ORCHARD PARK – As the first round of Friday’s NHL Draft approached and he held two first-round picks – the fourth and 20th selections – general manager Jarmo Kekalainen informed other teams the Buffalo Sabres had all their options open.
They were willing to move up or down, or perhaps trade for established talent.
Teams coveted the fourth pick the Sabres acquired in Tuesday’s blockbuster trade that sent defenseman Bowen Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks. No one, however, made a strong offer.
“Nothing was attractive enough for us to do anything else than pick,” Kekalainen said Friday at One Bills Drive.
So the Sabres used both of the picks, selecting defenseman Daxon Rudolph fourth overall and forward Ilia Morozov 20th.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Rudolph registered 28 goals, 78 points, 75 penalty minutes and a plus-32 rating in 68 games with the junior Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders last season.
NHL Central Scouting ranked him fifth among draft-eligible North American skaters.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Kekalainen said. “He’s got great offensive ability. I personally saw him play in August at the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament with Team Canada and I was impressed there, but that’s a long time ago and our scouts follow him all year.
“He had great productivity in the Western Hockey League, big guy. He’s got some jam to him too, plays hard. But his instincts are great. I think that’s the biggest thing that we like about him is it’s not just his physical ability, it’s his hockey IQ. His instincts are great.”
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Morozov, 17, was college hockey’s youngest player as a freshman last season at Miami University. He registered eight goals, 20 points and 27 penalty minutes in 36 games.
The Russian turns 18 on Aug. 3.
Central Scouting ranked him 10th among draft-eligible North American skaters.
“I think he’s a good two-way forward,” Kekalainen said. “It’s pretty hard to score a lot in college at the age of 17.”
Kekalainen said he saw Morozov play in person because his daughters attend Miami.
“I talked to the head coach there and he couldn’t stop talking about the character of Ilia Morozov,” he said. “It’s a pretty impressive story. He comes from Russia, hardly spoke any English and now he’s an A student. Works on his game. They have to kick him out of the rink and gym before games. If you were watching the testing it was pretty impressive.
“The results are there for the work that he’s done so far, and he’s just getting started.”
Kekalainen said the Sabres explored the idea of moving up from the 20th selection into the teens to make sure they got one of the prospects high on their list.
“We ended up getting one at 20,” he said. “And if all of them were gone, we were exploring the options of going from 20 to 24, 25, maybe move back a little bit.”