With the 2015 NHL Draft just over two months away, this is a great time to look back on some of the past drafts and see just how things panned out for those players and their respective teams, especially the Buffalo Sabres.
Today, we’ll go back eight years in time, to the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
Held in Columbus and hosted by the Blue Jackets, the 2007 NHL Draft saw Buffalo native Patrick Kane chosen by the Chicago Blackhawks with the first overall selection. The Flyers then selected left winger James van Riemsdyk before the Coyotes chose Kyle Turris, the top-ranked prospect, with the third overall pick.
Kane is, of course, the only one who remains with his draft team to this day. He joined the NHL immediately and has now appeared in 672 NHL games (regular season and playoffs inclusive), racking up 651 points in that time. He’s helped lead Chicago to a Stanley Cup championship and seems likely to stay in Chicago for a long time.
Van Riemsdyk didn’t join the Flyers until 2009, after a few years with the University of New Hampshire. He stayed in Philly for three seasons, but has now spent the last three years with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Overall, he’s appeared in 452 NHL games, putting up 270 points in that stretch.
Turris also went to college after the draft, spending a season at the University of Wisconsin. He then went back and forth between the Coyotes and the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL, appearing in 137 NHL games with Phoenix. He joined the Senators beginning in the 2011-12 season and has been there ever since.
All in all, Turris has 422 NHL games under his belt, with 242 points in that time.
Now, to look at the Buffalo Sabres selections from the 2007 NHL Draft. Surprisingly – or perhaps not – none of these players are with the Sabres organization anymore.
Puck Prose
The Sabres didn’t have a first-round pick in 2007, as they traded it, via Washington, to the San Jose Sharks.
The funny thing is that pick was used to select Nick Petrecki – the Schenectady native who has spent part of the last two seasons with the Rochester Americans. He was named Amerks Man of the Year this season after appearing in 19 games; he missed a good portion of the year with a back injury.
So the Sabres’ first pick in the 2007 NHL Draft came 31st overall, with the first pick in the second round.
With that, the Sabres drafted defenseman T.J. Brennan out of the QMJHL’s St. John’s Fog Devils. Brennan would play two more years in the Q after his draft; he’d then spend most of the next three seasons in the AHL with the Portland Pirates and the Amerks.
Brennan appeared in just 21 NHL games with the Sabres before eventually being traded to the Florida Panthers. He’s bounced around since then; after just 19 games with the Panthers, Brennan spent a season with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
He then joined the Rockford IceHogs for the first 54 games of this season before re-joining the Maple Leafs organization at the NHL and AHL levels.
The next pick for the Sabres: Drew Schiestel, picked 59th overall.
Schiestel has never played in the NHL, spending several years in Portland/Rochester before joining the Texas Stars. After just a handful of games there, it was back to the Amerks, then off to the ECHL with the Greenville Road Warriors.
Schiestel spent last season mostly with the Hamilton Bulldogs but also played for the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL.
He’s spent this season overseas, playing with fellow former Sabres prospect Travis Turnbull with Duesseldorf EG.
Next up: 89th overall — Corey Tropp.
Tropp has spent the last two seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets after a few seasons split between the AHL and NHL with the Sabres organization. He appeared in 43 games for the Sabres between 2011 and 2014. Overall, he has 150 NHL games of experience with 27 points in that stretch.
The next NHL draft selection for the Sabres was goaltender Bradley Eidsness with the 139th overall pick.
As far as the Internet can tell me, Eidness hasn’t played any pro hockey since 2011-12 season, his final year at the University of North Dakota. He apparently decided to attend law school after college and pursue that as a career. He now resides in Alberta.
Next up was Jean-Simon Allard, picked with the 147th overall selection in the 2007 NHL Draft.
Allard is another player who’s since dropped off the face of the hockey world. He last skated for Jonquiere Marquis in the 2012-13 season.
Moving on to the sixth round, the Sabres picked center Paul Byron with the 179th overall selection.
Byron spent two seasons with the Portland Pirates and eventually joined the Sabres for eight games in the 2010-11 season. Since 2011, he’s been with the Calgary Flames organization at both the AHL and NHL levels. Overall, he’s appeared in 138 NHL games, with 48 points in that time.
Finally, the Sabres had two seventh-round picks: goaltender Nick Eno and defenseman Drew MacKenzie.
Eno, now 26, hasn’t played since 2012, when he suited up with the Mississippi Surge of the SPHL. He spent four years with Bowling Green State University prior to that.
Mackenzie has never played in an NHL game, but continues his hockey career. He spent four years with the University of Vermont and has since played in the AHL and ECHL. He spent most of this season with the South Carolina Stingrays.
So there you have it – the 2007 NHL draft class. None of those players really strongly panned out for the Buffalo Sabres organization, and some have dropped off the hockey world completely. Next time, we’ll look at the 2008 NHL draft class and see what’s come out of that for the blue & gold.
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