Sabres continue to replenish defensive depth on Day 2 of the NHL Draft

DALLAS - Before the 2018 NHL Draft even began, it was a virtual certainty that the Buffalo Sabres were going to take a Swedish defenseman with the first overall pick. What remained to be seen was how they would draft in rounds two through seven.
As it turned out, the selection of Swedish defensemen proved to be a theme. After drafting Rasmus Dahlin on Friday, the Sabres made five picks Saturday. Four of those picks were defensemen, three of which had Swedish bloodlines and two of which were trained in Sweden.
A pattern, sure, but was it intentional?

"Not at all, really," assistant general manager Randy Sexton said. "We don't draft by region, we don't draft by country. We scour the world for the best players that we can find that play a style that we want to play going forward and then we work very diligently to learn as much as we can about them as human beings so that they map to our character criteria. Then we put them in the order that we think makes the most sense based on their probability to become a Sabre."
Pick-by-pick breakdown of Day 2 | READ: Pekar 'never imagined' being drafted | Complete Draft coverage
Sexton said the Sabres seek to draft the best player available rather than fill certain positional needs. In this case, it just so happened that the players atop Buffalo's list happened to be defensemen more often than not, and Jason Botterill was more than happy to replenish the cupboard on the back end.
"You can never have too many defensemen," Botterill said. "It was something that we did talk a lot about, about trying to add more defensemen. We certainly knew who we were going to take at number one.
"… The way we want to play, you look at our pipeline right now, I think it's a scenario where we need to add more defensemen to our group. So, we're very happy with how the day turned out."
Dahlin now headlines Buffalo's prospect group on the backend, which also includes Brendan Guhle, who should challenge for a roster spot in Buffalo next season, as well as Will Borgen in Rochester and Casey Fitzgerald at the collegiate level. Botterill acquired another defense prospect when he traded for Brandon Hickey last week.
"Obviously, we're very excited about developing a young player like Brendan Guhle," Botterill said. "You've seen some of our decisions, to get a player like Hickey. We're excited about a player like Fitzgerald, who's in our organization too. So as excited as we are about Brendan Guhle, we want to make sure there's more Brendan Guhles coming. That was one of the emphases for us."
Now, you can add Mattias Samuelsson, Linus Lindstrand Cronholm, Miska Kukkonen and William Worge Kreü to that list. Buffalo's draft actually followed a larger trend; 70 defensemen were taken, more than any other position. There were 28 Swedes drafted, tying a record set in 2011.
"They've done an outstanding job as a country in the development process," Botterill said. "Especially on the backend, the mobility, how a lot of NHL teams now are is how Swedish players played growing up. Good mobility, good hockey sense, they know how to move the puck. Those are attributes that we're looking for in our organization."
Here are more notes and observations from Day 2 of the draft.

Sabres were high on Samuelsson

Sexton confirmed that teams were calling about pick 32. The Sabres stayed pat because there was a player they highly desired in Samuelsson, who they selected to open the second round. You can read more about Samuelsson, and why a former teammate thinks he'll complement Dahlin well, here.
Samuelsson's father, Kjell, played 14 seasons in the NHL, and Sexton said his father's influence was evident in the character he displayed during his interviews with Buffalo.
"I've always believed that players who grew up in a hockey family, who have a family member that have played and gone through the difficult path it takes to get and stay in the NHL, that they really do have a competitive advantage over some of the other players," Sexton said.
"… We were struck by his maturity, we were struck by his strength of character, we were struck by his leadership and we were clearly struck by his true understanding of what it takes and the commitment it takes to not only get to the National Hockey League level, but to stay and excel at the NHL level."

What about the CHL?

For the second-straight year, the Sabres did not draft a player out of a Canadian junior hockey league. At the top of the draft, that can be chalked up to circumstance. Toward the bottom, Botterill and Sexton explained that there is some strategy behind the decision to draft international and collegiate players.
Teams have a two-year window to sign prospects drafted out of the CHL, whereas collegiate and international players have four-year windows. Because late-round picks generally take longer to develop, those extra years are valuable.
"Strategically, we do like players from Europe or players going to college in the mid to later rounds because they tend to need more time to develop and as a result you've got that four-year development window before you need to make a signing decision rather than a CHL player," Sexton said. "So, there is some strategy there, but certainly not in the earlier rounds."

About the trade

The Sabres only made one trade during the draft, acquiring Toronto's sixth-round pick in 2019 in exchange for their sixth-round pick (156 overall) on Saturday. Botterill said the move was made because the team felt the players on their board would still be available in the seventh round.
"We just felt it was a situation to bring in another asset for next year," he said.

Looking ahead

After announcing earlier in the week that the team will not extend a qualifying offer to Robin Lehner, Botterill said he's continued to have trade discussions with teams regarding goaltenders. The Sabres can either acquire a goalie via trade or sign one when free agency opens on July 1.
Botterill declined to comment on other restricted free agents but did say he was optimistic that the team will be able to reach a deal with forward Sam Reinhart. The deadline to qualify restricted free agents is Monday at 5 p.m.