Buffalo Sabres’ 2024 Draft Targets (Iginla & MORE!)

Buffalo Sabres’ 2024 Draft Targets (Iginla & MORE!)

ladies and gentlemen welcome back to Buffalo Sports Center I am Don and today we are going to look over some top first round draft options for your Buffalo Sabers but before I get to all of the options laying at the feet of GM Kevin ABS make sure to hit that like button and subscribe here on YouTube of course follow us on Instagram join the Discord all of those links are down in the description below check them out and let’s quickly preface this whole video by saying the Sabers have a very interesting draft coming up they don’t necessarily have to pick someone at number 11 that’s what they have they have pick 11 in the first round one after the New Jersey Devils and it’s going to be really really interesting to see how things shape up because I don’t think that Kevin Adams and his team of executives are necessarily dead set on drafting a specific player here in this draft I I think there are a lot of options there assistant general manager Jerry foron came out last week and said that after pick five picks 6 to13 are in a total state of flux there could be there is a wide range of talent a lot of things that could happen and we’re going to delve into some of those things starting off with what happens if the sabes do in fact move out of pick 11 now this option includes trading up which I think is unlikely it also includes the Sabers trading down which I also think is unlikely the only way I see the Sabers trading pick 11 here in this upcoming draft is if they package it in a larger deal to go out and get a top six Winger and with the news that Jeff Skinner is most likely definitely going to be bought out by the sabers there is a need on that Topline left wing roll and you could see the Sabers go out and try to make a swing for a guy like Nikolai eers or a Martin NIS that’s totally definitely possible something that I didn’t think Kevin Adams necessarily had the balls to do buy out Jeff Skinner and Float to all other 31 NHL teams that the Sabers are willing to deal and trade away their first round pick see as Sabers fans we’ve become so ACC Med to Kevin Adams stockpiling draft picks in his first phase of his rebuild of the Buffalo Sabers well Kevin Adams did say that the Sabers are now out of that phase they’re moved into a new chapter uh the next chapter per se 2016 reference right there they’ve moved into the next chapter of this Sabers team which is to stockpile on NHL ready talents whether that be veterans younger players either way you the Sabers are looking at acquiring a player that has NHL experience that is proven at this level and can make an immediate impact for this team that quite honestly they need to make the playoffs next season for everyone to keep their jobs Kevin Adams’s seat is starting to warm a little bit it’s year four and yet the Sabers have not made it to the playoffs they have yet to end the longest drought currently in the NHL actually in NHL history I believe 13 years it could be 14 they certainly don’t want to have that happen again Savers are already down the dump so we shall see if they want to trade it but if they don’t I have a list of players that the Sabres could be interested in acquiring with the 11th pick starting off with TJ ainla the center and left wing out of Colona rockets and uh he is the son of Jerome ainla everyone knows who Jerome ainla is Calgary Flames Legend went on to play for the Colorado avalanches well again a long career in the NHL well Tish is his son and now he’s ready to also come to the NHL the interesting thing about TI ginla is how good he is in the big moments and he scored a lot of goals a lot of goals he tied for six in the WHL last season in the number of goals that he did score and like I mentioned already he’s a big game performer the Sabers certainly need that especially when you look at how their big guns performed at the end of last season when it felt like the Sabers were perpetually four points out of a playoff spot they always had the opportunity to turn that into a twoo Advantage one game away from the postseason but no they choked and faltered every single time we need true vintage non chokers on this team Tish ainla could be that guy the only problem with ainla is that Calgary picks at number nine two picks ahead of Buffalo so if the Sabers really do want Ain you’d have to expect they got a trade above and around go around Calgary because you know Calgary they just got rid of a lot of talent they are depleted they are rebuilding they would love to bring in excite the fan base and bring in one of their Legends sons and continue the dynasty that could happen here let’s keep on moving folks and talk about our third option and that is Carter y yemchuk uh right shot defenseman uh out of Calgary as well he played for the Calgary Hitman in the WHL uh this is another really solid pick for the Buffalo sabes Carter is a good transition defenseman he actually scored a lot of goals in the wh last year he scored 30 and he would give the Sabres another big and creative defenseman on the back end he would fit pretty nicely in that top four with Dalene byon power he’s a little bit more of a I’m going to watch how the play unfolds and stretch it a little bit whereas those other guys will jump into play they will get their hands a little dirty so that’s another really good option here for the Buffalo sabes we shall see if they go onto the back end I personally do think the Sabers should go with a defenseman if they decide to keep that first round pick we already have a lot of centers we already have lots of forwards when you look at the Sabers pipeline in terms of defenseman who do you really have you have Ryan Johnson and he’s about to graduate to the NHL other than him it gets pretty scarce they did make a couple of splashes in last year’s draft by drafting some local product namely Gavin McCarthy but other than that the Sabers still need to do some work to improve their defensive pipeline let’s keep on going now folks and I did mention about 10 seconds ago that I did not want the Sabres to go for a Ford I prefer a defenseman but just in case they decide to go with Talent over need Berkeley Cen would be another good option the center is a really hardworking Relentless four Checker that thing’s a couple of boxes for Lindy Ruff who instructs his teams to play Heavy for checking Big Time Puck pursuers they do not let their opponents breathe at all and Berkeley Caden would definitely fit into that sort of role and more importantly I think he is very good at face offs he won over 53% of his face offs last year in the WHL and that’s something that the Sabers desperately need the Buffalo was 32nd in faceof win percentage last season 32nd that are a lot of power plays wasting away in the first 25 seconds that’s a lot of offensive zone trips that uh amount to nothing really you’re always playing on the back foot you are more likely to score when you have the puck and you’re more likely to create high danger opportunities when you win faceoffs in dangerous areas such as in the offensive zone so the Sabres really do need to improve their centers namely their face Faceoff centers and Caden definitely would fit that need continuing on now let’s talk about another Center here that is also really exciting here and that is jet luchenko another Center yes out of GTH storm the GU storm I like sing Guth isn’t that a cool city name out of the OHL he had 33 Power Play Goals last year while playing for G he can play on the center or the wing so he’s pretty versatile Sabers could slot him in wherever they wanted and he had a team High 74 points in 68 games last year after seeing improved ice time he saw more ice time when he was young so he didn’t get too much time the previous season and also there were a lot of injuries graduations and all of that meant that Leno finally got his chance and he did pretty good and he’s mocked to go around picks 16 to 20 so if the Sabers were to select him at number 11 it probably would be a bit of a stretch so maybe with this guy lenko you see the Sabers trade back although I think a lot of the Sabers fan base would probably have a heart attack if they saw the Sabers trade the 11th pick and it not be for an NHL proven commodity we’ll have to see on that one and uh let’s finalize our little draft Pursuit here with Adam SEC the right shot defenseman he plays in the hcon over in Europe in czechia and much like his older brother David who is currently in the Columbus Blue Jacket system right now he’s very good in as a two-way defenseman the only problem with urac and the reason why he’s fallen to where the Sabres could be picking him at where they a lot of NHL pundits are mocking him to go which is between Picks 11 and 20 is because he’s currently recovering from a major knee injury that he suffered while playing for chuya in the world juniors back in December he has not fully recovered yet he should be okay though for next season but it has scared a lot of teams away but I would equate comp him to his older brother David and I really like David urasek who by the way is on the outs in Columbus he did not play much last season got scratched and benched a lot by Pascal Vincent who is no longer the coach by the way no longer the coach of Columbus so maybe that could change osx’s Outlook over there in Columbus but I’d love to see them the Sabers bring in David and I would be okay with them also drafting his younger BR brother Adam so anyways folks those were the Sab draft options the NHL draft is on Friday night at 7:00 the sabes will be picking at number 11 it’s going to be two days from now it’s going to be very interesting what happens in the next 48 hours tomorrow is the bio window finally opening which is probably when we will see the official news that Jeff Skinner has been bought out and then afterwards we’re going to see a lot of Trades every single NHL Insider namely Elliot fredman has been saying that this week is going to be crazy and by the way folks isn’t it crazy that between the end of the Stanley Cup finals and the draft it’s not even a week you know the NFL expands and stretches things out for close to 8 months and uh the finals ended on Monday the bio window opens on Thursday the draft happens Friday free agency tampering begins Sunday and then free agency begins next Monday July 1st that’s five major NHL events happening within the span of a week and then you have three months of dead time I don’t know but the NHL once again proven to be real big goofballs in terms of League planning and events planning that’s not too good good from Gary bedman and Company but anyways folks that was a little bit off topic I was done this is Buffalo Sports Center make sure to hit that like button and subscribe follow us on Instagram of course subscribe here on the YouTube join the Discord where you can get upto-date uh notifications about YouTube videos almost lost my train of thought there but anyways here’s a cool video click it maybe uh you’ll keep watching anyways I was Don see you in the next video bye

GM Kevyn Adams and co. have reached one of the biggest nights in the NHL offseason: the draft. The Sabres have pick 11 in this upcoming draft, and in today’s video, Don breaks down who could be picked and why.

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