ORCHARD PARK – The Sabres this afternoon selected center Olivers Murnieks in the fourth round, 124th overall, at the NHL Draft in KeyBank Center.
The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Murnieks registered seven goals, 30 points, 14 penalty minutes and a minus-23 rating in 31 games with the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League’s Saint John Sea Dogs last season.
NHL Central Scouting ranked the Latvian 98th among draft-eligible North American skaters.
“I’m a two-way player that is very reliable, and the coach can put me on any situation he wants to,” Murnieks said on a Zoom call.
Sabres assistant general manager Jerry Forton, who’s in charge of amateur scouting, said Murnieks plays “a natural, two-way game.
“Another guy that’s got to work on his skating a little bit,” he said at One Bills Drive, the Sabres’ draft headquarters.
Forton said a concussion sidelined the youngster part of last season.
Murnieks said his only contact with the Sabres before the draft was a 15-minute phone call.
“My first and only time talking to them, so I was kind of a little bit shocked that they picked me,” he said.
Murnieks, who turns 18 on July 31, said he must talk to his agent and Boston College to decide if he’s going to play college hockey next season.
He represented at the World Junior Championship and World Championship this year, an experience that buoyed his development.
“I can take a lot from that tournament because I saw everything from behind the scenes how the pro players do it, how they prepare for games, how they eat, how they do everything,” he said.
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The Sabres have selected center Doman Szongoth in the fifth round, 156th overall.
The 6-foot-1, 194-pound Szongoth registered 10 goals, 28 points, 57 penalty minutes and a minus-3 rating in 44 games with the KooKoo under-20 team in Finland last season.
Central Scouting ranked the Hungarian 40th among draft-eligible European skaters.
“We think he needs to work on his skating a little bit,” Forton said. “… But there’s some intangibles there that we really like. (He) gets to the inside of the game, gets around the net, and he still takes care of his own end.”
He represented at the World Junior Championship this year.
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The Sabres have selected center Dylan Dumont in the sixth round, 188th overall.
The 6-foot, 183-pound Dumont registered 28 goals, 44 points, eight penalty minutes and a minus-7 rating in 62 games with the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs last season.
Central Scouting ranked him 117th among draft-eligible North American skaters.
Forton said Dumont, who has put on about 30 pounds in the last two years, “gets to the inside of the game.”
“Almost a mini-power-forward approach to his style of playing,” he said.
Dumont turns 18 on Aug. 18.
“Very young for the draft, an August birthday, so we’re betting on some more physical development upside there,” Forton said. “And then the ability just to get inside, already at his size, is only going to get better as he gets a little bit bigger, stronger.”