Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Many felt the Buffalo Sabres would trade the fourth overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday, and maybe the 20th pick too. However, teams weren't willing to pay the price being asked by general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, resulting in Buffalo picking two prospects who now need to be developed.
Let's face it, when you trade away Alex Tuch, Bo Byram and Jordan Greenway and only add Louis Crevier and Olen Zellweger, you have regressed by quite a bit, but that's what the roster looks like on June 27. Buffalo has a large stable full of very good young players and prospects. It seemed like Kekalainen would've liked to get some top flight talent to replace Tuch and Byram with trading the fourth overall pick, but he said the trade just wasn't there,
"We made it clear that all options whether it's fourth pick or the 20th pick overall, we could move up, we could move down, so we explored all the options and I contacted all the other teams in the league to make sure they know all our options are open, but nothing was attractive enough for us to do anything else but pick." Kekalainen added,
"There was a ton of calls early about pick No. 4, but we weren't going to move it for something that wasn't significant. It would've taken a significant offer for us to move from four. We had some offers where we could've moved back a little bit and gotten something in return and all kinds of different options.
"We were taking notes for a couple of days on what might be out there with pick four, but to outright trade pick number four, we would've needed an impact player that can play with our team for a good period of time and not just help us next year, somebody with either term or a good age where we have control for many, many years."
On Friday Elliotte Friedman reported that Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck has waived his no trade clause for a trade to the Sabres. He's 33-years-old and would add $8.5 million to the Sabres salary cap.
Kekalainen surprised many by using the fourth pick for defenseman Daxon Rudolph. When the NHL Scouting Combine was in Buffalo in early June, the Sabres had the 27th pick and never interviewed Rudolph. That happened Friday morning,
"It changed a lot from the combine," Kekalainen said. "We were thinking we were picking at 27, so rather than wasting time with some of the people that were running from interview to interview and were so far down, we knew we weren't going to get to them, plus our area scouts are doing interviews throughout the season to know the background of the player, they know him inside and out, the 15 minutes at the combine is just for the whole staff to get to know him, so that's why we called him and had him come to our offices this morning."
So what did the Sabres get with Rudolph? Kekalainen said it's an all around defenseman,
"He's got great offensive ability, he's a big guy, got some jam to him too, grit, plays hard and his instincts are great, I think that's the biggest thing that we like about him, it's not just the physical ability, it's his hockey IQ and puts another really great defenseman into our future."
The 20th overall pick was the second youngest player in college hockey, Ilya Morozov from Miami University. Kekalainen said he's the player Jerry Forton had in mind when the Sabres moved from 27th to 20th in the Michael Kesselring with the San Jose Sharks,
"I think he's a good two-way forward, it's pretty hard to score a lot in college at the age of 17. It was great for me because two of my daughters go to Miami University, so I got to visit them and watch Morozov play, but he got off to a really hot start, then he cooled off a little, but I got to talk to the head coach (Anthony Noreen) there and he couldn't stop talking about character of Morozov and it's a pretty impressive story, he came from Russia and hardly spoke any English and now he's an A student and works on his game and they have to kick him out of the rink and gym before he leaves."
The draft is pretty much in Forton's hands. He's worked in Buffalo for three different general managers because of his eye for talent. Kekalainen has been in charge of drafts and as GM, he doesn't want to get into the way,
"I ran the draft for 11 different drafts and I believe in we are in great hands with Jerry Forton and his staff because they do exactly what I believe in too, which is you work hard, you watch a lot of games, you go back again and again and again to make sure you know the player inside and out and we lean on the upside, not what they are now.
"I was always fortunate I worked with a general manager that didn't stick his fingers in the process because I can't get to see those guys enough to form a solid opinion, but we have a great scouting staff, they do a great job and you see some of the results from the team right now, so I have a lot of faith in our scouting staff, so I stay away from it, if I see somebody enough that I give my opinion, I try to even do that carefully because they've seen them a lot more than I have."
Let's take a look back at top defensemen in the system:
- Daxon Rudolph (1st round 2026)
- Radim Mrtka (1st round 2025)
- David Bedkowski (3rd round 2025)
- Adam Kleber (2nd round 2024)
- Luke Osborn (4th round 2024)
- Maxim Strbak (2nd round 2023)
- Gavin McCarthy (3rd round 2023)
- Vsevolod Komarov (5th round 2022)
- Ryan Johnson (1st round 2019)
Rounds 2 through 7 are taking place Saturday.
The Sabres made both their first-round selections when many felt they'd be traded
The Sabres made both their first-round selections when many felt they'd be traded
