The past few months as a Sabres fan have not been fun. Hearing the team’s core sound so defeated at the year-end press conference was disheartening. It had many fans preparing for the worst-case scenario, and that scenario came true. Sam Reinhart has already been shipped off to Florida, and a Jack Eichel trade appears all but inevitable at this point.
This is even harder to stomach when you consider that there were no guaranteed stars in the 2021 NHL Draft. Owen Power is a very good player and should do well for the Sabres, but he is far from a guarantee to be a franchise-changing player. However, if the Sabres continue to underperform in the future and have to part ways with their current stars, there is a light on the horizon. The 2022 and 2023 drafts are loaded at the top, with multiple potential stars for the taking in each draft. So if the Sabres indeed have to rebuild again, there is hope for future franchise cornerstones to be brought into the fold.
The 2022 NHL Draft
The 2022 Draft is thought to have a top tier of three excellent centers at the top before the field breaks open. Overall, this draft is looking to be extremely deep, and it looks to join 2015 and 2020 as the best drafts in recent memory. We decided to include those three players, plus the two most intriguing players from that next tier.
Shane Wright, C, Kingston (OHL)
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 187 lbs
Stats: 5 GP, 9 G - 5 A - 14 P (U18); 58 GP, 39 G - 27 A - 66 P (2019-20 OHL)
Shane Wright is a very big part of the reason the 2022 draft is garnering so much hype. He became the fifth player to receive exceptional status in the OHL (John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day) and he has certainly lived up to that billing. He surpassed McDavid’s U16 points-per-game rate for the three Canadian major junior leagues while tying his raw point total with 66. Wright was one of the last cuts for the Canadian World Junior team this year while being two years younger than anyone else at the tryout camp.
Then, after not playing a single game of competitive hockey for over a year, he lit up the U18 tournament after being forced to sit out the first game of that tournament as well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see what Wright would’ve done in a normal OHL season this year, but he is expected to absolutely tear it up next year. There are no holes in Wright’s game; he does pretty much everything well. He has an exceptional shot and elite playmaking skills, which amounts to a great offensive game. He can beat you with either, and he knows which one to use when considering his hockey IQ and vision are among the best of all the elite prospects out there. Wright is far from a slouch in his own end as well, and he’s very sound positionally in the defensive zone. He also gives a ton of effort on the ice, and he captained a team of players mostly older than him at the U18 tournament. There’s a reason Wright is regarded as the best prospect since at least 2016 (the Auston Matthews draft). A lot of scouts are branding Wright as Patrice Bergeron with a higher offensive ceiling, and Wright himself has said he likes to model his game after Bergeron because of his 200-foot dominance. All in all, Wright appears to be a fantastic player and person who any team would be lucky to draft come 2022.
Brad Lambert, C/RW, JYP (Liiga)
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 179 lbs
Stats: 46 GP, 7 G - 8 A - 15 P (Liiga); 5 GP, 0 G - 5 A - 5 P (U18); 7 GP, 1 G - 3 A - 4 P (WJC)
Brad Lambert has proved himself to be one of the best Finnish prospects to come into the draft in recent years, right at the level of Kaapo Kakko, Miro Heiskanen, Patrik Laine, and Jesse Puljujarvi. You may be wondering how a kid from Finland has such an American-sounding name; Brad’s father was born in Canada and was playing professionally in Finland when he met his mother, a native of Finland. Lambert had the choice of which country to represent in international competition, and he decided on Finland.
He debuted as one of the youngest players to ever play in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league. Lambert didn’t put up a ton of points this season, but it’s still quite impressive considering he’s still 17 years old and playing on one of Liiga’s weaker teams in JYP. Lambert is known primarily as a playmaker, and he has a great offensive skill set that makes him such an enticing prospect. He has elite stickhandling and passing ability that helps him set up plays for himself and others. Lambert also has a ton of speed, which sometimes goes under the radar when analyzing his game. He has top-notch offensive instincts, and giving him time and space will likely have the puck end up in your net. He plays almost like a right-handed version of fellow countryman Sebastian Aho. Lambert will certainly not be a bad consolation prize for whoever gets the second overall pick in next year’s draft lottery.
Matthew Savoie, C, Winnipeg (WHL)/Dubuque (USHL)/Sherwood Park (AJHL)
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 181 lbs
Stats: 4 GP, 3 G - 3 A - 6 P (AJHL); 34 GP, 21 G - 17 A - 38 P (USHL)
Matthew Savoie was formerly known as the best prospect in all of youth hockey once upon a time, and even though he hasn’t quite lived up to that hype, he’s still a great hockey player and a top-tier prospect for next year’s draft. Savoie completely dominated prep hockey in Alberta but was denied exceptional status by the WHL when he applied for it in the summer of 2019. He did get some games with the Winnipeg ICE that year, but put up just 7 assists in 22 games and sustained a concussion on an open-ice hit from a much larger player, so it appears the WHL was correct in deeming him not ready to play a season early.
Like many other players, Savoie’s season was thrown into wack by the pandemic, and he had a short stint in the AJHL before heading south to the States to play in the USHL for the season. He scored at a very good rate for a 17-year-old, and he’ll look to be a dominant offensive force when he returns to the WHL. Savoie’s game is built around his speed, as he flies through the neutral zone and is always trying to drive the puck to the net. He has a hard, accurate wrist shot that he can release quickly coming down the wing, and he has good vision as a playmaker once he gets to the zone as well. Stylistically, Nathan MacKinnon is a lofty comparison, but Savoie does have a lot of similar traits in the way he plays the game with speed, power, and finesse. Savoie will have to work on his defensive game and discipline a bit, but he’s still very much a dynamic player who’s worthy of a top 3 pick at this point.
Rutger McGroarty, C, USNTDP (USHL)
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 198 lbs
Stats: 34 GP, 17 G - 18 A - 35 P (USDP U17); 19 GP, 3 G - 3 A - 6 P (USDP U18); 5 GP, 0 P (U18)
Each draft year has a top tier of two or three players, and then the saying of “the draft starts at pick x” starts getting thrown around. For 2022, that number pick is pretty obviously number 4, and the leader of that next pack at this point in time appears to be Rutger McGroarty. McGroarty is a high-scoring forward who started the year on Team USA’s U17 team but earned a promotion to the U18 team by the time the year concluded. He struggled a bit once he hit the U18 team and at the World U18 championships, but he dominates against his age group. McGroarty will look to dominate as a full-timer on the U18 team next year, and he’s headed to the University of Notre Dame after that to play college hockey.
McGroarty is a very crafty offensive player; his speed won’t blow anyone away, but the rest of his offensive skills are right up there with the rest of this draft class. He has very accurate shooting and passing ability, and he has the vision and hockey IQ to pick the right option in any scenario. McGroarty also has great puck handling ability, and he’s very creative with the puck while manipulating space to get to the net or open passing lanes. His size is also a plus, which means he won’t have to beef up too much to survive the physicality of the NHL. He plays a bit like John Tavares in that he’s not a standout skater, but his passing and shooting are still top-notch. McGroarty just needs to round out his game a bit more, and if he can do that he’ll be a fine top-of-the-lineup player someday.
Ivan Miroshnichenko, RW, Omskie (MHL)
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 185 lbs
Stats: 20 GP, 5 G - 10 A - 15 P (MHL); 7 GP, 6 G - 2 A - 8 P (U18)
A big Russian winger who can shoot the lights out and hits like a freight train? Cue the Ovechkin comparisons. While the likelihood of Ivan Miroshnichenko ever hitting Ovi’s peak is extremely small, he plays a very similar brand of hockey, and he’s still a very good player in his own right. Miroshnichenko was set to follow Andrei Svechnikov’s path of coming overseas to play for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the USHL, but the pandemic and a travel visa issue ended those plans. Instead, he stayed in the MHL, Russia’s top junior league, to hone his craft.
Scoring at a .75 points-per-game rate as a 16-year-old certainly isn’t something to scoff at, and he played extremely well at the World U18 championships to cap off the season. Miroshnichenko may look to break into the KHL next season (although his parent club, Avangard Omsk, just won the Gagarin Cup, so they have a pretty deep roster that will be tough to crack). Nevertheless, Miroshnichenko has a ton of skill and will provide a lot to whichever team he plays for next year. His shot is his main draw, and it may end up being the best in the class. However, Miroshnichenko is far from a one-dimensional player. He has a lot of speed and power to his game, and it makes him a very intense player in the offensive zone who’s difficult to defend. Miroshnichenko can score in a variety of ways; he can unleash a cannon of a shot, dangle past you, or crash the net. He may end up staying in Russia for a couple of years after he’s drafted, similarly to guys like Vasily Podkolzin (Vancouver), but Miroshnichenko will do his best to continue ensuring that he’ll be worth that wait. Right now, it certainly appears that he will be.
The 2023 NHL Draft
The 2023 Draft has a tight race between the top two players over who will go first overall in two years’ time. Most say it’s the best 1-2 punch in a draft since 2015 with Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, and they’ll definitely draw some comparison to the Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry as those two enter the twilight of their careers. The field behind them isn’t too shabby, either.
Connor Bedard, C, Regina (WHL)/HV71 Juniors (Sweden)
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 181 lbs
Stats: 1 GP, 1 G - 1 A - 2 P (J18 Region); 4 GP, 2 G - 2 A - 4 P (J20 Nationell); 15 GP, 12 G - 16 A - 28 P (WHL); 7 GP, 7 G - 7 A - 14 P (U18)
We’ve talked about how Shane Wright has broken records and driven his hype train full steam ahead. Well, Connor Bedard decided to shatter those records and pull his hype train right past Wright’s. Bedard was the first player to ever receive exceptional status designation from the WHL, which is extremely impressive as uber-talented players such as Mathew Barzal and the aforementioned Matthew Savoie were denied. However, with the WHL season being delayed, Bedard went to Sweden for a short stint in the HV71 system, where he performed fairly well. Then the WHL season started, and Bedard took that as his invitation to take the hockey world by storm. He started his junior career on a 12-game point streak, then finished it off with a two-goal performance just two days after his grandfather’s passing in a car accident.
Bedard finished with 28 points in 15 games, which outpaced most top NHL-drafted prospects and annihilated the U16 points-per-game record that Wright set the year before (in an admittedly smaller sample size). Bedard then left for the World U18 championships and continued his torrid scoring pace against more players who were up to three years older than him en route to Canada’s gold medal. Make no mistake, Bedard has the skill to match the hype. He is a quick skater, which he usually doesn’t use to simply go around players but rather to push the pace of play through transition. He has very good puck handling ability as well, as he can deke through pretty much anyone. Bedard’s most dominant trait, however, is his shot. It is already NHL-ready and his release will likely rival the league’s best once he makes it. Bedard’s ability to create shooting lanes for himself to get a shot past defenders is insane, especially for his age. He also isn’t awful in his own end or in board battles either; he’s not as good as Wright in those areas, but for a smaller player he holds his own. Bedard plays a lot like Mathew Barzal if Barzal had Auston Matthews’ shot in his arsenal. Did I mention this kid just turned 16 in mid-July? Safe to say Connor Bedard is already the real deal.
Matvei Michkov, RW, SKA-1946 (MHL)
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 159 lbs
Stats: 56 GP, 38 G - 18 A - 56 P (MHL); 7 GP, 12 G - 4 A - 16 P (U18)
The term “generational talent” is supposed to imply that a player who’s this good only comes around once in a generation. 2023 is looking to have two of those types of players in the same draft. As good as Connor Bedard is, Matvei Michkov is already hot on his tail for the title of best prospect in the draft class; and as many records that Bedard has broken in Canada, Michkov has broken just as many over in Russia. While the current hockey system in Russia was not organized in the days of Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, it was by the time talents like Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Svechnikov were teenagers-and Michkov is straight-up mutilating their production numbers in the same leagues, despite being a year younger. Last season, Michkov scored an absurd 70 goals and 129 points in just 26 games in the Russian U16 league. Then this year, he played in the MHL, which no 16-year-old ever does, and then beat Kucherov’s U17 points record. Michkov finished the year at the U18’s by scoring 16 points, 12 of the goals (second all-time to Ovechkin) on the way to Russia’s silver medal. He’s also had multiple lacrosse-style goals across many levels of competition, among other insane goals that have gone viral. Michkov isn’t the fastest skater or hardest shooter overall (though he is great at both), but his elusivity, puck handling, accuracy, and sheer ability to just put the puck in the net are all elite.
There are only two real levels of concern with Michkov. The first is his defensive game-which my response would be that he’s 16, a lot of forwards aren’t good at defense at 16. The bigger question with Michkov is when he’ll leave Russia for the NHL. He’s under contract with SKA-St. Petersburg until 2026, when he’ll be 21. He’s too talented to pass up at the second overall pick, but whoever selects him will have to convince him to opt-out of his KHL deal or wait for it to expire. Nikita Kucherov should be a good stylistic comparison for Michkov, considering Michkov has spent a lot of his career trying to break Kucherov’s records. Regardless, Michkov will continue to push Bedard (and vice versa) to likely make 2023 the most anticipated NHL draft in a long, long time.
Adam Fantilli, C/LW, Chicago (USHL)
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 190 lbs
Stats: 49 GP, 18 G - 18 A - 36 P (USHL)
There’s a pretty sizable gap between the Bedard-Michkov tier and the next group of players, but don’t let that convince you that this next group is a bunch of scrubs. They’re still fantastic players in their own right, and the leader of that group right now is Adam Fantilli. Fantilli played for the Chicago Steel this year, who was the USHL’s equivalent of the Tampa Bay Lightning. They did just produce three first-round picks in this year’s draft, after all. Fantilli was set to go first in the OHL draft last year, but he opted to go to the USHL this year instead to play on a team with his brother (and presumably keep college eligibility). He played very well for a 16-year-old, but he came alive in the playoffs, scoring 8 goals and adding an assist in 8 games to win Clark Cup Playoffs MVP. Winning any sort of award on a team that stacked is very impressive, to say the least. As a late 2004 birthday, Fantilli will likely play one more year in the USHL, but after that, he has a choice to make between the OHL and college.
Fantilli is a type of player that both old and new school fans should like; he’s a big, athletic player with tons of skill. He’s a bit more of a goal scorer than a playmaker, but he can certainly do both if he needs to. Fantilli has an excellent shot, which is both hard and accurate. He plays a bit of a power game as well, and he should improve his effectiveness in that area as he gets older and continues to fill out his frame. Fantilli isn’t the greatest skater in the world, but he moves very well for a guy his size. It’s tough to find centers that have a blend of power and skill the way Fantilli does, but he plays almost like Mikko Rantanen if he were a center. Overall, you could do much worse as a prospective third overall pick, and even if he won’t be as dominant as the top two players here, Fantilli should still be a great NHL player.
Brayden Yager, C/RW, Saskatoon (18U AAA)/Moose Jaw (WHL)
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 165 lbs
Stats: 6 GP, 4 G - 7 A - 11 P (18U AAA), 24 GP, 7 G - 11 A - 18 P (WHL)
Western Canada is looking to have an exceptional class of players in 2023, even without considering Connor Bedard, and Brayden Yager is a big reason why that’s the case. Yager and his AAA teammate, Riley Heidt, both applied for exceptional status and were denied, but that didn’t stop Yager from being an impact player immediately after setting foot in Moose Jaw. Yager started the year playing 18U AAA in Saskatoon when the WHL was delayed, and he lit it up until the WHL season officially began, where he contributed very well right away. .75 points per game as a 16-year-old in the WHL is nothing to scoff at.
Yager already has an extremely well-rounded game, and he should be able to carve out any role he wants to in an NHL lineup. He has an extremely high hockey IQ that he uses in all zones, and he is comfortable playing in any structure and executing it. Yager is above average in pretty much every area of the game physically, notably his shooting and passing, but the most outstanding aspect of his game is his speed and skating. He can do pretty much anything you ask of him, and he does it well. Yager plays pretty similarly to another player named Brayden who played in Moose Jaw: Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point. Finding players with a game this well-rounded that are this young is rare, and anyone who might let Yager slip under their radar heading into 2023 won’t be doing themselves any favors.
Quentin Musty, LW, North Jersey (16U AAA)/Sudbury (OHL)
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 181 lbs
Stats: 4 GP, 4 G - 3 A - 7 P (16U AAA)
Hamburg native and ex-Buffalo Jr. Sabre Quentin Musty just went first overall in the OHL Draft this summer.
After years of lighting up youth hockey right here in our backyard, Musty went down to New Jersey and led the powerhouse North Jersey Avalanche to a national title (after recovering from an injury that kept him out to start the year). His decision on whether to play in the OHL or play for the US National Team Development Program was greatly anticipated, and once he decided on the OHL the Wolves jumped on the chance to take him first overall. Sudbury just lost a big forward whose name starts with Q and dominated the league for them, Quinton Byfield, so it’s only fitting that they selected Musty to succeed him. Musty is already huge for a recently-turned-16-year-old, and his combination of that with skill is something NHL teams will certainly be excited about. He’s a very good offensive player, with a fantastic shot being his most defining tool. Don’t sleep on Musty’s playmaking or skating though, because he’ll certainly make you pay for it if you do. He, along with Fantilli, are following in Quinton Byfield’s footsteps in setting examples for the modern-day skilled power forward. Musty has some stylistic comparison to Byfield as well, as a big forward who moves very well and has a great offensive skill set. It would be fitting that a Buffalo kid who isn’t old enough to remember the last truly great Sabres teams of the mid-2000s was one of the players who helped lead them out of their decade-long woes. Musty certainly can be that player, and hopefully, for the Sabres, he will be.
Other names to watch: Dalibor Dvorsky, C; Hunter Brzustewicz, D; Theo Lindstein, D; Riley Heidt, LW; Charlie Stramel, RW
Hopefully, if the next two years are as dark as they are looking to be right now, we as fans can be excited to have at least a couple of these players on the roster sometime in the future.
Thanks for reading, and as always, Go Sabres.
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