Another Scenario

Defensive prospects are the one thing Buffalo has a ton of, especially on the left-hand side. If any of the top defensemen in this draft were right hand shots it’s possible Buffalo could consider taking them. But with top level forwards available I would expect one of them to be the target. Beniers, Guenther, Johnson, or Eklund are the ones I like. Safe bet one of those players will be wearing a Sabres jersey on draft day.

That’s fair. I almost have them taking Brandt Clarke there but 3rd overall is a bit high maybe for him. He’s doing well at the U-18s right now.
I think Buffalo has loads of F’s. Eichel, Cozens, Reinhard, Olofsson, Quinn, Paterka, Skinner, Middlestadt, and a few others.
I’m really curious to know which D prospects they have which you say are really good. I was just looking and did not see them. Dahlin -37 like Fukken wow. Ristolainen well you know. Mattias Samuelsson might be decent. Jake McCabe got injured but he looked decent. Truth is the Buffalo Sabres do not have any D at all.

You can’t judge Dahlin based on plus minus this year, especially since 2/3 of a shortened season were ruined by Ralph Krueger‘s god-awful coaching. Whatever he was trying to teach nobody was getting it, and he was just ruining the offensive game of some of our most skilled players, like Dahlin. But in terms of prospects Samuelsson does look very good already, Bryson is another very strong prospect who is looking like he belongs in the NHL right now. Will Borgen is another guy who will be in the top six next year, unless he gets taken by Seattle. I expect Buffalo will try to keep McCabe, unless he does not want to stay. His injury will limit his free agent offers, so I imagine he may be better off staying. Which means Ristolainen gets his partner back, and both of them were better this year together than they have ever been in their careers up until now.

Have never heard of Bryson or Borgen and I watch quite a bit of hockey.

To be fair Borgen started the year but has been injured until the last couple weeks, but Bryson has been playing almost every game since February. You must not be seeing very many Sabres games.

I haven't been following this draft closely as another years so can someone tell me why raty as fallen. Couple years ago he was viewed as a top pick

Raty dropped because his production dropped. Lights out in their U20 League but not so much this year in the Liiga. He could still go in the top 15.

He has not been noticeable I guess.

Solid draft rankings - well done