Owen Power spent two seasons with the Chicago Steel before joining Michigan. ©2021, Chicago Steel

Sabres win NHL Draft Lottery, will pick first overall

The Buffalo Sabres won tonight’s NHL Draft Lottery and will pick first overall July 23.

This is the second time in four years the Sabres own the top pick. After they won the lottery in 2018, they selected defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

The Sabres, by virtue of their last-place finish this season, had the highest odds for the No. 1 pick, just 16.6%. The NHL only conducted two draws this year, meaning the Sabres could fall no lower than third.

The expansion Seattle Kraken will pick second and the Anaheim Ducks third.

Michigan defenseman Owen Power is ranked first among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking of 2021 draft prospects.

This is fourth time in franchise history the Sabres will pick first. In addition to Dahlin, they also selected centers Gilbert Perreault (1970) and Pierre Turgeon (1987).

Stay tuned for updates. Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams will talk to the media later tonight.

One thought on “Sabres win NHL Draft Lottery, will pick first overall”

  1. Hopefully the Sabres “luck” is about to change. For all the negative this season, some very good things did come about, in spite of looking nearly hopeless. Hopefully management doesn’t throw away the obvious caralysts responsible for some promising results when the franchise appeared totally rudderless. The team managed to win against difficult opponents late in the season, with the young prospects showing they can make it and perform in the NHL. Don Granato’s goal of being a head coach hopefully is fulfilled, he deserves a shot after so many failures in rapid succession over the past decade. The team deserves some stability after the absurd amount of coach and GM turnover. I believe the team hit rock bottom, and now can continue on the upward progress shown late this season. Hopefully this is the start of a prolonged turnaround. To Kevin Adams and other management- keep the trades to a minimum, there’s no need for another round of useless, wasteful trades. It hasn’t and won’t work unless it’s for players of top value, enough high draft picks have been wasted looking for the magic panacea. And don’t stare a gift horse in the mouth.

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