buffalo: This was another team that jumped around the draft to address its needs. Their most notable trade sent their No. 10 and No. 22 overall choices to Calgary in exchange for the 32nd pick and forward Ian Llord.

Boston: When all was said and done, Boston walked away with a boatload of defensemen in Alrich, Brock Boyle (from Minnesota), Jack Reid (from Rochester) and Dan Finck (from Edmonton), not to mention intriguing picks in Orangeville's Matt Lyons, Keegan Davidson and faceoff specialist Alex Smith.

Calgary: The club took defenseman Peter MacFeteridge after a trade with Buffalo. They did, however, land veteran forward Kelly Hall in a trade with Portland, which might prove to be a great move.

Chicago: Like Boston, the Shamrox chose to go with veterans, rather than risk success on one top-flight rookie. After trading their No. 5 pick to San Jose, they wound up with numerous seasoned players, and were still able to get combine game star Kevin Ross out of Canisius. Cory Stringer and American Jake Byrne from Johns Hopkins were also strong selections.

Colorado: With their first pick coming at No. 26 overall, the Mammoth selected Nathan Sanderson, who most recently played for Barrie of the MSL. They later took Dylan Llord from St. Catharines.

Edmonton: The Rush made their first selection in Round 2, taking Whitby's Steve Hutchins, after surrendering Finck and the No. 20 pick to Boston, in order to move up to get him. Not having a first-round pick probably hurt this struggling franchise.

Minnesota: Not only was Minnesota a big wheeler and dealer, but it landed defenseman Justin Norbraten from Bellarmine with the No. 9 overall pick. Norbraten looked great in the combine game, scoring (3, 1) and could do a lot of damage for the Swarm if used correctly.

New York: The Titans had arguably the best draft of them all. They landed the first pick with Hall, still managed to get Cornell's Mitch Belisle at No. 13, and also added Rory and Rob Smith (not related). In addition, they chose defensive faceoff man Jamison Koesterer from Hopkins -- one of the best-looking players in Friday's combine game. Look out for New York, which could make a significant leap in its second season.

Philadelphia: After setting the tone early by taking instant star Merrick Thomson with the second pick, the Wings also landed Cornell's David Mitchell in the second round at No. 25. On top of that, they were able to reacquire fan favorite Jake Bergey from Boston with an under-the-radar 32nd selection and a conditional third round pick in 2008. Overall, the Wings had a very strong draft.

Portland: The club chose Coquitlam's Tyler Codron with the No. 6 overall pick. Codron is a right-handed forward who scored one goal in the combine game.

Rochester: The defending champs had two first-round choices, one through trade, and selected MacLeod and St. Catharines' Andrew Potter. The Knighthawks will again return one of the deepest rosters in the league, and got the best bang for their buck with their early-round choices.

San Jose: With Resetarits, and left-handed forward Tom Johnson from Bellarmine at No. 7, san Jose got two solid impact players who could reinfornce that their playoff win last season against No. 1 Colorado was more than a fluke.

Toronto: The Rock's first draft choice came at No. 21, in the second round, when they selected Notre Dame de Namur's Mark Scherman. Toronto usually brings a top-notch bunch by the start of every season, so a lot of retooling wasn't all that necessary.

Kevin Fixler is a NLL contributor for Inside Lacrosse.