Rasmus Dahlin is drawing comparisons to a pair of the best defenseman in the game today and to one of the best of all time.No pressure.The smooth-skating Brian Elliott Jersey , play-making Swedish defenseman is expected to become just the third defenseman in the past 20 years to be picked No. 1 in the NHL draft .”He is so far ahead of anyone else available,” said Joe McDonnell, the Dallas Stars‘ director of amateur scouting. ”We didn’t pay much attention to him this year because if we picked No. 1, we probably wouldn’t have jobs right now. And if we didn’t have the No. 1 pick, we knew we wouldn’t be able to draft him.”Buffalo is expected to take Dahlin first overall on Friday night and it will be no surprise to some of the best in hockey.Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom , a seven-time Norris Trophy winner, is one of the people who think Dahlin does compare to him, and some other current star defensemen who happen to be Swedes: Erik Karlsson and Victor Hedman.”He has a lot of tools,” Lidstrom, who has seen Dahlin play and has known of him for a few years, wrote in an email. ”It will be interesting to see his development in the NHL where everyone is better/stronger/faster!”Since St. Louis selected defenseman Erik Johnson first overall in 2006, the only blue-liner taken No. 1 was Aaron Ekblad in 2014. Ekblad started strong in Florida, becoming an All-Star in his first two seasons and winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, but appeared to take a step back the last two years. Johnson finished 12th in rookie of the year voting and has had a decent career with the Blues and Colorado Avalanche.”This is one of those years where there’s a generational-type defenseman available and that’s not always the case,” Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman said. ”Everybody says this Dahlin is the best in a while on defense.”The 18-year-old Dahlin has held his own against grown men over two seasons in a high-level European league. He had seven goals and 13 assists in 41 games this past season with Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League and was the junior player of the year. As the youngest player in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament, he had an assist in two games while suiting up sparingly for Sweden.”I think I’m ready right now to play in the NHL,” Dahlin said.Dahlin is set to become the second Swede taken No. 1 overall, joining Hall of Famer Mats Sundin http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-claude-giroux-jersey , who was drafted by Quebec in 1989.The Detroit Red Wings have leaned on scout Hakan Andersson for nearly three decades to decide who overseas has a chance to play in the world’s best hockey league. Andersson, who knows the hockey landscape as well as anyone overseas, said he has never seen a prospect quite like Dahlin.”It’s not easy to put him in any category with anyone,” said Andersson, the director of European scouting for the Red Wings. ”It’s hard to say someone is going to be better than Nicklas Lidstrom, but Dahlin has all the tools to be an unbelievable defenseman. He has Lidstrom’s poise with the puck. He can rush the puck up the ice like Karlsson. And, he’s big and aggressive enough to play the physical game and take people out like Hedman can.”Still, Dahlin knows he has to improve his play when the other team has the puck and perhaps when he has to push players away from the crease. He is 6-2 but only 181 pounds.”I need to get stronger,” Dahlin said.Dahlin does have plenty of strengths on his side.He can skate well, and effortlessly, in any direction while dangling the puck as if it is attached to his stick with soft hands while keeping his head up. With a left-handed shot, he can send a blur of a one-timer to the back of the net or snap off a wrist shot in a fraction of a second. He’s also a gifted passer.”I look at him obviously like a Karlsson,” former Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mike Weber, who played with Dahlin last season in Sweden. ”He’s got the same type of skating ability, but I feel like he’s faster. He almost skates like a (Pavel) Datysuk. When you go in and try to hit Datysuk, he would open up his hips one way or the other and be able to spin off you and deke. .. I feel like Ras has that same kind of ability.”And despite the hype, the young phenom has appeared humble behind the scenes and in front of scores of reporters.”He really was able to handle that well,” said Weber Ivan Provorov Jersey , an assistant coach for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. ”He’s mature beyond his years. And, the things he tries in practice, and the things he’ll try in a game to do, is pretty unbelievable.”—AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report.— Several signings and one big trade drastically shifted the balance of power across the NHL in a matter of days.With John Tavares going home to Toronto, Paul Stastny leaving Winnipeg for Vegas, St. Louis signing three free agents and trading for Ryan O’Reilly, the landscape of the league has changed. The Washington Capitals are bringing back a vast majority of their team, the Western Conference is loaded and yet the Maple Leafs now appear to be Stanley Cup favorites after adding Tavares.”He’s one of the best players in the league,” Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman said. ”And I think it’s obvious to say that Toronto is a better team today with that acquisition.”Tavares’ decision to leave the New York Islanders knocks them out of contender status and puts a whole lot of pressure on coach Mike Babcock’s Maple Leafs to make a deep playoff run. Losing out on Tavares despite reportedly offering more money than the Maple Leafs’ $77 million over 11 years kept the Sharks from moving into front-runner status in the West – but they may not be done yet.”We pride ourselves on being able to take a swing on difference makers like this,” San Jose GM Doug Wilson said. ”John was the one that we wanted to swing at.”The Sharks, who extended Logan Couture and re-signed Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl to keep their core together, have plenty of tradable assets and will keep swinging for a difference-maker. One is off the market following the Blues‘ trade for O’Reilly that now gives them a potent 1-2-3 punch down the middle with Brayden Schenn and free agent signing Tyler Bozak.O’Reilly saw the Blues sign Bozak to a $15 million, three-year contract and wondered if there wasn’t room for him anymore. Now they have centers to match up with just about any opponent in the league.”You look at all the teams that have success, they definitely have guys down the middle that compete,” O’Reilly said Monday. ”And I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”The Capitals boasted depth with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller during their Cup run Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids , and Babcock can now roll out Tavares, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri. Vegas lost talent on the wing with David Perron going to St. Louis and James Neal signing with Calgary but now has a very competitive center corps led by Stastny, William Karlsson and Erik Haula.”We do like having centers,” Golden Knights GM George McPhee said. ”You can move centers around the lineup, you can have centers on the wing. You can’t get wingers to play center.”Here’s a look at where a few more teams stand early in the preparations for the 2018-19 season:GOT WHAT THEY NEEDLIGHTNING: Signing Tavares would’ve been a luxury and might’ve necessitated a roster makeover just to fit him under the salary cap. Tampa Bay signed restricted free agent forward J.T. Miller to a long term deal, extended defenseman Ryan McDonagh, got a deal done with Slater Koekkoek and should have much of the same team that won the Atlantic Division last season.”We try to improve our team,” Yzerman said. ”I don’t sense that we have a need to change just to change.”FLAMES: Inking Neal to a $28.75 million, five-year contract would be a nice capper to the Flames‘ offseason that began with acquiring center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Noah Hanifin from Carolina. New coach Bill Peters could put Neal or Lindholm on right wing with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.GM Brad Treliving’s final tasks this offseason are to find a backup goaltender to Mike Smith and sign restricted free agents Lindholm and Hanifin to new contracts.KINGS: Long-term , signing franchise defenseman Drew Doughty to an $88 million, eight-year extension is the most important thing Los Angeles did. In the shorter term, it also won the competition for returning Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who GM Rob Blake believes can play with either top-six center, Anze Kopitar or Jeff Carter, and produce at age 35.”That scoring-type winger was something that we needed to add,” Blake said. ”Where he plays on the power play and the way he scores goals with his shot I think is something we’ve coveted or looked for.”WORK LEFT TO DOSENATORS: They traded Mike Hoffman, bought out Alexandre Burrows but still have at least one big problem with the future of Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson. The Senators have reportedly given Karlsson’s camp permission to speak with other teams about a contract – which is expected to look a whole lot like Doughty’s deal – which would open to door to Ottawa trading its captain rather than losing him for nothing like the Islanders did when Tavares wouldn’t sign early.”We start Oct. 4,” GM Pierre Dorion said Sunday in Ottawa. ”We’ve got lots of time.”OILERS: Connor McDavid won the scoring title and the Ted Lindsay award as the players’ choice for most outstanding player Youth Jordan Weal Jersey , and yet Edmonton missed the playoffs by 17 points. GM Peter Chiarelli publicly dangled the 10th pick in the draft to try to get an offensive defenseman and hasn’t been able to acquire one yet.Meanwhile, left wing Milan Lucic is 30, coming off a 34-point dud of a season and still has five years left on his contract at a $6 million annual cap hit. Lucic’s name has come up in trade talks, but moving him now won’t be easy, so the Oilers have to prepare for life with him next season.”He’s a proud guy and we expect to have him back and at a better level than he was last year,” Chiarelli said. ”My confidence level is pretty high. I think Milan’s a high-character individual.”ISLANDERS: Without Tavares, New York is chock full of cap space with nothing to do with it. Ownership signaled the need for change by hiring Lou Lamoriello as president of hockey operations, and he in turn fired Garth Snow and Doug Weight, hired Barry Trotz and put on a full neutral-zone trap to keep Tavares.After striking out, Lamoriello took what could be perceived as a shot at Tavares and the previous regime by saying, ”John has achieved great individual success on the ice” with the Islanders, who missed the playoffs in six of Tavares’ nine seasons. Without a Lamoriello miracle this offseason , they’ll miss the playoffs for the 12th time in 15 years.—