9 takeaways from Media Day at the NHL Draft

MONTREAL - Kevyn Adams spent his first two drafts as an NHL general manager in the familiar confines of the KeyBank Center offices, holed up in a war room alongside fellow staff members.
Those drafts were conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year presents a more traditional experience, with the entire hockey world having descended upon Montreal for the NHL Draft at Bell Centre on Thursday and Friday.
And Adams - with the Sabres in control of picks Nos. 9, 16, and 28 in the first round - has plenty of people who want to talk to him.
"When you have three first-round picks, you become popular," Adams said Wednesday evening, with just a tad over 24 hours remaining before the start of Round 1.
"… You're in conversations and nothing's off the table. Like I said, conversations about moving up, conversations about moving back, conversations about what you can do with something to help your roster now. We're balancing all those. The hours are moving fast right now. Things are busy."

Adams said he is confident in making the three first-round selections as they stand, reiterating a stance he has held since the end of the season. But he is also continuing to listen to offers, with the caveat that they must fit the organization's long-term vision.
"I like the idea of making the draft picks because I think it's how we want to build this the right way," he said. "If an opportunity comes that we think is the right thing for us in the short- and long-term, then that's something we'd be open to doing.
"But what we don't do is move a pick for a really short-term solution. I just don't believe that's the way we're gonna build this franchise up for the long-term."

Here are more takeaways from a busy day of pre-draft media availabilities in Montreal.
1.Adams said the team is progressing in negotiations with restricted free agent forward Victor Olofsson.
"We've been working on it," Adams said. "Very good conversations. I think we're in a good spot here. Mark Jakubowski, who does a lot of our lead on the negotiating side, has had some good conversations as of late with (agent) Claude Lemieux. So, hopefully soon. It's definitely on the top of our list."
2.Adams said he also met with representatives for RFA defenseman Jacob Bryson in Montreal on Wednesday and plans to meet with advisors for defenseman Ryan Johnson on Thursday.
Bryson, 24, played 73 games for the Sabres this past season. The left-shot defenseman often played the right side, a point Adams made when discussing his value to reporters.
"I think he's got a unique skillset that helps us," Adams said. "So, yeah, positive on that front."
Johnson, 20, was the second of two first-round draft selections made by the Sabres in 2019. He can return to the University of Minnesota for his senior season, after which he would have the right to become an unrestricted free agent.
"For me, it's about honesty and clarity and we'll have that conversation," Adams said. "But like I've said before, we like him. We think he's a good prospect and have a little bit more information on it tomorrow."
3.We have written about the uncertainties currently surrounding Russian and Belrusian prospects, a byproduct of limited evaluation opportunities and political tension resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Another question mark was added Tuesday with the Associated Press report that Philadelphia Flyers goaltending prospect Ivan Fedotov had been "picked up by law enforcement in Russia last week ahead of a planned move to the U.S."
This year's draft includes at least two Russian players who are regarded as first-round talents in forwards Danila Yurov and Ivan Miroshnichenko. Adams said the team is continuing to do its due diligence on the situation while assessing the potential of individuals players.
"We have to evaluate hockey players," he said. "We have to do our work from both a scouting perspective and what we're seeing on the ice - evaluate them, do the analytics and the data, and put it all together as hockey players first. Then let's talk about those types of things. So, that's what we've done. But we have to pay attention."
4.The NHL made eight top prospects available to the media Wednesday at the Old Port of Montreal, with interviews set to the backdrop of the city skyline: Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cutter Gauthier, Matt Savoie, Logan Cooley, Conor Geekie, Joakim Kemell, and Nathan Gaucher.
Wright, Slafkovsky, and Cooley are widely projected to be the top three selections in some order. The other five players who spoke could feasibly be on the board for the Sabres.
5. Gaucher, a 6-foot-3 centerman from Quebec of the QMJHL, offered some insight into the unique anticipation a prospect experiences on the eve of the NHL Draft.
Gaucher is the 16th-ranked North American skater according to NHL CSS. He admits he's been perusing mock drafts, which have him going anywhere 13th to the second round. He has had meetings with all 32 teams.
In other words, Gaucher could find himself wearing virtually any sweater come Thursday night.
"It's difficult, of course," he said. "It's stressful. My girlfriend is stressed. My mom is stressed. Everyone is nervous. It's fun. … You don't want to put too much pressure on yourself. I'm just having fun. There's going to be a lot of trades. So, just waiting for that moment to come."
6.Gaucher was set to meet with the Sabres in Montreal following his media session.
We previously wrote about Gaucher as a potential option for the team with the 28th overall pick, with TSN director of scouting Craig Button comparing Gaucher to longtime NHL centerman David Backes.
"You just think about the game, and you think about different situations where players can grind down the opponent," Button said. "It just becomes like a hard night playing against a player like David Backes. It was hard. And it didn't matter, killing penalties, on the boards, on the cycle, off the faceoff."

7.Savoie said he had multiple conversations with the Sabres, which he thought went well. He has one connection already in the Buffalo dressing room in forward Peyton Krebs.
Krebs was a veteran on the WHL's Winnipeg Ice when Savoie joined the team as a 15-year-old. The pair played together and occasionally roomed together on the road during the 2019-20 season.
"It was huge, being a young guy, being 15 years old at that time, he was a leader of our team," Savoie said. "Getting to see it firsthand how much work he put in, how dialed in he was around the room, it was just great to see from him."
8. Savoie, the fourth-ranked North American skater according to NHL CSS and a potential option for the Sabres with the ninth-overall pick, sustained a shoulder injury during the WHL playoffs that prevented him from testing at the NHL Scouting Combine last month.
Savoie said his recovery has progressed well.
"I've recently just got back on the ice about a week and a half ago," he said. "Still not able to take contact yet, but I'm able to shoot a little bit and now it's just working back into full contact."

9.Gauthier is widely mocked as a top-seven selection and thus would need to slip from his media projections for the Sabres to land him at ninth-overall. He did meet with the team at the Combine.
"It went really well," Gauthier said.