DBTB \u2013<\/p>\n
Well, as I have said many times before, let no one claim that I am an unaccountable draftnik who throws out his rankings and then runs for cover, never to speak about it again!\u00a0 I\u2019ve always wanted to have the meteorologists (aka weathermen\/ladies) get on TV and announce their accuracy percentages, although that will never happen.\u00a0 But given my situation here at DBTB, I wanted to walk the walk and talk the talk.\u00a0 Or insert favorite clich\u00e9 here.\u00a0 So here it is, my accuracy metrics for 2026!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was a tough year for me.\u00a0 The success of the Sabres had me more focused on the Blue and Gold than I had been in a while.\u00a0 That left me less time to focus on the Draft than normal, and that\u2019s reflected in my relatively poor performance as far as predicting things.\u00a0 Granted, it wasn\u2019t SO far off previous years, but it was off, for the most part.\u00a0 So\u00a0mea culpa, mea culpa!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know due to a lot of logistical snafus, you all didn\u2019t get to see my final Mock Draft.\u00a0 For the three of you that care.\u00a0 But, just to be clear, I did finish my Mock Draft on the Monday before the Draft.\u00a0 So I was unable to take into account some major events:\u00a0 not the Brady Tkachuk deal, the Will Eklund trade, nor the Bowen Byram trade or the Pavel Dorofeyev deal.\u00a0 Some moves that had a pretty big impact on how parts of the Draft went down, honestly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not an excuse, but I would\u2019ve done the Draft a bit differently had I been able to take those deals into account.\u00a0 I might have gotten 2-3 more selections correct had those deals come down a few days earlier.\u00a0 Let me emphasize, MIGHT.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here we go.\u00a0 This is how I did for each round in terms of accuracy.\u00a0 This is not exact slots, but rather a player that went off the Board in the Round in which I had him going.\u00a0 So I did not have Ilia Morozov going at #20, but I did get him going in Round 1, so that\u2019s one right for me.\u00a0 Just to be
clear about how the scorekeeping went.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 1:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I finished with 25 of 32, which is pretty low for me.\u00a0 Usually, I\u2019m up around 27-28 right out of 32 for the first round.\u00a0 But the bunch in the late 1st through the mid 2nd made it tough to pick and choose.\u00a0 As far as the Sabres go, I had Rudolph at #11 in my Mock Draft, and Morozov at #16.\u00a0 I had 5 defenders go off the Board before I had Rudolph getting chosen.\u00a0 Not a great start for me.<\/p>\n
Round 2:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I did about standard for the 2nd.\u00a0 Got 11 of 31 (remember, Vegas had to forfeit their 2nd round draft pick due to some silliness with Tortorella and the media) right.\u00a0 Will admit I was surprised by a couple of players that I had for sure going as high as the late 1st that didn\u2019t go in the 2nd.\u00a0 Again, a little below my normal number, but not far off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 3:<\/p>\n
Things picked up a little here as I got 10 of 32.\u00a0 Typically, the 3rd is when I start to fall off, but I stayed pretty close to the 2nd round, which doesn\u2019t always happen.\u00a0 And I just missed on a couple guys that went at the end of the 2nd, and a couple more that went at the beginning of the 4th.\u00a0 Could have easily finished with half (16) right!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 4:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking of the 4th, this is where things start to go off the rails.\u00a0 And no different this year, as I only managed 7 of 32 in this round.\u00a0 Interestingly, I had Sabres\u2019 selection Olivier Murnieks going at #123 overall, just one spot off from where the Sabres actually chose him.\u00a0 I was close on that one at least!<\/p>\n
Round 5:\u00a0<\/p>\n
A decent showing here with 6 of 32, which is especially gratifying since this was the first round of the Draft where multiple guys I didn\u2019t have on my Board started appearing.\u00a0Guys who I had either removed during the year or never even made it on to my radar got selected in the 5th round.\u00a0 As for the Sabres, their 5th round selection \u2013 Doman Szongoth \u2013 I did not have getting chosen until the 7th round.\u00a0 So a miss for me there!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 6:<\/p>\n
Predictably, I went miserable 3 for 32 in this round.\u00a0 I was surprised to see a number of players that I had much higher go in the 6th.\u00a0Unfortunately for me, the Sabres choice, Dylan Dumont, was not in my Top 200 and I can\u2019t even remember watching him this season.\u00a0 Supposedly, he grew a few inches during the year.\u00a0 Drummondville, where Dumont played, had one goaltender that I caught a couple of times this year, and another late riser in Louis-Felix Bourque (who went in the 3rd round, where I had him going!).\u00a0 Somehow I just flat-out missed Dumont.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Round 7:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last but not least, I managed a meager 2 of 32 in the 7th round.\u00a0 I did have Sabres\u2019 development camp invite Cohen Bidgood going in the middle of the 7th round, so I imagine they would\u2019ve taken him if they had a selection in the 7th.\u00a0 Always the toughest round to predict, my rather sub-par year for 2026 culminated in a pretty bleak 7th round showing.\u00a0 In 2025, I think I managed to get 5 or 6 right in the 7th round but really struggled in rounds 4-5-6.\u00a0 So I guess it all balanced out in the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What this should tell you all is that I barely know what I\u2019m talking about!\u00a0 But I want to thank Calvin, Melissa, Chad, Jedi, and all the DBTB brain trust for giving me a platform to post my draft and prospect blathering for another year.\u00a0 Even a year when our beloved Sabres didn\u2019t care much for the Draft, prospects, or anything other than beating the brakes off Boston and almost squashing Montreal. <\/p>\n
As always, feel free to ping me anytime with any questions or comments about the Draft, Sabre prospects, or my (putrid) performance as a prognosticator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As you know, the cycle that supplies the NHL with an ever-growing pot of talent never stops.\u00a0So I\u2019ll offer you a quick Watch List for next season, which looks to have some really strong forwards at the top of the Draft (unlike this past year, which really had the blueliners dominating), including a few potential #1 centermen\u2026which always makes a Draft stand out.\u00a0This is in no particular order, just my Top 32 at this moment in time:\u00a0<\/p>\n
TOP 32 for 2027:<\/p>\n
Landon Dupont, 6\u20190 RHD, WHL<\/p>\n
Nazar Privalov, 6\u20194 RW, RUS<\/p>\n
Milan Sundstrom, 6\u20193 C, SWE<\/p>\n
Dima Zhilkin, 5\u201910 RW, OHL<\/p>\n
Sammy Nelson, 6\u20192 C, US NTDP<\/p>\n
Noah Davidson, 6\u20193 LW, WHL<\/p>\n
Tim Kazda, 6\u20191 W, USHL<\/p>\n
Vladimir Shtyrkhunov, 6\u20190 RHD, RUS<\/p>\n
Alexis Joseph, 6\u20195 C, QMJHL<\/p>\n
Carter Meyer, 6\u20191 C, US NTDP<\/p>\n
Dorian Eklund Aspe, 6\u20194 C, SWE<\/p>\n
Andrei Pustovoy, 6\u20193 RW, RUS<\/p>\n
Oskars Lukks, 6\u20195 LHD, FIN<\/p>\n
Oliver Ozgony, 6\u20193 LW, USHL<\/p>\n
Yevgeni Yakunin, 6\u20193 C, RUS<\/p>\n
Jonah Neuenschwander, 6\u20194 LW, SWISS<\/p>\n
Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll, 6\u20190 LW, WHL<\/p>\n
Kohyn Eshkawkogan, 6\u20190 RHD, OHL<\/p>\n
Brock England, 5\u201911 C, WHL (McGee Favorite!)<\/p>\n
Luca Santala, 6\u20192 C, FIN<\/p>\n
Jaako Wycisk, 6\u20191 C, OHL<\/p>\n
Sergei Skvortsov, 6\u20190 LW, RUS<\/p>\n
Boston Tait, 6\u20192 LHD, WHL<\/p>\n
Jaxon Jacobsen, 5\u201910 C, WHL<\/p>\n
Petr Tomek, 5\u201911 C, CZE<\/p>\n
Roberts Naudins, 6\u20196 LW, US HS<\/p>\n
Roman Kolzhevnikov, 6\u20192 LW, RUS<\/p>\n
Loui Karlsson, 5\u201910 W, SWE<\/p>\n
Diego Guttierez, 6\u20192 RHD, US NTDP<\/p>\n
Ryerson Edgar, 5\u201910 C, OHL<\/p>\n
Lenni Kokkonen, 6\u20192 RHD, FIN<\/p>\n
Adam Nemec, 6\u20190 LW, CZE<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DBTB \u2013 Well, as I have said many times before, let no one claim that I am an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-789923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}