Panini America on Location: Sights and Sounds from Day One at the 2011 NHL Draft

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Panini America officials spent a wild (and late) Friday night at the Xcel center as the Minnesota Wild hosted Round One of the 2011 NHL Draft.

The company spent quality time with several of this weekend’s highly touted draft picks, including No. 1 overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as well as Gabriel Landeskog, Jonathan Huberdeau and Adam Larsson. Players signed autographs and took photo’s for their first trading cards (released as soon as they skate in an NHL game) and we, of course, gathered some content for The Knight’s Lance.

In the coming days we’ll post as much of the behind-of-the-scenes footage right here, including an exclusive interview with Nugent-Hopkins. Stay tuned, we’re also planning to give a few lucky hockey collectors some sweet things from this weekend’s events.

For now, here are a few pics from Day 1.