The Edmonton Rush selected defenseman Brodie Merrill with the first-overall pick in today's Portland LumberJax dispersal draft.

The LumberJax, whose ownership announced in May that the team would not continue playing in Portland, suspended operations after failing to find either a new city or new ownership.

The draft continued with Toronto selecting Tyler Codron with the second pick and Minnesota choosing Scott Stewart third overall.

Surviving clubs drafted in reverse order of finish in 2009 and continued choosing players into a third round, with a total of 26 players drafted.

The big action of the day, though, came on the trade front, including a six-player trade between Edmonton and the Minnesota Swarm.

Edmonton, with newly-installed coach/GM Derek Keenan redesigning the roster, acquired Stewart, Richard Morgan (another dispersal draft selection), Ryan Ward, and Justin Norbraten in exchange for Ryan Benesch, Scott Self and the Rush's first-round pick in this year's entry draft.

Elsewhere, a series of trades moved Kevin Huntley from the Washington Stealth to Philadelphia. First, the Stealth dealt Huntley and a 2011 second-round entry draft pick to Toronto for Luke Wiles.

The Rock then flipped Huntley to Philadelphia (also sending Bill McGlone) for dispersal draft selection Pete Jacobs and another 2011 second-rounder.

Finally, Toronto dealt Jacobs to Rochester in exchange for Sandy Chapman, who apparently was the guy Rock general manager Terry Sanderson was working towards all along.

"In order to work this deal and get Chapman and a couple of draft picks, we had to give up Wiles as a step in helping us rebuild the Rock," Sanderson said.

In other trade news, the Boston Blazers traded Jason Bloom to Washington for Mike Kirk.

Full dispersal draft results follow.

##  TEAM                SELECTION 
--  ------------------  -------------------------- 
 1  Edmonton            Brodie Merrill
 2  Toronto             Tyler Codron
 3  Minnesota           Scott Stewart
 4  Philadelphia        Peter Jacobs
 5  Colorado            Cory Conway
 6  Minnesota (Roch.)   Richard Morgan
 7  Washington          Peter Morgan
 8  Boston              Kevin Leveille
 9  Buffalo             Jamison Koesterer
10  New York            Ryan Powell
11  Calgary             Luke Forget

12  Edmonton            Matt Disher
13  Toronto             Joel Weber
14  Minnesota           Tim Campeau
15  Philadelphia        Matt Flindell
16  Colorado            David Morgan
17  Rochester           Dan Stroup
18  Washington          Brad MacDonald
19  Boston              Matt Yager
20  Buffalo             - PASS -
21  New York            Matt Brown
22  Calgary             Dayne Michaud

23  Edmonton            Pat Jones
24  Toronto             - PASS -
25  Minnesota           Bruce Alexander
26  Philadelphia        Derek Malawsky
27  Colorado            Dallas Eliuk
28  Rochester           - PASS -
29  Washington          Derek Lowe
30  Boston              - PASS -
31  New York            - PASS -
32  Calgary             - PASS -

(All remaining teams passed in Round Four)