'An unbelievable opportunity' | Front office looks ahead to NHL Draft

Kevyn Adams kept his cards close to the vest Thursday when asked about who the Buffalo Sabres will select with the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft.
Adams has said since winning the lottery in May that he has no plans to reveal the pick ahead of time, a stance he maintained on the eve of the draft.
"We're excited about the player we're going to get at No. 1," Adams said. "So, that's all I'll give you."

Adams met with the media for an in-person press conference alongside associate general manager Jason Karmanos and director of amateur scouting Jerry Forton, the two men tasked with leading Buffalo's draft efforts in what has been an unusual year for evaluation across the NHL.
The WHL played a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the OHL canceled its season altogether. Overseas, leagues had various starts and stoppages as infection rates fluctuated.
For all those challenges, Forton saw benefits in the odd year. Several Canadian junior players relocated to Europe as a means to find playing time, presenting NHL clubs with an opportunity to see them in new, adverse environments. The World Junior Championship and the Under-18 World Championship, two key evaluation tournaments, were held as scheduled.
The Sabres utilized a combination of in-person and video scouting to get, in some cases, upwards of 100 viewings on certain players, Forton said. Karmanos, who won the Stanley Cup twice as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins' front office, joined the organization in April and has helped spearhead the conversations that went into finalizing the team's list. The Sabres have since added another mind in the form of vice president of hockey strategy and research Sam Ventura, who was hired earlier this month after a six-year stint with the Penguins.
"I'm very confident we have extensive live and video coverage in all the leagues," Forton said. "We have great coverage in Europe live, we have great coverage in Canada live. We have four or five scouts covering the U.S. live this year. I think obviously we incorporated the video an awful lot.
"I also believe we have now two of the best analytic minds in the game of hockey (in Ventura and assistant director of scouting Jason Nightingale). So, we're putting that all together and we feel really good for the draft. I feel as good about this list as any draft I've been involved with."
The draft is one piece of what is sure to be an active seven days around the NHL. The league held the Expansion Draft on Wednesday, which saw the incoming Seattle Kraken select defenseman Will Borgen from the Sabres. A league-wide trade and signing freeze ended Thursday, with free agency set to open on Wednesday, July 28.
"I think it's exciting," Adams said. "I think there's an unbelievable opportunity in front of us."
Here are three more takeaways from Adams' session with the media.

On the Expansion Draft

The Sabres were able to protect seven forwards (Rasmus Asplund, Anders Bjork, Jack Eichel, Casey Mittelstadt, Victor Olofsson, Sam Reinhart, and Tage Thompson), three defensemen (Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Rasmus Ristolainen) and one goaltender (Linus Ullmark) from selection.
They could not protect everybody. Borgen, 24, was selected by the Kraken from a crop of available players that also included veterans Colin Miller, Jeff Skinner, and Kyle Okposo, among others.
While teams were allowed to send picks or other considerations to Seattle to prevent them from selecting certain players (the Sabres did so to protect Linus Ullmark during the Vegas Expansion Draft in 2017), no such deals were made around the NHL.
"I'm a big fan of Will as a person, as a player," Adams said. "High character. And Seattle got a good one there. Fact of the matter is, the rules are to put the expansion team in a pretty good position that they're going to get a player from every team that they like.
"So, you understand what's coming. You look at every possible scenario. But you have to be … really careful making an emotional decision or trying to do something where maybe you're giving up more assets just to save some things."

On the No. 1 pick

Adams did not reveal who the Sabres will select. He did reiterate what the team is looking for.
Buffalo will draft the player it feels projects to develop best in the long term, regardless of position or the players' status for next season.
"This isn't about who comes out of the gate and Day 1 is the best player," Adams said. "This is about where they go in their career. Development is never a straight line. You want to put these players in a position to continue to get better, continue to grow, continue to be ready when they step into the NHL.
"This is a tough league. So, I think one mistake we don't want to make is putting someone in a position that they're just treading water. We want them to be ready to play."
University of Michigan defenseman Owen Power is NHL Central Scouting's top-ranked North American skater. Swedish forward William Eklund is the top-ranked European skater.

On the day ahead

Adams said he anticipates a busy week around the league, with a number of deals already having taken place since the freeze was lifted at 1 p.m. Might the Sabres swing a trade to land another first-round pick over the next 24 hours?
"It depends," Adams said. "We're not focused on that saying we have to do this. But if it's the right deal and we think makes sense for us as we look to build around a young core of players, then we would do that. But it has to be the right thing for us. It's not something we're just going to do to do it. We have to look at each other in the eye and say this is the best thing for the Buffalo Sabres."