Buffalo went big on defense to address what’s lacking organizationally.
ORCHARD PARK, NY — Heading into the 2025 NHL Draft, the Buffalo Sabres were a bit of a wild card when it came to what they would do, who they would pick, and just where they would pick in the first round.
The big trade(s) that were expected during Friday night and Saturday didn’t happen, although there was a trade of note on Saturday. They didn’t trade their first-round pick, but did move a second-round pick for the second straight year.
General manager Kevyn Adams said at the end of the night on Friday that if there’s an area they wanted to absolutely improve it was to become a better team defensively and be harder to play against, period. Cliché? Yeah, a bit, but they weren’t empty words.
“I think we want to be harder to play against, from our team, just our Sabres teams now, so you’re looking at those type of opportunities to change that and work on that, which I felt that we were able to do through these couple of trades,” Adams said. “And, yeah, organizationally, I think I laid this out the other day, you’re certainly, especially in the top of the draft, going the best available player. It just so happened that our first couple picks we got some pretty good size and physicality.”
There were a lot of things we learned about the mindset of the front office and how they’re looking to shape and reshape the build of the team and the player pool of the organization.
We learned:
J-J Peterka, indeed, did not want to be in Buffalo
Reconfiguring the defense corps was the top priority for the offseason
Bo Byram is still a member of the Sabres. For now. He may stay one. Maybe.
Radim Mrtka was, perhaps, a little higher on their board than some may believe
If the picks get lost in the shuffle thanks to the J-J Peterka trade that unofficially kicked off the weekend, it’s understandable. Drafting defensemen, unless they’re No. 1 overall types, aren’t generally “exciting” picks. It’s also understandable to be skeptical of the choices made because the NHL results over the years, despite the strong drafting, haven’t reflected that.
Embrace the cynicism or park it for a little while, there are a few things worth digging in on from the weekend.
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About Peterka
Following the end of the first round, GM Kevyn Adams had his first opportunity to speak about the J-J Peterka trade that sent the scoring winger to Utah for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan.
Everything surrounding Peterka in the days/weeks before the trade went down came from anonymous sources or something someone heard from someone else who heard it from somebody else. The game of telephone is a fun one, right? One unconfirmed reason that kept popping up, however, was that Peterka didn’t want to be in Buffalo anymore. Given Adams’ feelings about wanting guys that want to be here, that seemed like an easy way to get out of town.
Turns out the smoke around that gossip proved to have fire.
“Our intention after the season when we sat down was to sign J-J,” Adams said. “We had those discussions, and it became apparent to me and our group that it wasn’t going to work. For me then, the focus was if this isn’t going to work, then how do we make sure we’re helping the Buffalo Sabres improve and that’s going back to really getting guys like Doan and Kesselring that are going to play certain roles, the identity they have, wanting to be part of the solution – that type of character is important so that’s why we did it.”
Before the weekend played out, landing a somewhat unknown defenseman (at least in the eyes of fans outside of Utah and around the league) and a young but still somewhat green forward for Peterka only made a little bit of sense and smacked of being a “fine, get the hell out of here” kind of trade. After seeing how hard the Sabres went after defensemen both in the draft and another trade they made on Saturday, it turned out to be a sign of things to come.
The Sabres traded their second-round pick, 39th overall, and Connor Clifton to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Conor Timmins and prospect forward Isaac Belliveau. Clifton’s $3.33 million cap hit is swapped out for Timmins’ next contract (he’s an RFA) that should be a fair bit less than that.
Clifton was as honest a player as you’ll find in the league and a stand-up guy. He cares about his teammates and for the team and although signing him was the right idea, it just didn’t end up working out in Buffalo and that’s a shame because the way he plays should’ve been an ideal fit. Then again, the way things went the past couple of years made it tough for a lot of players to be at their best.
“Connor Clifton is a really good hockey player, a solid NHL player, a great teammate, physical – all of that checks,” Adams said. “Where we felt Timmins made our team better is maybe just a little bit cleaner in terms of just the way he plays, the puck touches and the way he plays the game. We just felt for the role that we were looking for in that spot on our D corps, Timmins was a better fit. And also someone that we thought could move forward with us for an extended period of time, where Cliffy going into the last year of a deal, that was probably going to be it. So, that was part of the decision as well.”
That role Adams is talking about is on the third pairing on the right side. Timmins is 6’3” 213 pounds – a certified big-body guy. His advanced stats throughout his career have been strong, albeit in a more limited role and in more sheltered situations. That said, he’s a capable penalty killer and should get work there. He’s an area guy (grew up in St. Catharine’s, Ontario) and Adams noted that when he called him following the trade, Timmins was with his folks at the cottage and could see KeyBank Center from where he was standing at the moment. He also apparently grew up a Sabres fan. It’s the “guy who wants to be here” lottery.
The Bo Situation
This sets up the Sabres defense to be something like this at the moment:
Rasmus Dahlin—Mattias Samuelsson
Owen Power—Michael Kesselring
Bo Byram—Conor Timmins
Byram is in there at the moment because he’s an RFA and they own his rights. Adams also was very careful to not say anything that would indicate whether or not they’re busy trying to trade him or re-sign him.
“I understand the position he’s in, where he is in his career and how far he is two years away from UFA,” Adams said. “We’ll just keep talking. I don’t think it’s great for me to publicly talk about any sort of contract negotiations. What he knows is we like him, we believe in him, we think it makes it better with him on. But if there’s a trade to make that makes sense and we think it’s the right thing to do, we’ll do it.”
Adams is confident that everything would be hunky-dory if Byram returns to the Sabres after a summer overloaded with trade speculation and the openness about trading him if there’s a deal they like.
Byram is a pro’s pro, a dude if you will. Tries hard, loves the game, loves the boys – all that stuff. That said, the awkwardness in trying to get three high-class defensemen the ice time they should get in all situations when they’re all left-handed shots is really difficult, and someone will always be left out of the mix and with Dahlin and Power already locked in long-term, well, they’re the guys that get those minutes and opportunities.
There’s always an urgency to make these kinds of trades at the draft since everyone is in the mindset to do them then. It’s the way to clear the decks in advance of free agency so you don’t get distracted about the direction things are supposed to go when things are as manic as they get on July 1. Even though Byram is an RFA, if there are teams out there that want to better solve their own defense by acquiring him, compared to who’s out there as an unrestricted free agent, the chance for the Sabres to take advantage of a seller’s market after July 1 is strong.
Noah Dobson was traded to the Canadiens and Aaron Ekblad could be the big fish on July 1 if the Florida Panthers don’t re-sign him. Ivan Provorov, Dmitry Orlov and Dante Fabbro will get plenty of attention to start free agency as well, but Byram is younger and was part of a Stanley Cup winner in Colorado. If a deal doesn’t materialize before free agency opens, Adams isn’t concerned.
“It’s been probably for the last month, a lot of conversations daily with teams. Some of it ends up getting parked when you get to the draft, just because of the way the draft falls. and then you pick it up tonight or tomorrow,” Adams said. “I think, teams, whether it’s big trades they were looking to make, and they didn’t go through, or they did go through, what are their needs now. And then there is another kind of what I would say market that gets reset after July 1st, you know. If certain teams are going after certain free agents, they don’t get them, how does that go? So that will just be, continue to work at it and see how we can improve the roster in any way.”
Adams’ patience has been both a credit to him and a point of detraction, but when it comes to Byram he’s in the driver’s seat…unless Byram or his agent, Darren Ferris, take a step up to try and leverage something to happen. It’s not like a market will disappear for him; it’s more of a question of how truthfully big the market is. There was speculation that it wasn’t as hyper of a market out there for him, but you’d have to think that teams who pursued Dobson or who might be thinking about adding Provorov or Orlov in free agency might want a younger option on the left side.
Draft Talk
In all, the Sabres made nine picks on the weekend: Three defensemen, three centers, two goalies and one left wing. Here’s the list:
First Round
9) Radim Mrtka – Defenseman – 6’6” 218 pounds, Seattle (WHL)
Third Round
71) David Bedkowski – Defenseman – 6’5” 221 pounds, Owen Sound (OHL)
Fourth Round
103) Matous Jan Kucharcik – Center – 6’4” 180 pounds, Slavia Praha Jr.
116) Samuel Meloche – Goalie – 6’2” 190 pounds, Rouyn-Noranda (QMJHL)
Fifth Round
135) Noah Laberge – Defenseman – 6’1” 187 pounds, Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)
Sixth Round
167) Ashton Schultz – Center – 5’11 180 pounds, Chicago Steel (USHL)
Seventh Round
195) Melvin Novotny – Left Wing – 6’2” 185 pounds, Leksand Jr.
199) Yevgeni Prokhorov – Goalie – 6’3” 179 pounds, Dinamo-Shinnik Jr.
219) Ryan Rucinski – Center – 5’10” 176 pounds, Youngstown Phantoms (USHL)
Mrtka and Bedkowski are the two (literally) big pickups here.
Mrtka’s size stands out. His reach is immense, and he enjoys handling and carrying the puck to create rushes. Since joining Seattle after leaving Czechia, he’s worked hard to reintegrate physical play to his game and when you’re a defenseman in the WHL, you have to do that.
“Just all-situations, two-way defenseman, high-compete, 6-foot-6 kid still growing into his body, he’s going to have some awkward moments,” Forton said. “I project his skating to be very good in time, but he has some awkward moments. Then he goes to the Under-18 Championships at the end of the year… against the U.S. and Canada, two of the best teams in the tournament, I thought he was arguably the best player on the ice for either team.”
Don’t read Forton’s statement as a criticism when it comes to “awkward moments.” Any player that size at that age has a lot of “Bambi on ice” moments because their limbs are long and getting everything to work harmoniously takes time and reps. Tage Thompson had similar skating issues when he was 18 or 19 years old and he’s done just fine since he grew into his big frame.
The expectation for No. 9 picks is that they should be in the NHL ASAP to help the big team since they were drafted high. Defensemen take more time though and for Mrtka, that time in juniors is extremely valuable.
There is some exhaustion in the Sabres fan base when it comes to both the draft and then taking defensemen with high picks in the draft. With that frame of mind, it’s no wonder that a lot of people were really disappointed in the pick. You can’t argue with how a fan wants to read the situation, but taking a defenseman felt like it was fate and it just happened to work out that the Sabres were very high on Mrtka in the first place.
“We were, without going into too much detail, yeah, we were six-for-six in how the first six players went off the board which I anticipated would be the case,” Forton said. “I’m not afraid to say the player we got was the next player on our list. For us, that was a very good value.”
That would mean the Sabres had Mrtka ranked in right behind Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers, Brady Martin, and Porter Martone. That they had Martin pegged to go in the top six picks is interesting since that caught everyone not working for a team by surprise.
But in saying Mrtka was seventh on their board, it meant that both James Hagens and Jake O’Brien did not rank as high as others did. Hell, Hagens was believed to be one of the top three players in the draft and he slipped to seventh and the Boston Bruins. Both of those players offer massive offensive upside and both play center, a position that maybe could’ve used a boost up high in this draft with the options that would’ve been available to them.
Maybe it’s the team pumping Mrtka’s tires (not a bad thing to do publicly!) or maybe it’s some version of drafting sour grapes that they missed out on someone that went ahead of them. Either way, it’s fascinating. It does give me a chance to theorize why they’d have Mrtka ahead of O’Brien or Hagens.
In Hagens’ case, he’s a super skilled forward but what he’s capable of offensively is could be viewed with a question as to how well he’ll be able to do it at the NHL level given his size. Hagens would no doubt be an excellent player, but the Sabres already have a lot of young players in the system with similar profiles and adding yet another, even if he’s that high-skilled, runs counter to what their aim was for the offseason.
O’Brien has good size and should prove to be a very good playmaker. He’s tall and lanky right now and assuredly will put on weight and muscle. And while his gameplay is outstanding, he’s a methodical player off the rush and in the zone. That’s a great way to play to read the ice and make great passes to teammates, but the Sabres are looking for quicker decisions to be made and to attack aggressively off of turnovers. With O’Brien being a center and a guy who is best playing that way, you could see why they’d have him slotted in behind Mrtka.
Are those the reasons why? Very doubtful and their scouts have seen these guys play way, way more than have and whatever the thought process was in ranking them, I’m very curious to know more and will have to be left wanting.
When it comes to Bedkowski, Buffalo’s third-round pick, at the very least they drafted an outstanding guy with impeccable levels of respect and thoughtfulness in dealing with us media types and then brutal, physical way of playing defense. If he gets to a place in his career where he’s pushing for the NHL, he’ll win fans over by trucking opponents all over the ice. He’ll bear watching in juniors to see how his game grows further.