SportsLine wire reports

BOSTON -- The Atlanta Thrashers chose Patrik Stefan, a powerful forward from Europe, with the first pick Saturday as the NHL entry draft opened with a flurry of trades.

The biggest question about the 205-pound Stefan, rated first by the league's Central Scouting Service, was his health. But he said he was fine after suffering his second concussion of the season on March 31.

Atlanta obtained the top pick, originally held by Tampa Bay, in one of four trades announced by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

The deals allowed Vancouver to take twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin with the second and third picks. They have said they want to play together in the NHL but are expected to stay in their native Sweden for at least one more season.

The New York Rangers, who obtained the fourth pick from Tampa Bay, then chose high-scoring Pavel Brendl. He and Stefan, both from the Czech Republic, are considered the only players likely to play in the NHL next season.

Brendl had 73 goals and 61 assists with Calgary of the Western Hockey League last season.

ATLANTA, WHICH DIDN'T GET much offense in Friday's expansion draft, hopes to get that out of Stefan, who had 11 goals and 24 assists in 33 games for Long Beach in the International Hockey League, where the competition is tougher than in the WHL.

His season was shortened by his second concussion

"It's a little bit too much, everybody talking about it," Stefan said. "But I know how I feel. I feel great."

Tampa Bay had the first pick last year when it took Vincent LeCavalier. He played in all 82 games, scoring 13 goals and 15 assists.

In Saturday's trades:

- Vancouver sent defenseman Bryan McCabe and its No. 1 pick next year to Chicago for the fourth pick overall in today's draft.

- Tampa Bay traded the first pick overall to Vancouver for the fourth pick, obtained from Chicago, and two picks in today's third round.

- Vancouver then sent the No. 1 pick, obtained from Tampa Bay, to Atlanta for the No. 2 pick today and a conditional No. 3 pick next year.

- Tampa Bay then traded the No. 4 pick, obtained from Vancouver, to the New York Rangers for goalie Dan Cloutier, right wing Niklas Sundstrom and their picks in the first and third rounds in 2000.

That changed the original order of the top four picks from Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Vancouver and Chicago to Atlanta, Vancouver, Vancouver and the Rangers.

With the fifth pick, the New York Islanders chose center Tim Connolly, who had 34 goals and 34 assists with Erie of the Ontario Hockey League.

The nine-round draft followed Friday's expansion draft in which the Thrashers chose 26 players. The top goal scorers chosen were Terry Yake of St. Louis and Mike Stapleton of Phoenix with nine each.

"When we got the list (of unprotected players), immediately defense showed up as the strength of this draft," Atlanta general manager Don Waddell said.

Although Atlanta didn't get much offense in the expansion draft, Waddell is happy with his goaltending. His starter is Damian Rhodes, obtained last week in a trade with Ottawa. On Friday, he drafted Detroit's Norm Maracle, the backup to Chris Osgood, to play behind Rhodes.

Atlanta also chose goalies Corey Schwab of Tampa Bay and Trevor Kidd of Carolina. As expected, he dealt Kidd to Florida for defensemen Gord Murphy and Daniel Tjarnquist, forward Herbert Vasilyev and a sixth-round pick in today's entry draft.

The Thrashers also sent Peter Ferraro, who they drafted from Boston, back to the Bruins for Randy Robitaille, who had been protected in the draft, in an exchange of forwards.

They also made six other draft deals in which they gave future considerations for Detroit defenseman Ulf Samuelsson; Phoenix goalie Scott Langkow; minor-leaguers Sergei Vshedkevich from New Jersey and Dean Sylvester from Buffalo; Calgary's Andreas Karlsson, who played in his native Sweden last season; and entry picks in the fourth and ninth rounds from Vancouver.

In the expansion draft, Atlanta took one player from each of 26 teams. Nashville didn't have to part with anyone because it was an expansion team last year.

Waddell said his philosophy was "getting good character players to build around our young players." Forwards Ed Ward from Calgary and Kelly Buchberger from Edmonton fill that role.

The other forwards chosen included Jody Hull from Philadelphia, Sylvain Cloutier from Chicago, Tomi Kallio from Colorado, Johan Garpenlov from Florida, Matt Johnson from Los Angeles, Phil Crowe from Ottawa, Alexei Yegorov from San Jose and Steve Staios from Vancouver.

The 10 defensemen drafted were Darryl Shannon from Buffalo, Jamie Pushor from Anaheim, Petr Buzek from Dallas, Brett Clark from Montreal, Kevin Dean from New Jersey, David Harlock from the New York Islanders, Chris Tamer from the New York Rangers, Maxim Galanov from Pittsburgh, Yannick Tremblay from Toronto and Mark Tinordi from Washington.

"I feel very good about our goaltending as I stand here now with Rhodes and Maracle," Waddell said. "I feel good about our defense. We got the bangers and the checkers we wanted. Now we have to find some goal scorers."