Now, the real fun begins. Dahlin will take the ice donning his new number when development camp kicks off at Harborcenter on Wednesday. And, as well as he handled the process leading up to the draft and all its surrounding hype, the ice is Dahlin's true comfort zone.
Even when he was asked about his off-ice hobbies on Monday, Dahlin's answer circled back to hockey.
"I like to play hockey, that's my hundred-percent thing I usually do," he said. "I guess I'm a pretty boring guy."
For all the high expectations surrounding Dahlin's future, Jason Botterill explained that it's on the Sabres to help him get there, a process that begins at camp. Botterill emphasized two areas in which Dahlin will have to adjust the most as he transitions from the Swedish Hockey League.
The first learning cuve is the speed with which NHL teams forecheck, something Dahlin noticed firsthand during his trip to a Stanley Cup Final game in Vegas earlier this month. The second area is in front of the net, where Dahlin will have to continue to develop physically and work on his positioning to win battles.
"That's why we're excited about this week, just to get him acclimated a little bit with people within our organization," Botterill said.
Development camp will also serve as a first chance to see Dahlin share the ice with other players who figure to be a big part of the franchise's future, names like Brendan Guhle and Casey Mittelstadt. It's the team's hope that those players join with names like Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart to form the core of tomorrow.
"He doesn't need to be the savior," Botterill said. "It's a situation where we're excited about our young players such as Jack, Sam, Rasmus Ristolainen. He can be part of this group and sort of grow together.
"Look, we certainly have to have better results on the ice. But I think, communicating and talking with other players, we're certainly excited to bring Rasmus into our group here and just how they can grow together as a core."
To that end, Dahlin can't wait to get started.
"I'm just so motivated to win hockey games so I'll bring everything I can to this team and try to win hockey games," he said. "That's what I think about."
