Coming into the weekend, Buffalo only had five draft picks and didn’t own a second or third-round selection. That limits the quality of what they were going to get as a draft haul, but I still think they came away with a solid class.

Draft Grade: B+

The only pick that gave me pause was Daxon Rudolph at fourth overall.

Personally, I would’ve gone with Chase Reid or Alberts Smits if the Sabres wanted to go defense at fourth overall. If Buffalo had landed one of those two, I’d probably be giving this class an A. Instead, they bet on Rudolph’s in-zone defending and offensive traits.

We’ll find out soon enough if they were right.

My concern has always been whether his offensive game is good enough to outweigh the transition issues I saw this season. If he’s able to produce in the NCAA next year while looking competent in his own zone, he could shut a lot of critics up (including me).

Pick 4: Daxon Rudolph, RHD, WHL

Pick 20: Ilia Morozov, C, NCAA

My picks for 4 and 20: Chase Reid, RHD, OHL and Xavier Villeneuve, LHD, QMJHL

I’ve already written full scouting reports on both players, so I won’t rehash everything here.

I can understand why Buffalo landed on Rudolph. Compared to Chase Reid, Rudolph posted stronger defensive results in his own zone. If the Sabres viewed those two as having similar offensive upside, it makes sense that they leaned toward the player they trusted more defensively.

Morozov feels like one of the safer bets in this class to eventually become an NHL player. His defensive habits are already well ahead of most draft-eligible forwards, and you can picture him filling a bottom-six role today. The bigger question is how much offense he can add over the next couple of seasons. If there’s another level to his game, Buffalo may have found more than just a reliable third-line center.

Round 4 (124)

Sabres: Olivers Murnieks
Me: Lars Steiner

I actually liked this pick quite a bit. Murnieks was No. 79 on my board, so getting him in the fourth round is good value. He’s one of the smarter offensive players in the class. His passing creates offense, he processes the game quickly, and he’s quietly one of the better defensive forwards outside the first round. The reason he slipped is pretty simple.

He’s slow.

His pace limits how often he gets involved in transition and it takes away from a lot of the skill that makes him interesting. If he can get his skating to even an NHL average level, I think there’s a legitimate middle-six player here. Murnieks is a long shot, but the tools outside of skating are worth betting on.

Round 5 (156)

Sabres: Domán Kristóf Szongoth
Me: Landon Hafele

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t watched Szongoth before Buffalo drafted him. After going back through a few games, I came away thinking he has a lot in common with Murnieks. He has good hands, plays a responsible game away from the puck, and can make some really nice plays when he has time.

Like Murnieks, though, the skating is what holds everything back. His pace and edgework make it difficult for him to stay involved through transition, and he doesn’t generate nearly as many offensive touches as you’d like because of it.

There’s enough skill here that I understand taking a chance in the fifth round. Whether he becomes a real prospect is probably going to come down to how much his skating improves over the next few years.

Round 6 (188)

Sabres: Dylan Dumont
Me: Julen Maze

Dumont fits the same theme as Buffalo’s other Day 2 selections. He’s a competitive player who works in all three zones, but he isn’t someone who wins with pace.

Unlike Murnieks and Szongoth, Dumont profiles much more as a traditional power forward. He’s at his best on the forecheck, winning battles, and creating chaos around the crease.

I only tracked one of his games this season and after the second game I watched of his I knew I wasn’t going to rank him. In my two viewings, he wasn’t very involved in transition and didn’t create much offense as a passer. Most of his value came without the puck and his pace is too low for me to be interested.

He’s also one of the younger players in the draft, so there’s plenty of time for him to develop. This is the kind of pick that probably won’t have a real answer for another three or four years.

Since 2019, I have been drafting alongside the Sabres with their picks. Below are our depth charts after the 2026 NHL draft.

Buffalo Sabres Drafted Players since 2019 (NHL career numbers in parentheses)

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Zach Benson (221gp, 34g, 101pts)	Konsta Helenius (9gp, 1g, 4pts)	Jack Quinn (260gp, 59g, 147pts)
JJ Peterka (320gp, 92g, 197pts)	Anton Wahlberg	Lukas Rousek (17gp, 1g, 4pts)
Filip Cederqvist	Matteo Costantini	Isak Rosén (52gp, 6g, 11pts)
Alexander Kisakov	Jakub Konecny	Prokhor Poltapov
Stiven Sardaryan	Jiri Kulich (70gp, 17g, 27pts)	Brodie Ziemer
Ethan Miedema	Matthew Savoie (87gp, 18g, 38pts)	Joel Ratkovic Berndtsson
Josh Bloom	Noah Ostlund (68gp, 11g, 27pts)	Jake Richard
Viktor Neuchev	Dylan Cozens (444gp, 110g, 273pts)	Dylan Dumont
Viljami Marajala	Ilia Morozov	Linus Sjodin
William von Barnekow	Aaron Huglen	Vasili Zelenov
Melvin Novotny	Matous Jan Kucharick	Olivier Nadeau
	Olivers Murnieks
	Domán Kristóf Szongoth
	Ashton Schultz
	Tyson Kozak (67gp, 5g, 11pts)
	Ryan Rucinski
	Gustav Karlsson

Left-handed Defensemen	Right-handed Defensemen
Owen Power (323gp, 27g, 140pts)	Daxon Rudolph
Ryan Johnson (47gp, 0g, 7pts)	Radim Mrtka
Mats Lindgren	Maxim Strbak
Luke Osburn	Adam Kleber
Noah Laberge	David Bedkowski
Nikita Novikov	Gavin McCarthy
Patrick Geary	Simon-Pier Brunet
Sean Keohane	Albert Lyckasen
Norwin Panocha	Vsevolod Komarov

Goalies

Erik Portillo (1gp, 1.02 GAA, .966 SV%)

Topias Leinonen

Samuel Meloche

Scott Ratzlaff

Yevgeni Prokhorov

Ryerson Leenders

My Drafted Prospects since 2019

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Zach Benson (221gp, 34g, 101pts)	Alex Newhook (338gp, 70g, 151pts)	Victor Eklund (1gp, 0g, 1 pt)
Arthur Kaliyev (204gp, 38g, 76pts)	Marco Rossi (235gp, 57g, 136pts)	Gracyn Sawchyn
Andrew Cristall	Michael Hage	Jayden Perron
Liam Ohgren (93gp, 9g, 23pts)	Marat Khusnutdinov (168gp, 21g, 49pts)	Lars Steiner
Teddy Stiga	Matthew Beniers (328gp, 81g, 195pts)	Zion Nybeck
Pavel Dorofeyev (231gp, 92g, 149pts)	Brad Lambert (31gp, 3g, 8pts)	Gleb Trikozov
Rhett Pitlick	Logan Stankoven (183gp, 41g, 96pts)	Cole Knuble
Viktor Klingsell	Luke Misa	Marcus Nguyen
Landon Hafele	L.J. Mooney	Jack Devine (6gp, 0g, 0pts)
Alexander Pashin	Timur Mukhanov	Fabian Lysell (12gp, 1g, 3pts)
Sean Tschigerl	Lorenzo Canonica	Simon Robertsson
Mac Swanson	Aidan Park	Gavin Cornforth
Julien Maze
Dmitri Katelevsky
Philippe Veilleux
Beau Jelsma
Topias Hynninen
Dylan Duke (2gp, 1g, 1pts)

Left-handed Defensemen	Right-handed Defensemen
Xavier Villeneuve	Chase Reid
Marshall Warren (8gp, 0g, 3pts)	Seamus Casey (16gp, 4g, 8pts)
Vladimir Grudinin	Charlie Tretheway
Mats Lindgren	Aram Minnetian
Luke Osburn	Zach Bookman
Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen	Victor Mancini (55gp, 2g, 11pts)
Daniil Ustinkov	Jake Martin
Will Sharpe	Kalle Ervasti
David Gucciardi
Francesco Dell’Elce

Goalies

Dustin Wolf (128gp, 2.85 GAA, .903 SV%)

Adam Dybal

Ondrej Stebetak