Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – As the Buffalo Sabres prepare for the 2022 NHL Draft on July 7-8 in Montreal, they’ll be busy on Day 1 with three picks in the first round at No. 9, 16 and 28.
It’s not impossible to take players in those spots that are NHL ready, but it will be difficult. I was curious to hear if this is a deep draft class, considering how low the Sabres are picking.
Dan Marr, who is the NHL’s Director of Central Scouting, was in Buffalo last week for the NHL Scouting Combine. He spoke highly of the group of talent in the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft.
“It’s a deep draft for the first round," said Marr. "When you have the luxury of having more than one pick, what happens is it doesn’t go according to projections and then all of a sudden, they have a player left that they really didn’t think would be there. (For the Sabres, it was Dylan Cozens when he fell to No. 7 in 2019) So somebody picking at 15 could get a guy that they had in their top-10, and they’re going to be elated. When they get that second pick, they’re going to look at the names, but they may skip over a name to take someone that they kind of slotted and have a really good feeling about, and they don’t know if another team is going to step up for them. They may step up and take a little more riskier chance on a pick. (The Sabres did that taking Isak Rosen last year at No. 14)
“It’s a deep draft. There’s not going to be a player of the decade to come out of this draft class, but there’s going to be a lot of players that are going to be All-Stars down the road that are going to play in the National Hockey League for a long time.”
We know top prospect Shane Wright is probably ready for the NHL, but Marr says it’s not a large number.
“Shane has earned that right to get a chance to make a club," he said. "[Juraj] Slafkovsky is another player that you could easily put into that category, but other than that, I just think the physical maturity and the experience that’s required to handle the adversity and handle the pressure that it takes to play in the NHL and keep that job in the lineup, it’s very difficult. But we’ve seen it in the past where there’s a player that goes later in the first round that’s in the right place at the right time that gets that opportunity and could make an NHL club.”
Seven players from last year’s draft played in the NHL, but only two played more than 10 games. The 12th overall pick, Cole Sillinger played 79 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets, while the 60th overall pick, J.J. Moser played 43 games for the Arizona Coyotes. Moser also played 18 games in the AHL for the Tucson Roadrunners.
The first overall pick, Owen Power played eight games with the Sabres after finishing his season with the University of Michigan Wolverines.
Even if you go back to the 2020 NHL Draft, only 10 players have played more than 42 games in two seasons.
Last year, the Sabres drafted four Russian players. It was the first time they took a Russian since 2016 when they drafted Vasili Glotov in the seventh round.
Terry Pegula discouraged the team from drafting Russians after Mikhail Grigorenko was a first-round bust in 2012. That cost Buffalo defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who has won two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He went to the Montreal Canadiens one pick after Tim Murray took another first-round bust in Alex Nylander.
However, there weren’t any Russian players at the NHL Combine this year.
“We had limited viewings when the teams were not allowed to participate in the end of the season World Championships and games," Marr explained. "None of us know what’s going to go on there two or three years from now, so everyone is wondering how the teams are going to approach it.
“If you’re sitting there and you’ve got a solid prospect for the NHL, are you going to go by him or do you want to just step up and take him, and cross your fingers and hope that the world is in a different place a couple years from now?”
One of the Russians drafted by the Sabres last season, Aleksandr Kisakov has signed with the club and is expected to play in Rochester next season. Another, Stiven Sardarian, was in the States and played in the USHL with the Youngstown Phantoms.
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