Watch Sabres.com's 2022 NHL Draft Preview Show now

Round 1 of the 2022 NHL Draft kicks off Thursday night in Montreal. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN+.
The Buffalo Sabres have three picks in the first round and 11 total. After Buffalo makes its first selection - currently slated for ninth overall - tune in to the team's official Facebook page for live reaction from Sabres broadcasters Brian Duff and Martin Biron at Bell Centre.
Over the past few weeks, Sabres.com has been working to get you ready for the draft with preview articles and videos. If you've missed anything, we're compiling it for you right here.
So without further ado, here's what you need to know.

2022 NHL Draft Preview Show

Let Brian Duff and Martin Biron guide you through Buffalo's options in the first round with our four-part video series.
Episode 1 focused on which players the Sabres could take with the ninth overall pick:

For more on that pick, check out this story by Sabres.com's Jourdon LaBarber.
In alphabetical order, here are a few of the players that could be available:
The Sabres will also select 16th overall. They received this pick in the trade that sent Jack Eichel to Vegas and brought Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs to town.
In Episode 2, Duffer and Marty asked draft experts from around the hockey world for their thoughts on which players could be available at 16:

Our written story on the middle of the first round is here. Learn more about the players who could be options in this slot, including:
Thanks to a trade with Florida last year (the one that saw Sam Reinhart go to Florida and goaltending prospect Devon Levi come to Buffalo), Buffalo also has the 28th-overall pick in this year's draft.
Who are the top players that could be picked there or early in the second round? Episode 3 of our Draft Preview Show has the answers:

If reading is more your thing, we profiled the following prospects in this article.
In the Draft Preview finale, Duffer and Marty asked each draft expert for a few of their favorite prospects who could be available in the later rounds. And of course, Marty slipped in some goalie talk at the end:

From the top

Kevyn Adams will be at the helm for his third draft as Buffalo's general manager, but just his first in person because of COVID. The past two drafts have been held virtually.
"I think in the last month there's not a person in the hockey world that I haven't run into that didn't say, 'I'll see you in Montreal,'" Adams joked last week. "So, I don't know if they're going to have enough hotel rooms in Montreal to fit everybody, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun."
As for what the Sabres will look to do, Adams is keeping all of his options open.
"What's exciting for us going into a draft with having the capital we do, having conversations with the teams ahead of us, what are they looking to do, having conversations with the teams behind us," Adams said. "We've been doing that. We're open to both."
Read more here.
We also spoke to Jerry Forton, the director of amateur scouting, about the hockey department's preparation heading into this year's draft and how unique it is to have picks at the top, middle and end of the first round.
"Any time you're talking about a player at any range in the first round … every one of those players is in play for us, is how we're looking at it," Forton said. "You're looking at it that way anyways, but it's a little more heightened obviously this year."
Check out the full interview here.

3 questions heading into the week

With the draft inching closer, here's another look at where Buffalo stands heading into the week.
One of the big storylines around the NHL is what Montreal will do with the first-overall pick. While new general manager Kent Hughes has said the Canadiens are considering forwards Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky and Logan Cooley with the top pick, they also aren't ruling out trading the pick.
Stay tuned to NHL.com for the latest from around the league.

Looking back at last year's class

Buffalo has already signed five players from the Class of 2021 to entry-level contracts, including first-overall pick Owen Power, who made his NHL debut at the end of last season.
We chatted with director of player development Adam Mair about the progress the 11 players drafted last July have made over the calendar year.
Here's what Mair had to say about Power:
"I was really impressed with the way that he acclimated to the (NHL) game, to the speed, to the size," Mair said. "For me, we were all very hopeful that that would be the case and that was sort of our internal expectations. But until a young player gets there, you don't know."
Read more about Isak Rosen, Aleksandr Kisakov, Josh Bloom, Olivier Nadeu and the other Sabres prospects from that draft class here.

Looking further back

Finally, let's take a stroll down memory lane. This year marks just the third time in franchise history that Buffalo holds three first-round picks. The others were in 1982 and 1983.
In '82, Buffalo selected Paul Cyr along with two future Hall of Famers in Phil Housley and Dave Andreychuk.
And in 1983, the Sabres took goaltender Tom Barrasso and forwards Normand Lacombe and Adam Creighton.
Barrasso had an immediate impact for Buffalo as a rookie, becoming just the third player ever to win the Calder Trophy and the Vezina Trophy in the same season.
Read more on those draft classes here.