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Ryan Smyth trade goes through, Ducks draft Rickard Rakell in first round

By Helene Elliott
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The Ducks wrapped up the first round of the NHL draft Friday by selecting right wing Rickard Rakell of Plymouth of the Ontario Hockey League with the 30th pick. They had been scheduled to pick 22nd but traded that pick to Toronto for the 30th and 39th picks.

The second through seventh rounds will be conducted on Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.

Rakell, 18, is Swedish but came to North America to play his junior hockey. He had 29 goals and 43 points in 49 games for Plymouth last season.

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The Kings dealt their first-round pick to Edmonton in the Dustin Penner trade and aren’t scheduled to make a selection until No. 49.

And finally, the Kings’ trade of Ryan Smyth, which had been in place for hours but was held up by undisclosed complications, finally went through. He goes to Edmonton for a fifth-round draft pick and forward Gilbert Brule, though the Kings intend to trade Brule as soon as they can.

Check back later for more at www.latimes.com/sports

--Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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