WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
Offseason Edition
Owen Power could be the No. 1 overall pick. ©2021, Chicago Steel
Kevyn Adams said his heart was racing before Wednesday’s NHL Draft Lottery. The Buffalo Sabres general manager looked intense. At one point, Terry Pegula texted him and told him to smile.
Leading up to the announcement, Adams said all the adversity the Sabres endured during a hellish season in which they finished dead last was flashing through his mind. He was also thinking about how much the top pick would mean to owners Terry ... Read the full article
Owen Power spent two seasons with the Chicago Steel before joining Michigan. ©2021, Chicago Steel
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 ... Read the full article
J-J Peterka has been playing against men for more than a year. ©2020, Red Bull Munich
As the NHL Draft progressed Tuesday night, J-J Peterka started getting a little upset. The German forward many had pegged as a first-round selection kept waiting to be picked.
Two of his fellow countrymen – forwards Tim Stutzle (third overall, Ottawa Senators) and Lukas Reichel (17th, Chicago Blackhawks) – went off the board early.
When the first round ended, Peterka, 18, was still available. Meanwhile, rookie general manager Kevyn Adams was trying to move up ... Read the full article
J-J Peterka spent last season in Munich. ©2020, Red Bull Munich
The Buffalo Sabres made a trade early on the second day of the NHL Draft, sending the 38th and 100th picks to the San Jose Sharks so they could move up and grab German forward J-J Peterka 34th overall.
The Sabres don’t have another pick today until the fifth round, 131st overall.
The 5-foot-11, 192-pound Peterka spent last season playing against men for Red Bull Munich in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), scoring seven goals ... Read the full article
Trevor Kuntar played three seasons in Youngstown. ©2020, Scott Galvin, Youngstown Phantoms
When 31 teams passed over Trevor Kuntar in the NHL Draft last year, he said he never stopped thinking about it. The snubs fueled the Williamsville native.
Kuntar, 19, tried to seize the opportunity having an extra year to develop into a better prospect offered him.
“I’m kind of glad that it happened like that, too, because I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot,” Kuntar told the Times Herald last week.
This afternoon, ... Read the full article
Jack Quinn enjoyed a monster season in Ottawa in 2019-20. ©2020, Terry Wilson, OHL Images
Growing up, Jack Quinn liked to think of himself as a multi-sport athlete. The high-scoring winger the Buffalo Sabres drafted eighth overall Tuesday did not simply focus on hockey. He also enjoyed playing baseball and golf.
“I didn’t really train for hockey, really, I just played it,” said Quinn, who scored 52 goals in 62 games last season for the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s.
Not surprisingly, Quinn struggled to make any progress in hockey. ... Read the full article
The NHL held a normal draft last year in Vancouver. ©2020, Olean Times Herald
Instead mingling with his counterparts on the arena floor, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams stayed in Buffalo on Tuesday and ran his first NHL Draft from KeyBank Center with his cellphone close by.
In regular times, the eyes of media members and spectators are often fixated on the floor, the hub of activity during the NHL Draft. The site of two GMs chatting can ignite intense speculation and sometimes means a trade is brewing.
When ... Read the full article
©2020, NHL
The Buffalo Sabres have selected winger Jack Quinn, who scored 52 goals with the Ottawa 67’s last season, eighth overall at the NHL tonight.
The 6-foot, 167-pound Quinn is the first pick under new Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams.
Quinn, who often draws comparisons to Boston Bruins sniper David Pastrnak, ranked seventh among draft-eligible North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
Quinn, 19, is a bit of a late bloomer. He scored only ... Read the full article
Kevyn Adams couldn’t stop smiling Monday. ©2020, Hickling Images
The smile on Kevyn Adams’ face said everything. What promises to be the oddest offseason in NHL history is about to kick into high gear, and the Buffalo Sabres’ rookie general manager couldn’t hide his excitement.
During a 30-minute Zoom call Monday, Adams, 45, rarely stopped grinning. After preparing nearly four months throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to reshape the Sabres, Adams and his staff will be busy this week.
Following the NHL Draft – the ... Read the full article
Declan McDonnell (25) enjoyed a strong rookie season with the Kitchener Rangers. ©2020, Kevin Sousa, Kitchener Rangers
At the beginning of his rookie season, NHL Central Scouting listed Lake View’s Declan McDonnell as a “player to watch.”
McDonnell, 18, doesn’t possess notable size or blazing speed. As the winger was beginning his career with the Kitchener Rangers, he mostly played a third-line role and did not skate on special teams.
But 5-foot-10, 171-pound McDonnell forced scouts to pay attention to him.
“He found a way (to contribute), his name was on the ... Read the full article