First and foremost, Juraj Slafkovsky was picked in this year's NHL draft.

Montreal, which also hosts the event, patted the 18-year-old Olympic shooter king.

Slafkovsky is the first Slovak to ever be elected number one.

The second also comes from Slovakia when Simon Nemec was chosen by New Jersey.

Previously, a Slovak who was best chosen as number three - Marian Gaborik to Minnesota in 2000.

The first of the Swedish players to get a new NHL home was the Stockholmer Jonathan Lekkerimäki.

He gets to steer the cow to Canada and Vancouver.

After him, in place 16, Djurgård colleague Noah Östlund was chosen by Buffalo.

Before that, the Swedish-born American Cutter Gauthier had been chosen as number five, he goes to Philadelphia.

18-year-old Gauthier was born while his father Sean Gauthier was a goalkeeper for Skellefteå and currently plays college hockey in Boston.

Rögle's Austrian Marco Kasper was picked by Detroit as number eight.

For the first time since 2019, a "real" draft is being held in the North American ice hockey league.

For the past two years, it has happened virtually due to the pandemic.

-Thank you for that welcome.

This is a return to normalcy, said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman after he - as usual - was evicted when he entered the scene.