2025 Sabres Draft Guide: The Ninth Overall Pick

Welcome to the 2025 xB Buffalo Sabres Draft Guide! The draft guide has been divided into seven parts, allowing it to be loaded on your mobile device and consumed in multiple readings, without requiring an hour to complete.

Each player has a BlueSky link with three clips that summarize their projection.

If this is the first time you’ve read my draft guide, let me break down how each section will go:

– Each draft pick the Sabres have will be given five players, which I think are reasonable selections for the Sabres. They are broken down as Dream Scenarios (two given for each draft pick), Realistic Selections (two given for each draft pick), and a Wildcard Selection (one given for each draft pick)

– Dream Scenarios are based on my evaluation of the player, and where I believe they are most likely going to go in the draft. They are based on my draft philosophies and don’t take into account the Sabres’ past draft philosophies. They will usually consist of one forward and one defenseman, but depending on the round or players I think might be available, they could deviate from that structure.

– Realistic Scenarios are based on studying the Sabres’ previous draft philosophies, current prospect pool depth, needs, and players that I think the organization may go with the draft pick, and not necessarily who I would pick.

– The Wildcard Scenario is a draft pick that doesn’t fall directly into the two categories above and is a player that I think would go slightly later than the current selection (or undrafted in the later rounds). Still, I believe it would make an interesting selection for the Sabres.

– First-time draft-eligible players will have their names displayed in bold. Every asterisk after the players’ name will denote if they are D+1 or D+2 draft-eligible players. For instance, Richard Baran was eligible for the draft last year but was not drafted. He will appear in the draft guide as ‘Richard Baran*’.

Last year, this draft guide included Luke Osburn in a Dream Scenario, Adam Kleber in the Realistic Scenarios, and Konsta Helenius in a Wildcard Scenario. Hopefully, this guide will get lucky again and provide insight for some of the players the Sabres draft. If not, then I encourage you to go to my draft rankings article to see if I had any notes about the player in that article before the recap article I will write.

This article is going to be a bit longer than the others as we take a deep dive into all the options.

So now, without further ado, the draft guide everyone’s probably been waiting for: who do the Sabres pick with the #9 pick?

Dream Scenarios

1. James Hagens, C, NCAA (Boston College

DOB: 11/3/06

5’11, 176 lbs

37gp, 11g, 37pts

If you had told me in October that James Hagens wasn’t going to be the first overall selection in the 2025 draft, I would’ve been surprised. If you told me I’d be writing a draft profile for Hagens for the Sabres to take at the ninth overall pick, and that there’s a chance it could happen, I’d have asked, “how bad was the injury?”

Despite the recent rumors that Hagens is slipping down the draft board, I found him to be a very impactful player at Boston College. He was one of the leaders in my dataset in passes per 60 and sent almost 23% of his passes to scoring areas of the ice. He was involved in over 48% of his team’s successful transitions. He was in the bottom 50% of players in individual shot attempts per game and dangerous shot attempts per game. Overall, he profiled like a borderline elite playmaker who is the engine of a line through the neutral zone, who you’d like to get to the inside more to get his shot off.

The part of his game that has always stood out has been how he never looks down at the puck. His head is always up and scanning the ice, looking to see how the play is developing and able to feed passes to his teammates with ease. At the beginning of the year, Hagens could look a bit soft in board battles and along the wall, but as the Hockey East season concluded and BC went to the Frozen Four playoffs, I thought he was looking super engaged on the defensive end of the ice.

The one area of the game where he struggled compared to other high-level transition players was his efficiency in offensive zone transitions. Most of the time, the inefficiency was caused by not having a clear passing option going into the zone and opting to dump it in. Some of the time, though, it was because he tried to dangle past a defender at the blue line instead of changing gears or moving to space.

He is a good skater but isn’t blazing fast, and his size never seemed to be a detriment in any zone for how he played. He plays so well in support and through the middle that I would keep him as a center as he moves to the professional ranks.

Perhaps the point production wasn’t as elite as recent NCAA top picks like Celebrini or Fantilli, but the playmaking and the brain to see plays developing are all there to be a top 6 center who will produce points in the NHL. It’s a steal, in my mind, if the first eight teams let Hagens slip to nine.

2. Victor Eklund, LW, HockeyAllsvenskan

DOB: 10/3/06

5’11, 161 lbs

42p, 19g, 31pts

Victor Eklund is not your normal small, undersized winger. He plays with grit, tenacity, and is on the puck at all times and in all three zones. He is relentless at hounding the puck and thrives in board battles and along the wall despite his frame. He wants to be the first one in on the forecheck; he will go below the dots as a winger to prevent backdoor plays, and then sprint out in transition to receive a connecting pass in his traditional winger position. He’s the kind of player that teammates adore, coaches can’t stop raving about, and fans fall in love with.

He plays a very north/south game with speed and skill. There isn’t the evasiveness that James Hagens has on his edges to get lateral and stickhandle by a defender. Rather, Eklund will use quick fakes and movement in his hips to shift a defender to then go by them. He facilitates play, really playing in a men’s league in Sweden. He’s one of the few players I’ve watched this year who facilitates so much from below the goal line. He wins a puck battle and instantly scans for who is open out front.

Eklund isn’t afraid to crash the net against men and will mix it up in scrums as well. He’ll battle for a loose puck, gather it, and then fire a pass cross-ice to an open teammate. He has a nasty wrist shot with power that can beat goalies from a distance. While he doesn’t try too many flashy moves during my viewings, he is able to puck handle like it’s on a string in small areas when he does show off his handles.

There isn’t a hole in Eklund’s game. People may doubt whether or not he’s creative enough to drive offensive results in the NHL, but everything I’ve seen shows a player who drives play to the inside with great vision and skill, and tenacity. I’d love for Eklund’s name to be called for the ninth overall pick.

Realistic Scenarios

1. Jake O’Brien, C, OHL

DOB: 6/16/07

6’2, 170 lbs

66gp, 32g, 98pts

When it comes to pure passing vision and picking apart a penalty kill, there is no one better in the draft than Jake O’Brien. One of the best players in the draft when it comes to putting pucks into space and developing plays with his patience to allow players to get open.

His dataset shows a player that is one of the best playmakers in the class, as he sends 20.3% of his passes to dangerous areas of the ice and is among the top in the dataset at passes per 60 at 91.93 passes per 60. His gaudy assist number isn’t inflated given these microstats. He isn’t taking a lot of shots per 60, but when he does, they are dangerous shot attempts from scoring areas at even strength. He’s not a passenger in transition, but he isn’t the engine of his line in the neutral zone, and he is above average in terms of his success rate of keeping possession of an offensive zone exit/entry.

The biggest reason why O’Brien falls outside my dream scenario is that he lacks pace of play, and his skating mechanics need some refinement. He gets caught from behind too often in transition, which causes turnovers or dump-ins. It also hinders his ability to get into scoring areas with the puck on his stick to generate scoring chances for himself.

There’s so much skill with O’Brien that he’s an attractive option for the Sabres. I love watching him dangle in small areas and find teammates. I do question the lack of pace and lack of defensive intensity this high in the draft, and with who I know could be available.

2. Brady Martin, C, OHL

DOB: 3/16/07

6’0, 174 lbs

57gp, 33g, 72pts

Brady Martin may be the hot commodity come draft day, as his draft profile has skyrocketed throughout the last few months. His ability to thrive as a power forward winger in the U18s and the emergence of Sam Bennett in the Stanley Cup playoffs have put Brady Martin as the archetype of the draft-eligible player most like Bennett.

Martin is a freight train on skates. He is going to try to go through any player he can when he’s on the forecheck, and he plays a very physical brand of offensive hockey as well. He’s a medium volume shooter but a low efficiency one in that he doesn’t get to scoring areas for most of his shot attempts. He’s a decently volumed passer per 6,0, but he doesn’t complete a high percentage of his passes, and only 13% of his passes go to scoring areas. He’s heavily involved in transition at 47.8% and is decently efficient at 70%.

What the data and my six-game sample showed was a player who has good skill and excels as the physicality picks up throughout a game. He is a bit on the lower pace side, and he tries to do too many skilled puck-handling moves that he isn’t capable of completing yet. However, when he does make it work, it’s a highlight reel play.

Martin is a hard one to one to pin down. There are flashes of skill and offensive upside. The data suggests that he’s more of a connector in the offensive zone and a net-front presence. I would move him to RW and let him use his physicality and small-area skill to create chances through a dump-and-hunt strategy instead of driving transition through him down the middle.

Wildcard Scenarios

1. Porter Martone, RW, OHL

DOB: 10/26/06

6’3, 207 lbs

57gp, 37g, 98pts

Porter Martone may be one of the most misunderstood prospects by the casual fan in the NHL draft. Despite standing 6’3 and 207 pounds, Martone is one of the draft’s best passers and playmakers. Martone plays at a below-average pace but can read when play could be shifting to go the other way to get above the puck to be a passing option for his teammates going out in transition. He’s one of just a few players who were involved in over 50% of their team’s successful offensive transitions this season. Martone will play through his teammates to open space for himself. He’ll feed pucks to the wall or below the goalline to then move to an area of the ice where he can separate from a defender to get a shot off or to create more space for him to operate to create a scoring chance through his passing.

He’s one of the more prolific passers at 98 passes per 60 minutes, with 17% of them going to scoring chance areas. He’s also one of the lowest volume shooters in my dataset at even strength, at just 9.95 shots per 60 minutes. The reasons why I think Martone can fall to the ninth overall pick are twofold. First, his skating needs work, and his pace of play is too low. While at the OHL he’s able to dictate the pace of play with his size and skill, as the skill level and pace gets even faster in the NCAA/AHL/NHL there’s going to be questions about how effective his puck possession game can be if he is always under duress and unable to spin/move out of it. Secondly, there was not enough use of his physicality or defensive engagement throughout my viewings to project lineup variability with certainty. While it’s safe to presume that he could, if all things fail, transform himself into a power forward with skill, there isn’t a lot of evidence put on tape by Martone that he’d do well in that role.

Still, he’s the fourth-ranked prospect on my board for a reason: he thinks the game so well and shows so much promise. Players that have this type of untapped potential, while also being one of the best playmakers in the draft, are hard to come by. If he’s available at the 9th overall pick, then the Sabres should run to the podium.

2. Roger McQueen, C, WHL

DOB: 10/2/06

6’5, 192 lbs

17gp, 10g, 20pts

McQueen’s analytical profile from my dataset would disqualify him from being ranked by data alone. One of the lowest individual shot generators, doesn’t shoot from scoring areas, is a low volume passer who doesn’t complete a high percentage of his passes nor send passes to scoring areas, and a low volume transition player who is inefficient at offensive transitions. Despite all of this, it would be somewhat shocking to see McQueen’s name available for the Sabres at the ninth overall selection.

To draft McQueen is to draft the traits of a player and not the sum of all the parts of their game, and to hope that through development, he will become the player he flashes he can be. He’s 6’5 with really quick hands that pulled off some of the most complicated stick-handling moves I’ve seen in this draft class. He can pull pucks off the wall with ease and, with a single stride, move the puck to the front of the net. He’s not afraid to get physical, though it is not his strong suit. There are passes he makes that, while they didn’t connect often this year, the thought process is NHL level, and he read the play right.

The back injury has been well documented, including that, according to McQueen, it was a misdiagnosis, and he has been pain-free for at least a month or two now. I would say that’s my secondary concern if I were to draft McQueen. My primary concern when it comes to drafting Roger McQueen is that I am betting that he will become a player I haven’t seen out of him yet. It is a tantalizing prospect to think about what McQueen could be if his skill and skating develop over the next two years, as he would most likely be one of the best three players to come out of the draft. However, there is a significant risk and draft capital involved with selecting him at 9th overall. I think Adams would avoid the selection, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we swung for the fences.

Two Random notes before the draft tonight:

1. Radim Mrtka

I don’t think the 6’6 right-handed defenseman is going to be in play. If he is, then I’ll say that he’s mobile for his frame, and he’s a smart off-puck defender. I don’t think he has the puck skill to be an offensive player, nor does he operate very well under pressure to complete passes right now. Similarly to McQueen, Mrtka’s draft projection is dependent on development. I think he ends up as a fine middle-pairing defenseman who may slide into your PP2 in a pinch, but I wouldn’t take him at 9th overall.

2. Justin Carbonneau

A lot of rumors linking the Sabres and Carbonneau at the moment. I think the draft board falls in a way that Carbonneau isn’t an option, but if he is, I think that Carbonneau may be the most skilled player in this draft. He attempts creative zone rushes and dangles in every one I’ve seen, and he has a monster wrist shot that he deployed on the lethal power play. He’s very inconsistent off the puck in his effort and engagement level, and he really needs to learn to play through his linemates. Too often, everything was about Carbonneau, and he didn’t support or make his teammates better. A heck of an offensive talent that needs some refinement on his approach to defense and playing through his linemates, and not making his linemates play through him.