Kevyn Adams officially has another top-10 draft choice to add to the Buffalo Sabres' prospect pipeline.
Adams, the Sabres' general manager, learned through the NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday night that the franchise will pick ninth when the first round of the annual entry draft is held July 7 in Montreal.
The Sabres won't be done there, either. They will own the Vegas Golden Knights' first-round selection, officially 16th overall, as part of the Jack Eichel trade. The pick would have transferred to 2023 if the Golden Knights leapt into the top 10 during the lottery.
And Buffalo owns the Panthers' first-round selection to complete the trade that sent Sam Reinhart to Florida, which will be between picks 28 and 32.
Montreal won the lottery and will pick first overall when it hosts the draft at Bell Centre. The rest of the top five, in order, is New Jersey, Arizona, Seattle and Philadelphia.
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If Adams doesn't deal one of his draft choices, the Sabres will select three players in the first round for the first time since 1983 when the franchise added Tom Barrasso, Normand Lacombe and Adam Creighton. They currently own 10 picks in the draft this year, including at least one in each round.
Buffalo had a pair of first-round picks in the draft last July, when it chose defenseman Owen Power first overall and Swedish winger Isak Rosen at No. 14. The club selected 11 players, including two in the second and third rounds.
According to NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings, the top North American skaters available in this draft are center Shane Wright (Kingston, OHL), center Logan Cooley (USA Hockey National Team Development Program), left wing Cutter Gauthier (NTDP), center Matthew Savoie (Winnipeg, WHL) and center Conor Geekie (Winnipeg).
The top available European skaters are left wing Juraj Slafkovsky, right wing Joakim Kemell, defenseman Simon Nemec, defenseman David Jiricek and center Marco Kasper.
Adams told reporters at his end-of-season media availability that he expects to use all of his first-round draft choices, but he noted that, as always, there will be conversations with teams leading up to draft day. After all, the club could use one of those selections to acquire an NHL player to help the Sabres' young core.
The Sabres have strengthened their pipeline considerably since 2018, and Adams' staff made the most of its five picks in 2020, selecting Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka in the first and second rounds, respectively. Early returns from the 2021 class are promising, most notably Power, who averaged 22:05 of ice time in eight games with the Sabres.
Quinn and Peterka are likely going to graduate from Rochester to the NHL in the fall following remarkable rookie seasons with the Amerks. The Sabres' AHL affiliate is expected to still have talented young players to develop, including forwards Brandon Biro, Linus Weissbach and Lukas Rousek. But the organization will want to add depth this draft given how unpredictable development can be.
The Sabres used their stockpile of picks in 2021 to add their first Russian-born players in five years, beginning in the second round with Prokhor Poltapov and Aleksandr Kisakov. Josh Bloom, a forward selected in the third round, recently signed an entry-level contract with the Sabres but will return to Saginaw of the OHL because the 18-year-old is too young to compete in the AHL, per the NHL's agreement with the Canadian Hockey League.
Here's a snapshot of the Sabres' unsigned draft prospects, including their current team/league:
Forward (12): Aaron Huglen (University of Minnesota), Filip Cederqvist (Leksands IF, Swedish Hockey League), Matteo Costantini (University of North Dakota), Jakub Konecny (HC Sparta Praha, Czechia), Isak Rosen (Leksands IF), Prokhor Poltapov (CSKA Moskva, Kontinental Hockey League), Aleksandr Kisakov (contract expired with Dynamo Moskva, KHL), Stiven Sardarian (Youngstown Phantoms, USHL), Olivier Nadeau (Shawinigan, QMJHL), Viljami Marjala (Quebec, QMJHL), William von Barnekow (Malmo, SHL), Tyson Kozak (Portland, WHL).
Defense (6): Linus Cronholm (Linkoping HC, SHL), Miska Kukkonen (KooKoo, Liiga), William Worge-Kreu (IK Oskarshamn, SHL), Ryan Johnson (University of Minnesota), Albert Lyckasen (AIK, HockeyAllsvenskan), Nikita Novikov (Dynamo Moskva).
Goalies (2): Devon Levi (Northeastern University), Erik Portillo (University of Michigan).
